Dissertation Research: Ant Diversity in a Tropical Ecosystem Following Compound Disturbance: Agricultural Conversion Followed by a Hurricane

0073107动力了解大规模干扰对自然群落的影响是群落生态学家的一个主要目标，对成功地保护热带森林也很重要。飓风可以对热带森林的结构产生深远的影响。虽然有研究调查植物群落对飓风的反应，但很少有研究调查动物群落的反应。这项拟议中的研究将调查飓风对一种具有重要生态意义的动物群体--蚂蚁的影响。蚂蚁是许多热带系统中数量最多的动物，它们对生态系统功能有许多影响。尽管它们很重要，但人们对它们对飓风的反应知之甚少。拟议的研究将包括在一系列亚热带森林栖息地进行实地监测和实地实验。栖息地属于农业干扰和恢复的连续体。这些地块从1993年废弃的牧场到没有干扰记录的成熟森林。两个主要目标是记录社区对飓风和农业干扰的反应，并调查飓风可能作用于蚂蚁社区的机制。研究结果将增加我们对动物群落对复合大扰动的反应及其长期恢复潜力的理解。

0073107PowerUnderstanding the impacts of large disturbances on natural communities is a major goal for community ecologists and is important for successful tropical forest conservation. Hurricanes can have profound effects on the structuring of tropical forests. Although there are studies investigating the response of plant communities to hurricanes, few studies have investigated the response of faunal communities. This proposed research will investigate the effects of a hurricane on an ecologically important animal group, the ants. Ants are the most abundant animals in many tropical systems and they have many effects on ecosystem functioning. Despite their importance, little is known about their response to hurricanes.The proposed research will consist of field monitoring and a field experiment in a series of sub-tropical forest habitats. The habitats fall on a continuum of agricultural disturbance and recovery. The plots range from pastures abandoned in 1993 to mature forest with no record of disturbance. Two primary goals are to document the community response to the hurricane and agricultural disturbances and to investigate a mechanism by which the hurricane may act on the ant community. Research results will increase our understanding of faunal community response to compounded large disturbances and their potential for long term recovery.