Ecological Consequences of Phenotypic Plasticity in Larval Anurans

9408397沃纳在这个项目中，研究人员正在研究表型可塑性对无尾两栖动物幼虫生态性能的影响。他们将确定在捕食者存在的情况下触发表型变化的因素，并测量诱导线索的剂量反应。他们将确定形态和行为变化影响竞争能力和对捕食者防御的机制。他们还将研究与捕食者的相互作用，导致表型变化，如何影响同一营养水平的物种之间的竞争性相互作用。这项研究将为表型可塑性、生态性能和生态群落结构之间的关系提供新的见解。这种关系具有很大的潜在重要性，但很少得到研究。这些研究应该导致机制模型的发展，预测有机体之间的相互作用和不同环境中的表型特征的最佳组合。这些结果应该在保护生物学、生物多样性管理和自然资源管理中得到应用。

9408397 Werner In this project the investigators are studying the consequnces of phenotypic plasticity to ecological performance of larval anurans. They will identify the the factors that trigger the phenotypic change that occurs in the presence of predators and measure the dose response to inducing cues. They will determine the mechanisms by which the morphological and behavioral shifts influence competitive ability and defense against predators. They will also study how interactions with predators, leading to phenotypic shifts, can influence the competitive interactions between species at the same trophic level. This research will yield new insights into the relationship between phenotypic plasticity, ecological performance, and ecological community structure. This relationship is of great potential importance but has received very little study. These studies should result in the development of mechanistic models that predict the interactions between organisms and the optimal combinations of phenotypic traits in different environments. The results should have applications in conservation biology, management of biodiversity, and natural resource management.