Asymmetric Competition and Population Dynamics in the Fire Ant

火蚁（Solenopsis invicta）倾向于在新受到干扰的土地上大量定居，在新建立的殖民地中创造最初非常密集的种群。随着这些蜂群的成长，它们通过抢夺幼崽和领土战争相互竞争。随着蜂群和领地的增长，蜂群的死亡率会导致种群的自我减少。大殖民地的扩张是以牺牲小殖民地为代价的。通过实验和统计方法的结合，Tschinkel博士将确定菌落大小差异是如何产生的，以及它们和初始菌落密度是如何影响稀疏过程中菌落的密度、间距和大小分布的。他还将研究预测个体群体生长和生存的因素以及竞争的行为方面。该研究将对了解这些群居昆虫的种群动态，特别是蚁群大小和蚁群与植物种群的相似性的重要性做出重要贡献。此外，这项工作具有实际意义，因为由于对其种群动态的了解不足，控制或管理火蚁的尝试经常失败。这项研究将有助于填补这一空白，从而改进未来的控制策略。

The fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, tends to colonize newly disturbed land in large numbers, creating initially very dense populations of newly founded colonies. As these colonies grow, they compete with one another through brood-stealing and territorial warfare. The resulting colony mortality causes the population to self-thin as colonies and their territories grow. Large colonies expand at the expense of small ones. By a combination of experimental and statistical methods, Dr. Tschinkel will determine how colony size differences are created and how they and initial colony density affect the density, spacing and size distribution of colonies during thinning. He will also study the factors which predict growth and survivorship of individual colonies and the behavioral aspects of competition. This research will make important contributions to understanding population dynamics of these social insects, especially the importance of colony size and similarities between ant and plant populations. In addition, the work has practical implications since attempts at fire ant control or management have often failed because of the poor understanding of its population dynamics. This study will help fill this gap and thus improve future control strategies.