The role of eco-evolutionary dynamics in modulating the effects of environmental change in aquatic food webs

由于气候变化和其他人为干扰造成的前所未有的物种损失，迫切需要通过进化和表型可塑性将适应性进化复原力纳入我们对生态过程的理解，反之亦然（“生态进化动力学”）。两个主要的知识差距是理解生态进化动力学与环境变化的关键是A）气候介导的影响，食物网的进化和可塑性在空间和时间（连接生态学的进化）和B）的表型可塑性在食物网的生态后果（连接进化生态学）。 我提出的研究将通过开发食物网生态学和进化生物学（基因组学，适应性和表型可塑性）之间未探索的界面来解决这些目标。我和我的学生将在两个气候尺度上工作：一个是从北方到北极的粗略的纬度尺度，另一个是在没有地理混乱的情况下，在一个精细的时间尺度上解决温度波动的影响。由于桡足类和溪鳟在北方的广泛分布和丰富性，以及它们在气候变化方面的潜在生态意义，我们将重点关注它们的适应性和表型可塑性。 我将培训2名博士，3名硕士和10名理学学士学生，他们将获得经验和概念技能的独特组合。我们的多方面工具箱将包括食物网指标（脂肪酸），基因组学（单核苷酸多态性（SNP）的下一代测序），性能性状的定量遗传学（温度耐受性，体细胞生长，体型和繁殖力），田间实验和生态系统功能的大规模比较研究。食物网生态学和进化生物学之间的经验交叉不存在，我的研究计划将推进生态学和进化的基础知识在这个未探索的接口。量化桡足类景观基因组结构，适应性和表型可塑性的梯度在气候驱动的生态变化的速度将告知我们的进化弹性生物应对气候变化的水生食物网的基础。表型可塑性可能在调节快速环境变化对食物网功能的影响方面发挥了以前未被认识到的重要作用。在全球变化和其他人类活动的影响下，保持加拿大水生生态系统的完整性是一项越来越困难的任务。我的研究计划响应加拿大对HQP的需求，这些HQP经过培训，通过从基因到生态系统的综合方法，面对威胁淡水生态系统维持的全球挑战。

The unprecedented loss of species as a result of climate change and other human-induced disturbance presents an urgent need to incorporate adaptive evolutionary resilience, through evolution and phenotypic plasticity, into our understanding of ecological processes and vice versa (`eco-evolutionary dynamics`). Two major knowledge gaps that are key to understanding eco-evolutionary dynamics in relation to environmental change are A) climate-mediated effects of food webs on evolution and plasticity in space and time (linking ecology to evolution) and B) the ecological consequences of phenotypic plasticity in food webs (linking evolution to ecology). My proposed research will address each of these objectives by developing the unexplored interface between food web ecology and evolutionary biology (genomics, adaptation, and phenotypic plasticity). My students and I will work at two climate scales: a coarse latitudinal scale from the Boreal to the Arctic and at a fine temporal scale to address the understudied effects of fluctuating temperature in the absence of biogeographical confounds. We will focus on adaptation and phenotypic plasticity in copepods and brook trout because of their broad northern distribution and abundance, and their potential ecological significance in relation to climate change. I will train 2 PhD, 3 MSc, and 10 BSc students who will receive unique combinations of empirical and conceptual skills. Our multi-faceted tool box will include food web metrics (fatty acids), genomics (next-generation sequencing of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)), quantitative genetics of performance traits (temperature tolerance, somatic growth, body size, and fecundity), field experiments, and large scale comparative studies of ecosystem function. An empirical intersection between food web ecology and evolutionary biology does not exist, and my research program will advance fundamental knowledge in ecology and evolution at this unexplored interface. Quantifying copepod landscape genomic structure, adaptation, and phenotypic plasticity across gradients in the rate of climate-driven ecological change will inform us of evolutionary resilience in organisms coping with climate change at the base of aquatic food webs. Phenotypic plasticity may play a previously unrecognized yet significant role in modulating the consequences of rapid environmental change on the functioning of food webs. Maintaining the integrity of Canada's aquatic ecosystems is an increasingly difficult task under global change and other anthropogenic activities. My research program responds to Canadian needs for HQP that are trained to face the global challenges that threaten the sustenance of freshwater ecosystems through integrative approaches from genes to ecosystems.