Dispersal as a Mechanistic Basis for Landscape Ecology: The Role of Scale and Heterogeneity

摘要 97-07785 Turchin扩散作为景观生态学的机械基础：规模和异质性的作用 近年来，人们已经清楚地认识到，了解种群的空间动态，包括生境破碎化的影响，对于制定更好的自然资源管理方法至关重要。景观生态学已经发展了描述空间环境模式的方法，而种群生态学则有着研究这些模式背后机制的强大传统。这个项目将在生态学的这两个方向之间架起桥梁，在简单的环境中使用简单的生物体。研究的生物体是一种陆生等足类动物（“pillbug”），具有简单的生物学，其环境是以色列的内盖夫沙漠，提供了一个简化的景观，有一个明确的限制因素，水。这项研究将集中在扩散作为最重要的机制，解释等足类的空间分布与资源的分布。研究这个系统将产生一般的见解空间种群动态如何工作，并最终导致更好地理解更复杂的生态系统。

ABSTRACT 97-07785 Turchin Dispersal as a mechanistic basis for landscape ecology: The role of scale and heterogeneity In recent years it has become clear that understanding spatial dynamics of populations, including the effects of habitat fragmentation, is critical for developing better methods of managing natural resources. Landscape ecology has developed approaches for describing environmental patterns in space, while population ecology has a strong tradition of research on mechanisms that underlie these patterns. This project will bridge these two directions in ecology, using a simple organism in a simple environment. The study organism, a terrestrial isopod ("pillbug"), has a simple biology, and its environment, the Negev Desert of Israel, provides a simplified landscape with a clear limiting factor, water. This research will focus on dispersal as the most important mechanism explaining isopod spatial distribution in relation to the distribution of resources. Studying this system will yield general insights into how spatial population dynamics work, and will eventually lead to better understanding of more complex ecological systems.