CRB: Dynamic Interactions Between Plant Distributions and Animal-Generated Disturbances: Trajectories of Restored Communities

[806377]赖希曼几十年来，生态学家已经意识到干扰对决定群落结构的重要性。对于干扰模式如何影响社区发展的轨迹，人们所知甚少，而社区发展可能源于恢复自然社区等努力。恢复提供了一个独特的机会来研究初始条件和干扰之间的关系及其对群落发展的影响，因为必须选择植物种类和分布等特征，而不是依赖于先前存在的物种恭维和模式。本项目旨在确定加州草地的恢复如何受到植物初始分布和口袋地鼠干扰的强度和空间格局的影响。此外，该实验系统将作为分析资源分配与干扰之间复杂相互作用的一般特征的模型。研究人员将分析植物对彼此的影响以及对动物产生的干扰的影响，以及地鼠对彼此和植物群落的相互影响。此外，实验设计将提供一个机会来区分单个地鼠的影响总和和地鼠之间复杂的社会互动产生的影响，后者产生了减少干扰的缓冲区。虽然任何修复研究都有其固有的场地特定成分，但这些研究可以揭示一般的生态模式。本研究中的植物系统和干扰因子在北美具有广泛的地理分布。更一般地说，关于动物行为与恢复群落中物种共存之间相互作用的结论将适用于许多其他由动物干扰主导的系统。复杂的相互作用很难研究，但通过对恢复中的系统施加操纵，这项调查将对初始条件和干扰制度对社区发展轨迹的影响产生重要的见解。

9806377ReichmanFor decades, ecologists have been aware of the importance of disturbance in determining the structure of communities. Less is known about how patterns of disturbance affect the trajectory of community development that might emanate from efforts such as restoring natural communities. Restoration provides a distinctive opportunity to investigate the relationship between initial conditions and disturbance and their effect on the development of communities because features, such as plant species and distributions, must be chosen rather than relying on a preexisting compliment and pattern of species. This project is designed to determine how the restoration of California grassland is influenced by the initial distribution of plants and the intensity and spatial pattern of disturbance generated by pocket gophers. In addition, this experimental system will serve as a model for analyzing general features of the complex interactions between resource distribution and disturbance. The investigators will analyze the effect of plants on each other and on the disturbances generated by the animals, and the reciprocal effects of gophers on each other and the plant community. Furthermore, the experimental design will provide an opportunity to distinguish between the sum of effects of individual gophers from the effects generated by the complex social interactions between gophers which generate buffer zones of reduced disturbance. While any restoration research has an inherent site specific component, such studies can reveal general ecological patterns. The plant system and disturbance agents in this study have wide geographic distributions in North America. More generally, the conclusions drawn about the interactions between animal behavior and the coexistence of species in restored communities will be applicable in numerous other systems that are dominated by animal disturbance. Complex interactions are difficult to study, but by imposing manipulations on a system under restoration, this investigation will yield important insights into the effect of initial conditions and disturbance regimes on the trajectory of community development.