Dissertation Research: Relationships Among Species Diversity, Site Fertility, Resource Heterogeneity, and Ecosystem Productivity in Plant Communities

物种多样性、场地肥力、资源异质性和植物群落生态系统生产力之间的关系生态系统生产力是生物产生生物量的速率，是人类所有食物、纤维和燃料的基本货币。最近，生态系统生产力已被证明受到生态系统所包含的物种数量的影响。然而，生产力也受到土壤肥力等环境因素的影响，而物种多样性在一系列环境条件下对生产力的影响尚不清楚。这个问题特别重要，因为在许多生态系统中，物种多样性和底层环境都在迅速变化，以响应人类的影响。在本研究中，研究者将进行一系列的野外实验来评估植物物种多样性和土壤肥力对生态系统生产力的相对影响。此外，本研究还包括操纵环境异质性（特别是土壤资源的斑块性）的实验，以检验物种多样性对生态系统生产力的影响是否会因环境复杂性而增强。

00-73237 Peet / Fridley DDIG: Relationships among species diversity, site fertility, resource heterogeneity, and ecosystem productivity in plant communities Ecosystem productivity, the rate at which organisms produce biomass, is the basic currency for all of humanity's food, fiber, and fuel. Recently, ecosystem productivity has been shown to be influenced by the number of species an ecosystem contains. However, productivity is also influenced by environmental factors such as soil fertility, and the influence of species diversity on productivity within the context of a range of environmental conditions is unknown. This issue is particularly important because in many ecosystems, both species diversity and the underlying environment are changing rapidly in response to human influence. In this research, the investigators will conduct a set of field experiments to assess the relative influences of plant species diversity and soil fertility on ecosystem productivity. In addition, the work includes experiments to manipulate environmental heterogeneity (specifically, the patchiness of soil resources) to examine whether the influence of species diversity on ecosystem productivity is enhanced by environmental complexity.