Dissertation Research: Insect Species Diversity on Patchy Ephemeral Resources: A Field Test of Patch Dynamics Coexistence Models

这个项目测试的预测补丁动态社区 整个社区的生态模型。 它将帮助 解释昆虫群落的多样性和 昆虫的多样性。 斑块动力学模型 描述如何分散，种内聚集， 干扰允许竞争物种或捕食者和猎物物种 在零星的短暂资源上共存 两个具体问题 将回答：1。群落物种多样性是否随着 资源的空间分块性增加了？2.并 群落多样性在几代人中增加， 资源的时间不连续性增加？ 三 实验将操纵实验室种植的蘑菇， 零星的短暂的昆虫资源。 第一个实验将 确定暴露的长度，将给予最大的昆虫 在其他实验中蘑菇的多样性。 第二 实验将比较昆虫的多样性， 一种标准蘑菇，分为一个、四个或 16个补丁。 第三个实验将比较多样性 在几代人之间， 在不同的时间间隔更新的蘑菇。

This project tests the predictions of 'patch dynamics' community ecology models at the level of the whole community. It will help explain the diversity of insect communities and the evolutionary diversity of insects as a whole. 'Patch dynamics' models describe how dispersal, intra-specific aggregation, and disturbance allow competing species or predator and prey species to coexist on patchy ephemeral resources. Two specific questions will be answered: 1. Does community species diversity increase as the spatial patchiness of a resource is increased? 2. Does community diversity increase over several generations as the temporal discontinuity of the resource increases? Three experiments will manipulate laboratory-grown mushrooms as a patchy ephemeral resource for insects. The first experiment will determine the length of exposure that will give maximum insect diversity on mushrooms in the other experiments. The second experiment will compare the diversity of insects supported by a standard mass of mushrooms divided into either one, four, or sixteen patches. The third experiment will compare diversity over several generations between identical spatial arrays of mushrooms that are renewed at different temporal intervals.