Understanding Biodiversity-Function in a Changing World

预计到2050年，全球人口将达到95亿，人类在地球上的影响无疑会越来越大。气候变化、收获、农业（如养分流失）和土地改造是影响维持生物多样性和生物多样性与生态系统服务功能（如粮食供应、粮食安全、碳储存、养分循环、稳定性）之间的关键关系的四个主要媒介。尽管这些变化越来越大，但对生态系统如何对这些媒介作出集体反应的理解仍然有限，特别是当它们经常共同发生时，生态系统同时受到一系列压力源的影响。在这里，我建议继续发展食物网理论，结合基础和应用的实证工作。其根本之处在于，它考虑了生态系统功能如何对自然和人为引起的扰动作出反应，其应用在于，这些结果将为调解人类影响和为我们的生态系统即将发生的和代价高昂的变化制定早期预警信号提供新方法。重要的是，这项研究与几个更大的研究小组倡议（例如，7700万美元的加拿大卓越研究基金Food from Thought，以及五大湖渔业委员会关于五大湖食物网和能量学的主题）相结合。这些合作研究人员网络正在共同研究共同的问题（例如，气候变化、农业集约化影响、收获对生物多样性功能的影响），确保这种理论驱动的研究是由数据驱动的。此外，这些合作网络意味着年轻的研究人员在多学科背景下接受培训，确保培养出高素质的人才。关键词：生物多样性功能，生态系统服务，全球变化，变异，理论，实证，预警信号，综合研究

With a projected population of 9.5 billion by 2050, the human fingerprint on the globe is undoubtedly increasing. Climate change, harvesting, agriculture (e.g., nutrient run-off) and land modification are four major vectors influencing the maintenance of biodiversity and the critical relationship between biodiversity and the functioning of ecosystem services (e.g., food provisioning, food security, carbon storage, nutrient cycling, stability). Despite these growing changes, the understanding of how ecological systems respond collectively to these vectors remains limited, especially as they often co-occur such that ecosystems are impacted by a suite of stressors simultaneously. Here, I propose to continue to develop food web theory coupled to empirical work that is both fundamental and applied. Fundamental in that it considers how ecosystem functions respond to natural and human-induced perturbations and applied in that these results will suggest new methods for both mediating human impacts and for developing early warning signals of looming and costly changes to our ecosystems. Importantly, this research is integrated with several larger research group initiatives (e.g., the $77 million Canadian Research Excellence Fund Food from Thought, and the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission theme on Food webs and Energetics in the Great Lakes). These networks of collaborative researchers are collectively working on common problems (e.g., climate change, agricultural intensification impacts, harvesting impacts on biodiversity-function) ensuring that this theoretically-driven research is driven by data. Additionally, these collaborative networks mean that young researchers are trained within a multi-disciplinarian context ensuring the production of highly qualified personnel. Keywords: biodiversity-function, ecosystem services, global change, variation, theory, empirical, Early warning signals, integrated research