Adaptation of Arctic marine mammals to climate warming

全球变暖的影响在极地环境中最大。北极海洋生态系统将如何应对全球变暖日益增加的物理影响，变化是逐渐发生还是迅速发生？使用环境变化与温度上升的解释变量和变化的分布和丰富的海洋哺乳动物作为因变量，我建议研究它们之间的相互作用。我将通过观察能量如何在食物网中移动以及能量集中在哪个营养级来衡量能量和健身与人口变化的联系。为了理解健康，我将使用遗传学和生殖成功。这个想法是应用这些知识来了解与全球变暖和北极海洋哺乳动物相关的能量和健身变化。我计划建立模型来预测海洋哺乳动物的数量将如何变化以及它们将生活在哪里。模型将整合知识，并帮助我们了解北极海洋生态系统是否会抵抗变化，快速变化或随着全球变暖而不断变化。为了更好地理解这些问题，我将使用卫星遥测，因纽特人收获的生物收集和饮食研究。将这些信息结合到数学模型中，就可以对北极地区的气候变化进行可检验的预测。了解极地海洋生态系统如何变化将有助于我们为鲸鱼，海豹和因纽特人制定适应性保护和管理计划，这些人依赖海洋哺乳动物的食物和文化维持。其目标是确定和评估在未来气候变化和人类发展增加的情况下改善海洋哺乳动物种群持久性的养护做法。气候变化将影响海洋哺乳动物，这是加拿大普通民众日益关注的问题，对因纽特人特别具有文化意义。因此，这项研究预计将获得公众和媒体的明显关注。我将向公众、利益相关者和海洋哺乳动物恢复团队宣传这项研究的保护成果。该研究将极大地推进对生态系统恢复力的非线性动力学以及海洋生态系统如何响应扰动的机制的理解。这项研究与当地社区很好地结合在一起，并与北方人广泛合作。北方社区的健康和福祉将得到拟议的研究结果的帮助，这些研究结果将预测特定种群/物种的分布和丰度将如何发生变化，从而提供管理和保护备选方案，以维持生存文化和社会经济安全。

The increasing effects of global warming are greatest in polar environments. How will Arctic marine ecosystems respond to the increasing physical affects of global warming and will change occur gradually or will it come quickly? Using environmental changes associated with rising temperatures as the explanatory variable and changes in distribution and abundance of marine mammals as the dependent variable, I propose to study their interaction. I will measure energy and fitness connections to population changes by looking at how energy moves through the food web and at which trophic level is energy concentrated. To understand fitness, I will use genetics and reproductive success. The idea is to apply this knowledge to understand energy and fitness changes associated with global warming and Arctic marine mammals. I plan to build models to predict how marine mammal populations will change in numbers and where they will live. Models will integrate knowledge and help us understand whether Arctic marine ecosystems will resist change, change quickly, or change in a constant manner with global warming. To better understand these questions I will use satellite telemetry, biological collections from Inuit harvests, and diet studies. Combining this information into mathematical models provides testable predictions on how climate change will unfold in the arctic. Understanding how polar marine ecosystems change will help us to develop adaptive conservation and management programs for whales, seals, and the Inuit that rely on marine mammals for food and cultural sustenance.***The goal is to identify and assess conservation practices that will improve marine mammal population persistence under future climate change and increased human development. Climate changes will affect marine mammals that are of increasing concern to the average Canadian and particularly of cultural significance to Inuit. As such, the research is anticipated to garner appreciable attention from the public and the media. I will parlay the conservation results of this research to the public, stakeholders, and marine mammal recovery teams. The proposed research significantly advances understanding of nonlinear dynamics of ecosystem resilience and the mechanism of how marine ecosystems respond to perturbation. The research is well integrated with local communities and collaborates extensively with northerners. The health and well-being of Northern communities will be assisted by proposed research results that will provide forecasts of how specific population/species changes in distribution and abundance will occur, thereby providing management and conservation options to maintain subsistence culture and socio-economic security.