Landscape ecology for conservation : Canadian boreal cryptogams in a global context

世界生物圈正在以前所未有的速度发生变化。每天都有物种灭绝，这已成为现实;因此，物种保护工作至关重要，因为地球多样性的丧失削弱了生物圈的复原力。对于脊椎动物以外的许多物种，由于缺乏基本的生物多样性信息，如分布范围和基本生态，保护工作受到阻碍。这些知识差距在整个生命树或地球仪上并不均匀分布，这些差距对隐花植物尤其明显，全球生物多样性信息最少的10个植物家族中有7个是隐花植物。此外，虽然温带地区有丰富的信息，但热带和寒带地区的生物多样性信息数量有所下降。如果没有物种的分布范围、种群大小和功能特征的信息，就不可能评估物种是否具有保护意义。如果适用世界保护联盟关于濒危物种的标准，就需要提供关于物种分布范围、它们在这一范围内的生境及其种群规模的资料。由于生物圈正在迅速变化，还需要了解物种如何在景观中分散，以及它们跟踪栖息地包络的能力，以便了解它们的脆弱程度。因此，通过这项研究计划，我们将：（i）确定跨标量效应（即微生境和大气候之间的相互作用）在确定区域生境和物种分布范围方面的重要性;（ii）确定扩散如何与分布范围和种群大小相互作用;以及（iii）确定区域和大陆物种的分布范围和种群大小。这项研究在几个方面都是新颖的。首先，我将描述的相对重要性的过程，确定物种组成的尺度超出了栖息地补丁的研究不足的生物群体。第二，加拿大的北卡罗来纳州的地理学长期以来一直被忽视，因为森林的广阔和“一切都是无处不在”的假设。然而，我们知道这是不正确的，因为唯一的北寒武纪岩石地理学研究（发表于20世纪70年代）表明了大陆模式，但此后没有研究详细研究过这个问题。了解在加拿大北部森林的苔藓植物物种丰富度和社区组成的空间变化是至关重要的，以了解哪些自然区域内的北部森林是代表性的或独特的苔藓植物区系，以确定代表性或独特的生态系统，从他们的植被组成部分。在这方面，这种理解对于加拿大2020年生物多样性目标的目标C也至关重要。

The world's biosphere is changing at an unprecedented speed. The daily loss of species to extinction is now a reality; consequently, efforts in species conservation are of primary importance as the erosion of planetary diversity weakens the resilience of the biosphere. For many species outside of vertebrates, conservation efforts are hindered by the lack of basic biodiversity information such as distribution ranges and basic ecology. These knowledge gaps are not evenly distributed across the tree of life or the globe,These gaps are particularly evident for cryptogams, ast seven of the ten plant families with the least amount of biodiversity information available globally were bryophytes. Additionally, while abundant information is available in temperate regions, the quantity of biodiversity information available drops towards the tropical and boreal zones. Without information on species' distribution ranges, population sizes, and functional traits, it is impossible to evaluate whether species are of conservation concern. If the IUCN criteria for species at risk are applied, information is required on the distribution ranges of species, the habitats they occupy within this range, and their population sizes. As the biosphere is rapidly changing, it is also necessary to understand how species disperse across the landscape and their ability to track habitat envelopes in order to understand their level of vulnerability. Consequently, with this research program we will: (i) determine the importance of cross-scalar effects (i.e. the interaction between microhabitats and macroclimates) in determining regional habitats and consequently species' distribution ranges; (ii) determine how dispersal interacts with both distribution ranges and population sizes; and (iii) determine regional and continental species' distribution ranges and population sizes. This research is novel on several fronts. First, I will be describing the relative importance of processes that determine species composition at scales beyond the habitat patch for understudied groups of organisms. Second, biogeography boreal of bryophytes in Canada has long been ignored because of the vast expanse of the forests and an assumption that "everything was everywhere". However, we know this is not true as the only biogeographical study of boreal bryophytes (published in the 1970s) indicated continental patterns but no studies have examined this question in detail since. Understanding the spatial variation in bryophyte species richness and community composition across the Canadian boreal forest is critical to understanding what natural areas within the boreal forest are representative or distinctive in their bryoflora, in order to identify representative or distinct ecosystems from their vegetation components. In that respect, this understanding is also critical to Goal C of Canada's 2020 Biodiversity Targets.