Connecting individual level processes to ecosystem management and restoration efforts

为了支持生态系统恢复和可持续管理努力，必须更好地了解个体对干扰的反应与群落结构以及水生生态系统中的能量流动路径和/或速率之间的联系。一个多世纪以来，没有考虑环境影响的工业活动导致了水生生态系统广泛的、往往是负面的变化。各国政府为限制工业排放而引入的环境法规已经实现了一些恢复，但生物恢复很少实现，通常远远落后于化学恢复。污染物的影响大多记录在生物一级(例如，生长、行为、细胞和代谢反应)，但受影响和恢复的生态系统的管理工作是在种群和生态系统一级进行的。影响评估和管理之间的这种不匹配突出表明，需要将个人一级的应对措施与采取管理行动的生态系统一级联系起来。此外，生态系统耦合(例如，通过鱼类或资源移动)及其对生态系统复原力的贡献形成了劳伦斯五大湖适应能力的概念模型，该模型还强调近海鱼类生产的驱动因素是一个主要的知识缺口。预计个体层面的代谢变化(如活动和静息代谢)会对人口统计学产生影响，从而通过消费者丰度和猎物消费导致种群和生态系统层面的变化。这反过来可能会改变生态系统的群落组成，从而改变食物链的长度、能量转移效率和水生食物网中污染物的积累。在接下来的5年里，雷尼博士将领导一个研究小组，在整个生态系统评估和操纵性全湖实验中使用互补的方法，量化个体水平的新陈代谢变化与种群和生态系统水平过程之间的关系。在正在进行的研究和启动新的研究路线的基础上，将在两个全湖实验中评估营养能量转移和个体代谢成本之间的关系；一个研究添加微塑料的影响，预计将通过鱼类代谢率和群落结构的变化改变能量转移，以及另一个食物网操纵/生态系统恢复实验，淡水虾(Mysis Flamviana)在缺席40多年后重新建立。将利用水声、稳定同位素和遥控运载工具技术评估生态系统补贴(通过鱼类和/或资源的移动)对近海淡水礁生产力的作用的机械性假设。这项创新研究将推动生态学、进化论和水生科学领域的发展，为面对全球环境变化、负责恢复和监测水生生态系统的政策制定者和资源管理者提供关键工具。

To support ecosystem restoration and sustainable management efforts, links between individual responses to disturbance with community structure and pathways and/or rates of energy flow in aquatic ecosystems must be better understood. Over a century of industrial activity without considering environmental impacts has led to widespread and often negative changes in aquatic ecosystems. The introduction of environmental regulations by governments to limit industrial emissions has allowed some recovery, but biological recovery is rarely achieved, typically lagging well behind chemical recovery. Impacts of contaminants are mostly documented at the organismal level (e.g., growth, behaviour, cellular and metabolic responses), but management efforts in impacted and recovering ecosystems are applied at the population and ecosystem level. This mismatch between impact assessment and management highlights the need to connect individual-level responses to the ecosystem level at which management actions are applied. Further, ecosystem coupling (e.g., via fish or resource movement) and its contribution to ecosystem resilience have framed a conceptual model of adaptive capacity in the Laurentian Great Lakes, which also highlights drivers of offshore fish production as a major knowledge gap. Metabolic changes at the individual level (e.g., activity and resting metabolism) are predicted to have demographic consequences, resulting in population- and ecosystem-level changes via consumer abundance and prey consumption. This in turn may alter the community composition of ecosystems, which can alter food chain length, energy transfer efficiency and contaminant accumulation in aquatic food webs. During the next 5 years, Dr. Rennie will lead a research group to quantify relationships between individual-level metabolic changes to population- and ecosystem-level processes, using complimentary approaches in both whole ecosystem assessments and manipulative whole-lake experiments. Building on ongoing research and initiating new lines of investigation, relationships between trophic energy transfer and individual metabolic costs will be evaluated in two whole-lake experiments; one examining the impacts of microplastic additions, anticipated to alter energy transfer through fish metabolic rates and changes in community structure, and another food web manipulation/ecosystem restoration experiment where freshwater shrimp (Mysis diluviana) are being re-established after a 40+ year absence. Mechanistic hypotheses of the role of ecosystem subsidization (via movement of fish and/or resources) on offshore freshwater reef productivity will be evaluated using hydroacoustic, stable isotope and remotely operated vehicle technologies. This innovative research will advance the fields of ecology, evolution and aquatic science, providing critical tools for policy makers and resource managers tasked with restoring and monitoring aquatic ecosystems in the face of global environmental change.