Role of Predation and Plant-Small Mammal Interactions in the Chilean Mediterranean Scrub Zone

9318565 Meserve本项目调查了智利半干旱刺丛中小型哺乳动物、多年生和一年生植物种群对自然气候条件变化的反应，以及对捕食者和食草动物密度的操纵。这项研究为干旱热带地区的小型哺乳动物提供了一套独特的长期种群数据，以及它们对植物种群影响的数据。小型哺乳动物和捕食者密度的操纵实验与年度天气变化（包括厄尔尼诺事件）相结合，为了解生物和非生物因素对哺乳动物和植物自然种群的相互作用提供了独特的见解。这项研究很重要，因为它提供了一些关于哺乳动物和植物种群对干旱热带地区短期气候变化的反应的第一批长期数据。这项研究的结果将提高我们理解人为气候变化的生态后果的能力。* * *

9318565 Meserve This project investigates the response of small mammals and perennial and annual plant populations to natural variation in weather conditions and to manipulations of predator and herbivore densities in a Chilean semiarid thorn scrub. The research provides a unique set of long-term population data for small mammals in the arid tropics as well as data on their effects on plant populations. The manipulative experiments of small mammal and predator densities in combination with annual weather variation (including an El Nino event) provide unique insights into the interactive effects of biotic and abiotic factors on natural populations of mammals and plants. %%% This research is important because it provides some of the first long-term data on the response of mammal and plant populations to short-term climate change in the arid tropics. The results of this research will improve our abilities to understand the ecological consequences of anthropogenic climate change. ***