Micro to mega-landscapes: harnessing a model system to understand landscape-scale ecological processes in the boreal forest

景观生态学作为一门学科，关注的是空间格局与生态过程之间的联系。作为一名景观生态学家，我感兴趣的是弄清楚为什么物种在他们所在的地方，以及他们如何相互作用和他们的环境。大多数景观生态学工作发生在数万公里到数千公里大小的景观上。这意味着景观生态学家很难进行实验操作，更难进行实验复制。一种解决方案是使用模型系统;就像生物医学研究人员使用小鼠和大鼠作为人类生物学的模型系统一样，模型系统将类似于“真实世界”的景观，但更容易在实验中使用。我开发了一个景观生态学的模型系统，它由生长在纽芬兰北部森林中的地衣覆盖的树干组成。这使我们能够把树木当作“风景”，把单个地衣的斑块当作类似于我们从飞机窗口看到的不同土地覆盖的斑块。 在这个发现补助金的建议，我建议利用这个模型系统来解决生态问题，解决我的长期目标：1）解开不同的人为变化对北方物种种群和空间分布的影响; 2）开发强大的模型来解释和预测北方物种在多个空间尺度上的分布; 3）深入了解北方物种的物种-栖息地动态，特别是在景观尺度上。 我将使用一套被地衣覆盖的树木的复制样带，在从城市中心到近荒野地区的梯度中发现，以解决短期目标，将1a）测试关于破碎化对景观格局和相关动物的影响的假设; 1b）测试空气质量如何影响地衣多样性; 2）模拟物种分布如何受到环境的影响以及在空间尺度上与其他物种的相互作用; 3）评估地衣在碳，氮和磷循环中的作用。 该计划将培训9名HQP实地方法和统计建模，并阐明景观生态学中的重要问题，同时也深入了解人类活动（栖息地破碎化，空气污染）对生物多样性的影响。重要的是，这些研究结果将基于空间明确的分析（景观生态学的范围），再加上使用模型系统的重复实验单元（以前对这一研究领域的挑战）的力量。该研究将有助于促进景观生态学科学的发展，并有助于解决北方森林的应用保护问题。

Landscape ecology, as a discipline, concerns itself with questions about the links between spatial patterns and ecological processes. As a landscape ecologist, I am interested in figuring out why species are where they are, and how they interact with each other and their environment. Most landscape ecology work happens on landscapes that are tens to thousands of kilometres in size. This means that it is difficult for landscape ecologists to conduct experimental manipulations, and even more difficult to have experimental replicates. One solution is to use a model system; much the way biomedical researchers use mice and rats as model systems for human biology, a model system would be similar to a “real-world” landscape, but easier to use in experiments. I have developed a model system for landscape ecology which is made up of patches of lichen-covered tree trunks, growing in the boreal forest of Newfoundland. This allows us to treat trees as “landscapes” and the patches of individual lichens as analogous to the patches of different land cover as we might view them from an airplane window. In this Discovery Grant proposal, I propose to harness this model system to address ecological questions that address my long-term objectives of: 1) untangling the impacts that different anthropogenic changes have on boreal species populations and spatial distribution; 2) developing robust models to explain and predict the distribution of boreal species at multiple spatial scale; and 3) gaining insights into species-habitat dynamics for boreal species, particularly at landscape scales. I will use a suite of replicated transects of lichen-covered trees, found in a gradient from an urban-centre to a near-wilderness region, to address short-term objectives that will 1a) test hypotheses about the effects of fragmentation on landscape pattern and associated fauna; 1b) test how air quality affects lichen diversity; 2) model how species distributions are affected by their environment and interactions with other species across spatial scales; and 3) assess the role that lichens play in carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous cycles. The proposed program will train 9 HQP in field methods and statistical modelling and shed light on important questions in landscape ecology while also yielding insights into the effects of anthropogenic activities (habitat fragmentation, air pollution) on biodiversity. Importantly, these findings will be based on spatially-explicit analyses (the purview of landscape ecology) coupled with the power of replicate experimental units (previously a challenge to this field of research) using the model system. The research will help advance landscape ecology science and contribute to applied conservation problems in the boreal forest.