Theory for Community Dynamics in Spatially and Temporally Variable Environments

在空间和时间上竞争的物种的数学模型将使用分析、模拟和数值方法的结合来研究。三种特定类型的自然群落将形成本工作的重点：具有持久性种子库的一年生植物（特别是在干旱环境中发现的那些），通过营养方式在空间上传播的多年生草本植物，以及没有营养传播但在个体生命中有多次繁殖事件的长寿多年生生物（互操作性）。该研究将考察生命史特征，例如那些定义这些不同群落的特征，如何与空间和时间上的环境变化相互作用，并影响物种的共存，从而影响物种多样性的维持。除了区分上述系统的特征外，后代的扩散方式、扩散距离以及个体生物之间竞争的时空尺度也被认为是重要的因素。这项工作将扩展到空间领域，先前关于时间环境变化及其与生活史特征的相互作用在物种多样性维持中的作用的研究结果。

Peter Chesson DEB-9981926Mathematical models of species competing in space and time will bestudied using a combination of analytical, simulation, and numericalmethods. Three specific sorts of natural community will form foci ofthis work: annual plants with persistence seed banks (especially thosefound in arid environments), perennial herbs that spread spatially byvegetative means, and long-lived perennial organisms that do not havevegetative spread but have multiple reproductive events in the life ofan individual (iteroparity). The research will examine how life-historytraits, such as those defining these different communities, interactwith environmental variation in space and time and affect coexistence ofspecies and therefore affect maintenance of species diversity. Inaddition to the features distinguishing the above systems, importantfactors are expected to be mode of dispersal of offspring, distance ofdispersal, and spatial and temporal scales of competition betweenindividual organisms. This work will extend to the spatial domainprevious findings on the role of temporal environmental variation andits interactions with life-history traits on the maintenance of speciesdiversity.