| AIM:
The aim of this project is to study growth rate adaptations of benthic consumers along latitudinal gradients. High latitude ecosystems are time-limited due to extremely short growth seasons and often very nutrient poor. Thus, consumers at high latitude have to maximize their grow rates and their growth efficiencies. The proposed project is designed to test how benthic consumer species are adapted to these conflicting pressures. The approach underpinning this research (Ecological stoichiometry) integrates evolutionary and ecosystem paradigms by identifying the factors driving evolution at the ecosystem level. I will test the hypothesis that consumer growth rate within species are higher in populations from higher latitudes and that food quality affects realized growth rates. In addition I will test whether changes in growth rate are population specific evolutionary adaptations to the length of the growing season in the region of origin due to phenotypic plasticity. Last I will test whether northern populations have evolved to be more efficient at assimilating N and P (excrete less N and P) than southern ones. I will do this by conducting laboratory and field experiments to test the importance of local genetic adaptation versus phenotypic plasticity as well as nutrient recycling efficiency of both high and low latitude populations of benthic consumers. This project will aid our understanding of food webs in general and high latitude food webs in particular. It will also help clarify effects of eutrophication and climate change on these food webs.
Anknytning till stiftelsens ändamål:
Det kraftfulla verktyget bakom min forskning (ekologisk stökiometri) förenar evolutionärt och ekologisk tänkande genom att identifiera de faktorer som driver evolutionen på ekosystemnivå. Labb och fältförsök ska testa effekten av olika faktorer (temperatur, näring, betarnas art och härkomst) på konsumenternas tillväxthastighet och tillväxteffektivitet och genetiska analyser av dessa betare ska visa om nordliga och sydliga populationer skiljer sig från varandra genom slumpmässig genetisk drift eller evolutionär genetisk anpassning. Sådan kunskap är viktig för att bedriva vattenvård i sötvatten med syfte att kunna bevara mångfald och ekosystemfunktion, särskilt i näringsfattiga arktiska miljöer. |