Successional Dynamics and Spatial Patterning in Ecosystems at the Prairie-Forest Border

该项目代表着雪松溪自然历史区长期生态研究项目的更新。将利用长期观察和实验来研究草原-森林交界处生态系统的演替动态和空间格局的控制。调查人员将以在旧领域进行的一系列永久性观测和实验研究中已经积累的详细数据记录为基础，并将该项目扩展到一系列非演替生境。研究将集中于关于各种物种和生态系统元素相互之间的直接、间接和反馈影响的假说，以及它们如何控制非演替生态系统中的演替动态和空间格局。将研究的主要过程包括：(1)土壤中碳和氮动态的控制；(2)初级生产力和植物种类组成的控制；(3)草食动物动态和丰度的控制；(4)火、地鼠丘和气候变化等干扰的影响。已经收集了6年的关于物理因素、土壤、植物和食草动物的数据集使研究人员能够解决一些主要问题，但随着观察和实验数据的每增加一年，它将变得越来越独特和强大。现场研究的一般性将通过在LTER网络上进行一系列比较和综合来测试。这项研究的制度支持是坚实的。与来自爱达荷州立大学的两名年轻科学家的合作安排应该会继续富有成效。项目团队是一个很好的团队。除了提供对生态演替过程的基本认识外，该项目还应对农业管理产生重大影响，因为农业必须与其所在的自然生态母体相互作用。

This project represents the renewal of the Cedar Creek Natural History Area Long-Term Ecological Research project. Long-term observation and experimentation will be used to examine the controls of successional dynamics and spatial patterning in ecosystems at the prairie-forest boundary. The investigators will build on the detailed data record already accumulated in a series of permanent observational and experimental studies in old field and will expand the project into a range of non- successional habitats. Studies will focus on hypotheses concerning the direct, indirect, and feedback effects of various species and ecosystem elements on each other, and how they control both successional dynamics and spatial patterning in non-successional ecosystems. The main processes to be studied are (1) controls of carbon and nitrogen dynamics in soils: (2) controls of primary production and plant species composition; (3) controls of herbivore dynamics and abundances; and (4) the impacts of disturbances such as fire, gopher mounds and climatic change. The 6-year-running data sets already collected on physical factors, soils plants, and herbivores have allowed the investigators to address some major questions, but it will become increasingly unique and powerful with each additional year of observational and experimental data. The generality of on-site research will be tested by performing a series of comparisons and syntheses across the LTER network. Institutional support for the research is solid. Collaborative arrangements with two young scientists from Idaho State University should continue to be productive. The project team is a good one. In addition to providing fundamental insight on the processes that are generative to ecological succession the project should also produce significant implications for agricultural management since agriculture must interact with the natural ecological matrix in which it is embedded.