RUI: Documenting, Understanding and Conserving the Biodiversity of Freshwater Siliceous Algae in Coastal Ponds Along Eastern North America

RUI：记录、理解和保护北美东部沿海池塘淡水硅质藻类的生物多样性

• 批准号: 0343355
• 负责人: Peter Siver
• 金额: $ 31万
• 依托单位: Connecticut College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-05-01 至 2008-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0343355&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RUI; Documenting; Understanding; Conserving; Biodiversity

Project AbstractThe primary focus of this project is to provide detailed surveys of two biologically diverse and ecologically important groups of algae in freshwater lakes and ponds along the east coast of North America. The scaled chrysophytes and diatoms are integral components of all aquatic habitats and are among the best known organisms used by scientists to detect changes in our nations water resources. Despite the importance of scaled chrysophytes and diatoms, the fact remains that large geographic regions along the margin of North America remain largely unexplored for both groups of organisms. Our goals will include describing the floras of these algal organisms for specific regions along the coast, describing new species to science, evaluating the relative importance of chemical variables vs. climate-related factors in shaping and controlling the distributions of these organisms along a subtropical to arctic gradient, and to train a group of highly motivated undergraduates in taxonomy and ecology issues. As part of this project, we will survey waterbodies along the Atlantic Coastal Plain, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Labrador and the Canadian Arctic, and add this information to our existing databases in order to accomplish our goals. We will use high resolution light and scanning electron microscopy to document all species, and archive our samples in national museums making them available to other scientists.According to an in-depth study conducted by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), numerous regions along the eastern coast of North America were ranked "high", "continentally outstanding" or "globally outstanding" for their aquatic biological distinctiveness. Many of these same regions had future (next 20 years) habitat threat assessment projections of "high", and were rated by the WWF as "endangered" or "vulnerable" areas in North America. Based on this thorough study, all regions to be sampled as part of our project warrant immediate biodiversity protection efforts. When combined with our previous results, our work will include detailed analyses of both algal groups in ponds from all seven freshwater ecoregions defined by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) that span the east coast of the North American continent from subtropical Florida to the Arctic. A primary goal of our study will be to provide detailed biodiversity evaluations of two ecologically important algal groups for all seven coastal ecoregions that will complement existing databases for aquatic animals and enhance conservation efforts, including those of the National Park Service, the Forest Service and Parks Canada. A goal of NSF is to increase taxonomic expertise among the scientific work force, especially for poorly known microscopic organisms. Our program will help meet this challenge by yielding confident students with a high degree of taxonomic skill eager to pursue careers in biodiversity-related fields.

摘要项目该项目的主要重点是对北美东海岸的淡水湖泊和池塘中的两个生物学上多样化和生态重要的藻类组进行详细的调查。 缩放的菊苣和硅藻是所有水生栖息地的组成部分，是科学家使用的最著名的生物之一，以检测我们国家水资源的变化。 尽管缩放的红毛和硅藻很重要，但事实仍然是，北美边缘沿线的大型地理区域在很大程度上尚未探索两组生物体。 我们的目标将包括描述这些藻类有机体针对沿海地区的特定区域的植物群，描述了科学的新物种，评估化学变量与气候相关因素的相对重要性在塑造和控制这些生物体沿北极梯度到北极梯度的分布中的分布，并培训一组激励人数的不良范围内的分类级别的人，并培训了一群人的分类范围。 作为该项目的一部分，我们将调查大西洋沿海平原，新斯科舍省，纽芬兰，拉布拉多和加拿大北极的水体，并将此信息添加到我们现有的数据库中，以实现我们的目标。 我们将使用高分辨率的光和扫描电子显微镜来记录所有物种，并在国家博物馆中存档我们的样本，使其可供其他科学家使用。根据世界野生动物基金会（WWF）进行的一项深入研究，北美东部海岸的许多地区都在北美东海岸的许多地区对“ High the High of contents of contenty Bioffence”，“地表”或“地表”的排名与众不同。 这些相同地区中的许多地区都有未来（接下来的20年）栖息地威胁评估“高”的预测，并被WWF评为北美的“濒危”或“脆弱”地区。 基于这项彻底的研究，所有要采样的区域作为我们的项目的一部分，必须立即进行生物多样性保护工作。 结合我们先前的结果，我们的工作将包括对世界野生动物基金会（WWF）定义的所有七个淡水生态区池塘中的两个藻类组的详细分析，这些植物是跨越北美大陆东海岸的，从佛罗里达亚热带佛罗里达州北美大陆的东海岸。 我们研究的主要目的是为所有七个沿海生态区域提供两个重要的藻类群体的详细生物多样性评估，这将补充水上动物的现有数据库并增强保护工作，包括国家公园服务，森林服务局和加拿大公园。 NSF的目标是增加科学劳动力的分类学专业知识，尤其是对于知名的微观生物。 我们的计划将通过产生高度分类学技能的自信学生渴望从事与生物多样性有关的领域的职业，这将有助于应对这一挑战。