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

该项目代表了雪松溪自然历史区长期生态研究项目的更新。长期观察和实验将用于检查草原-森林边界生态系统的演替动态和空间格局的控制。研究人员将在一系列长期观测和实验研究中积累的详细数据记录的基础上，将项目扩展到一系列非演替生境。研究将集中于各种物种和生态系统要素相互之间的直接、间接和反馈效应，以及它们如何控制非演替生态系统的演替动态和空间格局的假设。研究的主要过程有：(1)控制土壤碳氮动态；(2)控制初级生产和植物种类组成；(3)控制草食动物的动态和丰度；(4)火灾、地鼠丘、气候变化等干扰因素的影响。已经收集了6年的物理因素、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，但随着每一年的观察和实验数据的增加，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检验。这项研究的机构支持是坚实的。与爱达荷州立大学的两位年轻科学家的合作安排应该继续富有成效。项目团队是一个很好的团队。除了对产生生态演替的过程提供基本见解外，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处的自然生态基质相互作用。

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.