Metacommunity dynamics at multiple scales

我的长期研究目标是确定在多个时空尺度上决定群落结构和动态的因素。我通过研究当地社区之间的分散如何潜在地影响当地的非生物和生物环境过程，通过元群落概念的视角来解决这个问题。在未来的5年里，我将转变我的研究策略，巩固我过去的4个研究方向：时间动力学、宿主-共生体相互作用、小型哺乳动物元群落动力学、基于dna的物种鉴定和生物信息学。我将专注于一个研究系统，它结合了我过去在多个尺度上的元群落生态学方面的优势，但将它们应用于一个新的系统：在多种宿主物种的小型哺乳动物元群落矩阵中嵌套的微生物元群落。***我的短期研究目标有两个方面：1)确定这样一个系统的结构过程，这是阿尔冈昆省立公园长期监测研究的一部分；2)通过在这个系统内的几个尺度上明确地操纵分散来实验验证这些模式。该提案将量化（元）群落动态的两个主要驱动因素的影响：通过当地环境条件的物种分类和景观中不同地点之间的分散。宿主-微生物组相互作用的复杂性在分析中起作用，因为局部环境效应可以被季节性、宿主物种身份和宿主-个体差异（如宿主内时间动态和相互作用网络）介导或影响。此外，微生物群元群落的扩散可以被宿主元群落的扩散介导或影响。这些研究的结果将与元群落结构元素得到的结果进行比较，元群落结构元素是一种数据较少但经常使用的方法。最后，观察性研究将通过创造微生物群数量明显减少的宿主个体并监测其再定殖率，从而通过实验确定共生元群落的扩散率。这些研究将由一名博士研究生和三名硕士研究生完成。***微生物无处不在，对高等生物的健康很重要。明确考虑所有不同重要尺度的元群落方法是必要的，该建议是分析自然群落内部这些动态的重要一步。除了更多的实验研究外，该结果还将导致更多的应用研究，调查微生物组物种与内寄生虫之间的相互作用，这些研究已经在Algonquin省立公园的小型哺乳动物中检测到。在这种情况下，元群落方法更有必要，因为人类引起的栖息地破碎化会影响宿主-病原体-微生物组的相互作用。*****

My long-term research goal is to identify the factors that determine community structure and dynamics at multiple spatial and temporal scales. I approach this question through the lens of the metacommunity concept by investigating how dispersal between local communities could potentially influence local abiotic and biotic environmental processes. In the next 5 years, I will shift my research strategy by consolidating 4 streams of my past research: temporal dynamics, host-symbiont interactions, small mammal metacommunity dynamics, and DNA-based species identification and bioinformatics. I will focus on a study system that combines my past strengths in metacommunity ecology at multiple scales, but will apply them to a novel system: microbial metacommunities nested within a matrix of small mammal metacommunity of multiple host species. ***My short-term research goals are then 2-fold: 1) identify the structuring processes of such a system that is part of a long-term monitoring study in Algonquin Provincial Park, and 2) to experimentally verify these patterns by explicitly manipulating dispersal at several scales within this system. This proposal will quantify the effect of two of the main drivers of (meta-) community dynamics: species sorting through local environmental conditions and dispersal between sites within the landscape. The complexity of the host-microbiome interactions comes into play in the analyses because the local environmental effects can be mediated or influenced by seasonality, host species identity, and host-individual differences such as within-host temporal dynamics and interaction networks. In addition, microbiome metacommunity dispersal can be mediated or influenced by host metacommunity dispersal. The results of these studies will be compared to the results obtained with the Elements of Metacommunity Structure, a method that is less data intensive, but often used. Finally, the observational studies will lead to experimentally determining symbiont metacommunity dispersal rates by creating host individuals with strongly reduced microbiome populations and monitoring their recolonization rates. These studies will be done by a PhD student with 4 projects, and 3 MSc students.***Microorganisms are ubiquitous and important for the health of higher organisms. A metacommunity approach that explicitly considers all the different important scales is necessary, and this proposal is an important step in analysing these dynamics within a natural community. In addition to more experimental studies, the results will also lead to more applied studies investigating the interactions between microbiome species and endoparasites, which have been detected in the small mammals of Algonquin Provincial Park. A metacommunity approach in this context is even more warranted, because human induced habitat fragmentation can influence host-pathogen-microbiome interactions.*****