Global patterns and processes of organismal niche in the marine environment

海洋环境中生物生态位的全球模式和过程

• 批准号: RGPIN-2017-04922
• 负责人: Hussey, Nigel
• 金额: $ 2.04万
• 依托单位: University of Windsor
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=711297
• 关键词: Global; patterns; processes; organismal; niche

The WHY of the WHERE and WHEN species are distributed on Earth is a central question in ecology. While multiple factors such as available habitat and evolutionary origin are considered to drive species distributions in our oceans, environment is considered a primary force. Environment not only regulates the occurrence of animals in habitats/at latitudes, but it also drives species interactions that structure food webs from micro- to macro-scales. The interaction of a species with abiotic (environment = habitat) and biotic (prey = diet) factors is termed the niche. In an era of rapid climatic shift - the Anthropocene - understanding how environmental variation moulds the niche of species will help to predict its effects on the stability and resilience of global food webs. While spatial distribution patterns of species are well known, such as increasing species biodiversity from high to low latitudes (the Latitudinal Diversity Gradient; LDG), the underlying causes of these patterns have received little attention in our oceans. The Latitudinal Niche Breadth Hypothesis (LNB), a famous theory proposed to account for LDG, states that smaller niches and greater species diversity will occur at the equator as compared to the poles because of increased environmental stability. I will examine the influence of environmental context on species niche at the poles, equator and along the polar-equatorial latitudinal gradient through testing the LNB hypothesis in our oceans. I will do this through: i) Establishing the relationship between niche size of species from known feeding groups (Trophic Levels; TL) at latitudinal extremes (pole and equator); ii) Testing causal links between established patterns of niche size and environmental variation at the pole and equator; iii) Adopting a macroecological approach to examine niche size patterns and environmental causal links across a continuous polar-to-equator latitudinal gradient; and iv) Testing if the trends fit expectations of the LNB hypotheses in the marine environment. My aim is to advance understanding of the impact of ongoing climate shifts on global ecosystems for sustainable resource management.

地球上物种分布的地方和何时分布是生态学中的一个核心问题。尽管可用的栖息地和进化起源等多种因素被认为是在我们的海洋中驱动物种分布，但环境被认为是主要力量。环境不仅可以调节栖息地/纬度地区动物的发生，而且还可以驱动物种相互作用，从而使食物网的相互作用从微观到宏观量表。与非生物（环境=栖息地）和生物（猎物=饮食）因子的物种相互作用称为利基。在一个快速气候变化的时代 - 人类世 - 了解环境变化如何模拟物种的利基将有助于预测其对全球食物网稳定性和弹性的影响。尽管物种的空间分布模式是众所周知的，例如从高纬度到低纬度的物种生物多样性（纬度多样性梯度； LDG），这些模式的根本原因在我们的海洋中很少受到关注。提议解释LDG的著名理论是纬度壁nike广度假设（LNB）指出，由于环境稳定性的增加，赤道较小的壁细分市场和更大的物种多样性将发生在赤道。我将通过测试我们的海洋中的LNB假设来研究环境环境对物种小众市场的影响。我将通过：i）在纬度极端（极和赤道）处的已知进食群体（营养水平； TL）的物种的利基大小之间的关系； ii）测试在杆和赤道处建立的利基大小与环境变化的既定模式之间的因果关系； iii）采用一种宏观生态学方法来检查连续的极性纬度梯度之间的利基大小模式和环境因果关系； iv）测试趋势是否符合海洋环境中LNB假设的预期。我的目的是提高人们对正在进行的气候转变对全球生态系统对可持续资源管理的影响的理解。