Ecology in spatially structured environments

确定生物多样性复杂空间格局的过程及其相对重要性一直是生态学中最受欢迎、最具活力、最具挑战性和被引用最多的研究领域之一。生物多样性空间格局的复杂性在很大程度上被认为是影响物种在不同空间尺度上分布的过程与时空环境变化（异质性）之间相互作用的产物。我们对生态群落空间结构的认识取得了显著进展，但仍存在重大差距和相关挑战。即使在同一空间尺度内，环境异质性也是由多个要素组成的。这些组成部分应与不同的生态和进化机制相互作用，以影响我们在自然界中观察到的各种空间生物多样性格局。空间环境异质性被广泛认为是影响生态群落结构的机制。然而，迄今为止，对空间异质性的研究几乎完全集中在变化（多少）成分上。例如，不同地理位置的物种组成如何随环境差异（变异）而变化？然而，不同地点之间相似程度的环境变化，往往在空间（变化发生的地方）结构不同，可能影响物种分布及其相互作用的方式。必须强调的是，环境异质性具有随机和非随机的空间成分。这些成分不同于重要的环境特征，也不同于这些特征在空间中的关联方式。环境特征的结构成分可以直接等同于它们在地理位置上变化的突然或平稳程度。由于物种对环境变化的反应和应对能力各不相同（如扩散和生活史差异），物种分布和共存应受到其环境空间结构的影响。该研究项目旨在回答关于环境空间结构如何影响物种分布及其相互作用的新颖和基本问题。我们将结合实地考察、统计和理论方法来理解和量化环境中空间结构模式如何影响生物多样性的空间格局。我的研究团队将研究不同的分类群，因为它们的差异应该能够让我们了解它们是如何受到环境异质性不同组成部分的影响的。拟议的方案将创造一种培训环境，建立高度可转移的技能，将概念、统计和经验方法联系起来。这项研究也将与我们与政府合作伙伴正在进行的关于气候变化和生态系统服务的研究有关。

Determining the processes, and their relative importances, underlying complex spatial patterns of biodiversity has been one of the most popular, vibrant, challenging and well-cited areas of research in ecology. Complexities in spatial patterns of biodiversity are recognized, in large part, to be a product of the interactions between the processes that influence species distributions at different spatial scales, and spatial and temporal environmental variation (heterogeneity). Remarkable progress has been made in our understanding of how ecological communities are structured in space, yet major gaps and related challenges remain. Environmental heterogeneity is composed of multiple components even within the same spatial scale. These components should act and interact with different ecological and evolutionary mechanisms to influence the large variety of spatial biodiversity patterns we observe in nature. Spatial environmental heterogeneity is widely recognized as a mechanism underlying the structure of ecological communities. To date, however, research on spatial heterogeneity has almost exclusively focused on the variation (how much) component. For example, how do species composition among different geographical locations vary as a function of their environmental differences (variation)? Similar levels of environmental variation among locations, however, are often structured differently in space (where variation occurs), likely affecting species distributions and the ways they interact. It is critical to stress that environmental heterogeneity has random and non-random spatial components. And that these components differ across important environment features as well as in the way these features correlate in space. The structural components of environmental features can be directly equated to how abruptly or smoothly they change across geographical localities. Because species vary in their responses to and abilities to cope with variation in their environments (e.g. dispersal and life history differences), species distributions and their coexistence should be affected by the spatial structure of their environments. This research program seeks to answer novel and fundamental questions about how the spatial structure of the environment influence species distributions and their interactions. We will combine fieldwork, statistical and theoretical approaches to understand and quantify how the patterns of spatial structure in the environment affect spatial patterns of biodiversity. My research team will work on various taxa, as their differences should allow to generate insights about how they are influenced by different components of environmental heterogeneity. The proposed program will generate a training environment that builds highly transferable skills, linking conceptual, statistical and empirical approaches. This research will also have relevance for our ongoing research with government partners on climate change and ecosystem services.