Final Report Summary - TBAAMARE (Trait-based approaches across marine ecosystems)
Trait-based approaches are being increasingly used in ecology. They consider simultaneously multiple morphological and functional traits to explain community distributions along various environmental gradients and predict ecosystem functioning. The goal of this Incoming International Fellowship (IIF) was to enable the fellow, Christopher Klausmeier, to interact with researchers at DTU-Aqua and develop these trait-based approaches to modelling marine food webs. We have achieved this goal though a number of research and collabourative activities.
Collabouration with DTU-Aqua scientists was greatly facilitated by a recently funded Center of Excellence in Trait-based Marine Ecology. The fellow was a regular participant in this centre's weekly seminar series and organised a working group on evolving food webs. The fellow gave four guest lectures in DTU courses, hosted two short-term visiting scientists, co-supervised two student projects, and served on one PhD defense committee.
Research progressed on three fronts:
1) Development of methods for evolution in variable environments. The main result here was deriving a formula for the fitness gradient in spatially heterogeneous environments based on only local selective pressures. We are now extending it to spatiotemporally varying environments and asymmetric dispersal.
2) Modelling end-to-end food webs. The fellow co-supervised a student project linking plankton and fish community dynamics in a seasonal environment. Results include how seasonality is transmitted from the base of the food web to determine variability at higher trophic levels. The fellow also co-supervised another student who applied trait-based approaches to evolving food webs, and developed numerical methods for solving these models. Results are summarised as bifurcation diagrams showing how community structure depends on nutrient levels under different assumptions about trophic interaction.
3) Identifying key traits of zooplankton and fish. The fellow interacted with DTU-Aqua and other researchers to list key traits for these higher trophic levels.
While there is no direct applicability of this research, it will enable improved understanding of marine food webs, which have economic impacts through fisheries and are important in coupled biogeochemical cycles and climate.
Collabouration with DTU-Aqua scientists was greatly facilitated by a recently funded Center of Excellence in Trait-based Marine Ecology. The fellow was a regular participant in this centre's weekly seminar series and organised a working group on evolving food webs. The fellow gave four guest lectures in DTU courses, hosted two short-term visiting scientists, co-supervised two student projects, and served on one PhD defense committee.
Research progressed on three fronts:
1) Development of methods for evolution in variable environments. The main result here was deriving a formula for the fitness gradient in spatially heterogeneous environments based on only local selective pressures. We are now extending it to spatiotemporally varying environments and asymmetric dispersal.
2) Modelling end-to-end food webs. The fellow co-supervised a student project linking plankton and fish community dynamics in a seasonal environment. Results include how seasonality is transmitted from the base of the food web to determine variability at higher trophic levels. The fellow also co-supervised another student who applied trait-based approaches to evolving food webs, and developed numerical methods for solving these models. Results are summarised as bifurcation diagrams showing how community structure depends on nutrient levels under different assumptions about trophic interaction.
3) Identifying key traits of zooplankton and fish. The fellow interacted with DTU-Aqua and other researchers to list key traits for these higher trophic levels.
While there is no direct applicability of this research, it will enable improved understanding of marine food webs, which have economic impacts through fisheries and are important in coupled biogeochemical cycles and climate.