Dissertation Research: Impact of a Predator and Competitor on a Multi-species Community: Brook Trout and Appalachian Salamanders

微扰实验已成为研究微扰现象的重要工具。 社区生态学家试图了解是什么因素决定了 物种的分布和丰富度。 生物扰动， 例如将新物种引入群落， 特别的兴趣。 社区如何应对新物种 以及这个物种如何将自己融入现有的 交互作用的框架在推断 社区组织机制。 捕食和竞争是重要的相互作用， 河边的蝾螈群落 这些社区是 与一种大型掠食性鱼类，溪鳟， 提供与自然环境相关的生物扰动， 分布。 捕食和竞争很重要 在这个蝾螈群落中的互动。 鳟鱼的影响 可能涉及捕食和竞争，并可能影响 通过直接和间接的影响。 社区 组织，物种相互作用和对溪红点鲑的反应 将采用三种方法进行研究。自然实验将 提供关于长期共存影响的数据。 重复的现场实验允许严格测试 溪鳟影响群落组织假说 河边的火蜥蜴 在一个数组中的析因实验 人工溪流将决定自然和相对 互动的重要性。

Perturbation experiments have become an important tool of community ecologists trying to understand what factors determine the distribution and abundance of species. Biotic perturbations, such as the introduction of new species into communities, are of particular interest. How a community responds to a new species and how that species integrates itself into the existing framework of interactions are especially useful in inferring mechanisms of community organization. Predation and competition are important interactions within streamside salamander communities. These commnunities are partially sympatric with a large predatory fish, the brook trout, providing a biotic perturbation relevant to natural distributions. Predation and competition are important interactions within this salamander community. Impact of trout likely involves both predation and competition and may affect the community via direct and indirect effects. Community organization, species interactions and responses to brook trout will be studied using three approaches. Natural experiments will provide data on the effects of long-term co-occurrence. Replicated field experiments allow rigorous testing of the hypothesis that brook trout affect community organization in streamside salamanders. Factorial experiments in an array of artificial streams will determine the nature and relative importance of interactions.