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产生负面影响。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度模式及其背后的过程，包括人类影响的理解。这个研究项目建立在我以前对沿海生态系统的生态和生物多样性的研究基础上。未来五年的短期目标侧重于提高我们对海洋酸化和变暖对这些生态系统影响的认识。 人为排放的二氧化碳导致海洋温度上升和海洋酸化（二氧化碳增加，pH值和碳酸盐饱和度下降），预计这些影响今后还会增加。沿海系统海水pH值和温度的大量自然变化使了解气候变化对沿海沃茨的影响变得复杂。此外，由于微生物分解，生活在沉积物中的生物暴露于更酸性的条件下，导致沉积物中的碳酸盐饱和状态低到足以溶解双壳类贝壳。拟议的研究将使用实验室和现场实验相结合的方法，以测试海水和沉积物中二氧化碳增加和pH值降低对沉积物栖息的无脊椎动物群落的影响，包括商业捕捞的蛤蜊。我们还将研究海洋物种是否正在改变他们生活的纬度，并向北移动，以应对海水温度的上升。最后，我们将使用pH值和温度数据开发两个商业和生态上重要的物种，软壳蛤和美国龙虾，这将有助于评估其对气候变化影响的脆弱性的栖息地适宜性模型。 加拿大的海洋是一个重要的地区，以解决这些问题，因为缅因州/芬迪湾湾是一个热点的海洋变暖。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。拟议的研究将提高我们对气候变化对浅海海洋生态系统的影响的认识，这对加拿大的沿海经济非常重要。这项研究将为加拿大沿海生态系统的管理提供宝贵的信息，保护生态系统和评估商业捕捞物种对气候变化的脆弱性。

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.