Collaborative Research: Food-Chain Length in Streams: Testing the Role of Ecosystem Size, Resource Availability and Disturbance

合作研究：溪流中的食物链长度：测试生态系统规模、资源可用性和干扰的作用

• 批准号: 0316679
• 负责人: David Post
• 金额: $ 8.4万
• 依托单位: Yale University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-09-01 至 2007-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0316679&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Food; Chain; Length

Collaborative Research: Food-Chain Length in Streams-Testing the Role of Ecosystem Size, Resource Availability and Disturbance.Post, DavidYale UniversityA critical determinant of community structure and ecosystem function is food-chain length, a measure of the number of times energy and materials are transferred from the bottom to the top of a food web. Food-chain length affects community structure by altering trophic interactions, influences ecosystem functions, and, in part, determines the concentration of contaminants in top predators, including many fish that humans eat. Food-chain length is also strongly affected by human activities through, e.g., harvesting activities and habitat fragmentation. Despite the central place of food-chain length in ecology, relatively little is known about the factors controlling this fundamental food web property. This project focuses on how ecosystem size, resource availability and disturbance govern food-chain length in food webs found in river ecosystems. To address this question, the project will compare data collected from 40+ rivers across North America, using existing data sets as well as making new field measurements and applying stable isotope techniques to estimate food-chain length. A deeper understanding of food-chain length in streams will help elucidate the complex linkages between ongoing and accelerating human environmental changes on important societal concerns such as contaminant concentrations, biodiversity, and carbon cycling. This project will support the collaboration of three new faculty members during the crucial early phase of their careers, train a postdoctoral fellow, one graduate student, and several undergraduates in cross-disciplinary research, and conduct a hands on K-12 outreach effort in local high schools using stream food webs as a tool for representing ecological complexity and for teaching an appreciation of the importance of biodiversity.

协作研究：溪流中的食物链长度测试了生态系统规模，资源可用性和干扰的作用。 食物链长度通过改变营养的相互作用，影响生态系统功能，并部分确定污染物在顶级捕食者中的浓度，包括许多人类食用的鱼类。 食物链长度也受到人类活动的强烈影响，例如收获活动和栖息地分裂。 尽管食物链长度在生态学中的核心地位，但对控制这种基本食品网络财产的因素知之甚少。 该项目的重点是生态系统规模，资源可用性和干扰如何控制河流生态系统中食物网的食物链长度。 为了解决这个问题，该项目将使用现有数据集并进行新的现场测量并应用稳定的同位素技术来比较北美40多条河流收集的数据，以估算食物链长度。 对溪流中的食物链长度的更深入的了解将有助于阐明正在进行的和加速人类环境之间对重要社会问题（例如污染物浓度，生物多样性和碳循环）的复杂联系。 该项目将支持三名新教师在职业生涯的重要早期阶段，培训博士后研究员，一名研究生和几位在跨学科研究中的本科生的合作，并使用流媒体食品网络在当地高中进行K-12外展工作，以表达生态复杂性和对生物学的重要性来教学的工具，以实现生态复杂性和重要性。