Dissertation Research: The Role of Habitat Selection Behavior in Mediating Trophic Interactions

了解消费者如何选择栖息地是 对于预测社区对捕食者的反应至关重要， 资源操纵。 目前的模型预测个人 当死亡风险和摄食率在不同的 栖息地，但不包括动态资源。 本研究 将扩展这些模型，以包括资源动态，显示 消费者在栖息地之间的分布如何取决于 死亡风险和资源生产力。 具体来说，消费者和资源对捕食者的反应 和营养操纵简单，两个栖息地，实验 系统将进行测试。 在这些系统中， （Lepomis macrochirus）可以自由地在成对的 实验池，但它们的捕食者，大口黑鲈 （Micropterus salmoides）仅限于特定的游泳池。 这些 水池中也有自给自足的浮游动物 (the bluegill的资源）。 该研究将解决 具体问题如下：（1）在下列情况下， 消费者可以选择不同死亡率的栖息地 风险和自我更新的资源，消费者是否使用栖息地 （2）消费者群体的比例如何？ 每个栖息地都随资源生产力的变化而变化，3）什么 是消费者对资源栖息地选择的结果 栖息地内的动态？ 这些研究提供了第一 栖息地行为理论的实证检验 选择对社区动态的影响。

An understanding of how consumers choose among habitats is essential to predicting community level responses to predator and resource manipulations. Current models predict individual habitat choice when mortality risk and feeding rates vary among habitats, but do not incorporate dynamic resources. This study will extend these models to include resource dynamics, showing how the distribution of consumers among habitats is dependent on mortality risk and resource productivity. Specifically, the response of consumers and resources to predator and nutrient manipulations in simple, two habitat, experimental systems will be tested. In these systems, small bluegills (Lepomis macrochirus) are free to move between paired experimental pools, but their predators, largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) are confined to specific pools. These pools also contain self-supporting populations of zooplankton (the bluegill's resource). The research will address the following specific questions: 1) Under the situation where consumers can choose among habitats with differing mortality risks and self-renewing resources, do consumers use habitats optimally, 2) How does the portion of the consumer population in each habitat vary with varying resource productivity, and 3) What are the consequences of consumer habitat choice to resource dynamics within habitats? These studies provide the first empirical test of theory linking the behavior of habitat selection to its consequences for community dynamics.