TippingPond bacterioplankton

Ponds and shallow lakes are very important for regional biodiversity and strongly contribute to ecosystem services such as carbon storage, recreation and fish production. In addition, they are excellent model systems in ecology, and have played a key role in the development of theory on regime shifts in ecosystems, where initial resilience to environmental change leads to catastrophic regime shifts when a disturbance threshold is surpassed. Upon eutrophication or with temperature increase, ponds and lakes may show a shift from a clear-water to a turbid state with an associated decline in biodiversity and ecosystem services.TIPPINGPOND engages in a combined survey and manipulative study to identify the link between extant biodiversity and resilience to disturbance in pond ecosystems and early warning signs of regime shifts that lead to a strong decline in biodiversity and ecosystem services. Field experiments and studies will take place in Belgium, France and Sweden, on natural lakes and ponds.

池塘与浅水湖泊是区域生物多样性保护的关键生境，同时在碳储存、休闲娱乐与鱼类生产等生态系统服务供给中发挥着重要支撑作用。此外，它们亦是生态学研究的经典模型系统，在生态系统状态转变理论的发展历程中占据关键地位。此类生态系统中，初始具备的对环境变化的恢复力，一旦越过干扰阈值，便会触发灾难性的状态转变。当遭遇富营养化或水温升高时，池塘与湖泊可能会从清水稳态转向浊水稳态，同时伴随生物多样性锐减与生态系统服务功能衰退。TIPPINGPOND项目将整合调查与操控性实验研究，旨在阐明池塘生态系统中现存生物多样性与干扰恢复力之间的内在关联，以及引发生物多样性和生态系统服务大幅衰退的生态系统状态转变的早期预警信号。该项目的野外实验与研究将在比利时、法国及瑞典的天然湖泊与池塘中开展。