Collaborative Research: Pattern and Process in a Tropical Stream Fish Community

捕食危害或恐吓在 通过构建栖息地利用， 成员物种。 在当地，恐吓可能会抑制增长， 繁殖，从而直接影响种群动态 成员物种。 虽然来自捕食者的恐吓 产生局部效应，没有实验工作已经解决了 如何在更大的人身上表达恐吓的重要问题 尺度;即整个溪流或流域的尺度 系统. 本提案的目的是探讨这一问题， 热带溪流鱼类群落 我们将检验这个假设， 捕食者通过恐吓和直接杀戮， 在大的（地理）尺度上观察到的模式， 假设竞争是一个观察到的模式负责。 我们将测试从假设中得出的具体预测， 热带一阶和二阶控制实验 实验溪流系统，并进行大规模调查 位于特立尼达岛北方山脉的帕里亚河流域。

Predation hazard or intimidation plays an important role in the ecology of freshwater communities by structuring habitat use by member species. Locally, intimidation may suppress growth and reproduction, thereby directly affecting the population dynamics of member species. While intimidation from predators is known to produce local effects, no experimental work has addressed the important question of how intimidation is expressed on larger scales; i.e. the scale of whole streams or watersheds on Iotic systems. The goal of this proposal is to explore that question in a tropical stream fish community. We will test the hypothesis that predators, through intimidation and direct killing, can generate observed patterns across a large (geographic) scale, and also a hypothesis that competition is responsible for an observed pattern. We will test specific predictions derived from the hypotheses in controlled experiments in an tropical first- and second-order experimental stream system, and by conducting a large scale survey of the Paria drainage in the Northern Range Mountains of Trinidad.