Ecology of coastal benthic communities in a changing ocean

包括气候变化在内的人类影响正在对加拿大和世界各地的海洋生态系统造成负面影响。我的研究计划的长期目标是增加我们对沿海海洋生态系统中底栖无脊椎动物的分布和丰富程度的了解，以及它们背后的过程，包括人类影响。这项研究计划建立在我之前对沿海生态系统的生态学和生物多样性的研究基础上。今后5年的短期目标侧重于增加我们对海洋酸化和变暖对这些生态系统的影响的了解。人为排放的二氧化碳已导致海洋温度升高和海洋酸化(二氧化碳增加、pH和碳酸盐饱和度降低)，预计这些影响在未来还会增加。由于沿海系统海水酸碱度和温度的大量自然变化，理解气候变化对沿海水域的影响是复杂的。此外，生活在沉积物中的生物由于微生物分解而暴露在更酸性的条件下，导致目前沉积物中的碳酸盐饱和态低到足以溶解双壳类贝壳。这项拟议的研究将采用实验室和野外实验相结合的方式，测试海水和沉积物中二氧化碳增加和pH降低对沉淀物中生活的无脊椎动物群落的影响，包括商业捕捞的文蛤。我们还将研究海洋物种是否正在转移它们生活的纬度，并向北迁移，以应对海水温度的上升。最后，我们将使用pH值和温度数据来建立两个具有商业和生态重要性的物种--文蛤和美国龙虾--的栖息地适宜性模型，这将有助于评估它们对气候变化影响的脆弱性。由于缅因湾/芬迪湾是海洋变暖的热点，加拿大海里时代是解决这些问题的重要地区。这项研究将由研究生和本科生进行，为UNB的博士、硕士和荣誉学生提供培训。拟议的研究将加强我们对气候变化对浅海沿海海洋生态系统的影响的了解，这些生态系统对加拿大的沿海经济极其富有成效和重要。这项研究将在保护生态系统和评估商业捕捞物种对气候变化的脆弱性方面为加拿大沿海生态系统的管理提供有价值的信息。

Human impacts including climate change are negatively affecting marine ecosystems in Canada and around the world. The long-term objective of my research program is to increase our understanding of the patterns of distribution and abundance of bottom-dwelling invertebrates in coastal marine ecosystems and the processes underlying them, including human impacts. This research program builds on my previous research on the ecology and biodiversity of coastal ecosystems. The short-term objectives over the next 5 years focus on increasing our understanding of the influence of ocean acidification and warming in these ecosystems. Anthropogenic emissions of CO2 have resulted in increased ocean temperature and ocean acidification (increased CO2 and decreased pH and carbonate saturation), and these impacts are projected to increase in the future. Understanding the effects of climate change in coastal waters is complicated by the large amount of natural variability in seawater pH and temperature in coastal systems. In addition, organisms living within sediment are exposed to more acidic conditions due to microbial decomposition, resulting in present-day carbonate saturation states in sediment low enough to dissolve bivalve shells. The proposed research will use a combination of lab and field experiments to test the effects of increased CO2 and decreased pH in seawater and in the sediment on communities of sediment-dwelling invertebrates, including commercially harvested clams. We will also examine whether marine species in the Maritimes are shifting the latitude at which they live and moving northwards in response to increasing seawater temperature. Finally, we will use pH and temperature data to develop models of habitat suitability for two commercially and ecologically important species, the soft shell clam and the American lobster, which will aid in assessing their vulnerability to the effects of climate change. The Canadian Maritimes are an important region to address these questions since the Gulf of Maine/Bay of Fundy is a hotspot for ocean warming. This research will be carried out by graduate and undergraduate students, providing training for PhD, MSc, and honours students at UNB. The proposed research will enhance our understanding of the effects of climate change on shallow coastal marine ecosystems, which are extremely productive and important to the coastal economy in Canada. This research will provide information valuable for management of coastal ecosystems in Canada in terms of conservation of ecosystems and assessment of vulnerability of commercially harvested species to climate change.