Quantifying the Integrative Effects of Rapid Environmental Change for Terrestrial Mammals

人类引起的景观变化可以对生物多样性产生深远的影响。资源的减少、种群连通性的降低以及种间相互作用的改变都会影响物种的持久性以及生态群落的组成和功能。当考虑到个体种群的反应时，景观变化的影响是可变的和动态的。这是种间生活史和社区背景差异的结果。考虑到这一问题的内在复杂性，衡量和预测人类活动对生态的影响的科学还有很大的发展空间。*对于陆生哺乳动物来说，“影响研究”的科学通常侧重于个体对干扰刺激的反应的生态学，或者随着栖息地丧失后种群数量的减少。理论和经验观察表明，这些反应应该跨生态尺度整合。因此，我们需要发展影响研究，以便我们量化应对的复杂性，从个体的精细再分配，到迁移等生活史事件的破坏，以及人口的收缩和碎片化。*在接下来的探索资助期，我的研究将在细微规模的动物行为和受快速或大规模栖息地丧失影响的种群减少之间建立机械联系。我提出了四个项目，在这些项目中，我们研究了一系列生态尺度上的机制，假设这些机制会影响种群的广泛分布和丰度：1)斑块内和斑块间的运动；2)种内融合-裂变动力学揭示的行为交互作用；3)范围收缩和季节性迁移作为环境和人口密度的函数；以及4)景观变化对自下而上和自上而下的人口下降驱动因素的影响。每个项目都将从个体动物的角度考虑行为-栖息地的相互作用，以及在景观规模上种群或分布动态的变化。*我将使用美国貂、北美驯鹿和驼鹿作为模式物种；这将使我能够利用我实验室的过去结果和数据。研究目标与我的长期研究目标是一致的，即量化和预测人类活动对陆生脊椎动物的行为、分布和丰度的影响。这些发现将直接应用于一些备受瞩目的物种的管理和保护。更广泛地说，这项研究将为考虑人口变化的机制因素提供新的概念和方法途径，并培训高素质人员，他们未来在这一领域的就业和贡献将对该领域和加拿大的经济利益产生基于知识的影响。

Human induced landscape change can have profound impacts for biodiversity. A reduction in resources, a decrease in population connectivity, and altered interspecific interactions can influence the persistence of species as well as the composition and functioning of ecological communities. When considering the responses of individual populations, the effects of landscape change are variable and dynamic. This is a result of interspecific differences in life history and community context. Considering the inherent complexity of the problem, the science of measuring and predicting the ecological impacts of human activities has much room to grow.******For terrestrial mammals, the science of ‘impacts research' often focuses on the ecology of individuals as they respond to disturbance stimuli or populations as they decline in abundance following habitat loss. Theory and empirical observation suggest that such responses should integrate across ecological scales. Thus, we need to evolve impacts research so that we quantify the complexity of responses, from the fine-scale redistribution of individuals, to the disruption of life-history events such as migration, and the contraction and fragmentation of populations. ******Over the next Discovery Grant period, my research will develop mechanistic linkages between fine-scale animal behaviour and population decline as influenced by rapid or large-scale habitat loss. I propose four projects where we investigate a set of mechanisms across a range of ecological scales that are hypothesised to influence the broad-scale distribution and abundance of populations: 1) intra- and inter-patch movement across rapidly fragmenting landscapes; 2) behavioural interactions as revealed by intraspecific fusion-fission dynamics; 3) range contraction and seasonal migration as a function of environment and population density; and 4) the influence of landscape change on bottom-up and top-down drivers of population decline. Each project will consider behaviour-habitat interactions from the perspective of the individual animal as well as changes in population or distributional dynamics at the scale of the landscape.******I will use American marten, caribou, and moose as model species; this will allow me to capitalise on past results and data from my lab. Study objectives are consistent with my long-term research goals of quantifying and predicting the effects of human activities on the behaviour, distribution and abundance of terrestrial vertebrates. Findings will have direct application to the management and conservation of a number of high-profile species. More broadly, this research will provide new conceptual and methodological avenues for considering the mechanistic elements of population change, and train high-quality personnel whose future employment and contributions in this area will have knowledge-based impacts on the field and economic benefits to Canada.