Moose Foraging Strategy, Energetics, and Ecosystem Processes in Boreal Landscapes

北方景观中驼鹿的觅食策略、能量学和生态系统过程

• 批准号: 9420064
• 负责人: John Pastor
• 金额: $ 78.99万
• 依托单位: University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1995
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1995-03-15 至 2001-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9420064&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Moose; Foraging; Strategy; Energetics; Ecosystem

Abstract: PI-PASTOR: Individual species of animals or plants can produce effects which are strongly manifest at the ecosystem or landscape level. The population dynamics of such organisms, or the elimination of such species, can have dramatic ecosystem impacts. Such an animal with such a strong ecological footprint is the moose. This project uses state-of-the-art tracking technology linked to a global positioning system (GPS) to study the effects of moose at Voyageurs National Park, MN. The project studies the energetic balance of individual moose, the effect of moose on plant species distribution, the animal's effects on soil nutrient cycling, and develops a simulation model to study foraging strategy of moose and the impact of moose on landscape patterns. This research is valuable because it links behavioral and population studies with ecosystem and landscape level responses. The interfaces between these disciplines often do not overlap, although the two-way interaction between population biology and ecosystems ecology is often acknowledged. Three components of the research are especially well formulated and planned. First, the animal tracking work provides the detail necessary to examine animal behavior, foraging strategy, and spatially-explicit landscape effects. Second, the simulation model quantifies the impacts of this large grazing animal and may find application with numerous other large herbivores. Third, the research addresses animal linkages to processes such as nutrient cycling and decomposition in addition to structural components of ecosystems such as plant community distributions.

摘要：派牧师：单个物种的动物或植物可以产生强烈的影响，在生态系统或景观层面上表现得很明显。这类生物的种群动态，或这类物种的灭绝，可能会对生态系统产生重大影响。这样一种生态足迹如此强烈的动物就是驼鹿。该项目使用与全球定位系统(GPS)相连的最先进的跟踪技术来研究驼鹿对明尼苏达州旅行者国家公园的影响。该项目研究了驼鹿个体的能量平衡、驼鹿对植物物种分布的影响、动物对土壤养分循环的影响，并开发了一个模拟模型来研究驼鹿的觅食策略和驼鹿对景观格局的影响。这项研究很有价值，因为它将行为和种群研究与生态系统和景观水平的反应联系起来。这些学科之间的界面通常不重叠，尽管种群生物学和生态系统生态学之间的双向相互作用经常得到承认。这项研究的三个组成部分都经过了精心的制定和规划。首先，动物追踪工作提供了必要的细节，以检查动物的行为、觅食策略和空间上明确的景观效果。其次，模拟模型量化了这种大型食草动物的影响，并可能适用于许多其他大型食草动物。第三，这项研究解决了动物与营养循环和分解等过程的联系，以及生态系统的结构组成部分，如植物群落分布。