Phenotypic Plasticity Species Interactions and Indirect Effects in a Larval Anuran Community

0089809。厄尔·沃纳。多种物种相互作用，创造和维持自然群落。捕食者-猎物之间的相互作用可以间接影响营养级联、物种多样性和群落对外来入侵者的脆弱性。该项目建立并扩展了一个大量的数据库，收集了有齿食肉动物(Anax和Tramea)、牛蛙和绿色青蛙蝌蚪猎物之间的相互作用，以及蝌蚪所依赖的碎屑/附生植物资源。每一物种(如捕食者、猎物、寄生虫)在食物网中扮演着复杂的角色，并表现出受到与环境和群落中其他物种相互作用的影响的行为。了解这些相互作用是生态学最基本的目标之一。例如，捕食者之间的竞争会影响猎物的特征和行为，比如猎物的觅食速度。这种捕食者对猎物摄食行为的改变可能会对食物网的动态产生短期和长期的影响。为了研究这些群体间的相互作用，本项目将使用田间实验和模型来检验这一核心理论，即性状中介的间接相互作用(TMII)中的表型变异可以对社区产生深远的和意想不到的影响。该项目具有很强的理论和经验成分，并在多个时间和空间尺度上将建模与假设检验相结合。虽然这项工作的重点是捕食者如何影响食物网，但其基本原理适用于研究物种之间不同类型的功能关系。

0089809. Earl Werner. Interactions multiple species create and sustain natural communities. Trophic cascades, species diversity, and community vulnerability to exotic invaders can be indirectly influenced by predator-prey interactions. This project builds upon and extends a substantial database gathered on the interactions between odonate predators (Anax and Tramea), bullfrog and green frog tadpole prey, and the detritus/periphyton resources the tadpoles rely on. Each species (e.g., predator, prey, parasite) plays a complex role in food webs, and exhibits behaviors that are influenced by interactions with the environment, and with other species in the community. Understanding these interactions is one of the most fundamental objectives in ecology. For example, competition between predators can affect the traits and behaviors of prey, such as prey foraging rates. Such predator-mediated modifications of prey feeding behaviors can have short and long-term effects on food web dynamics. To investigate these community interactions, this project will use field experiments and modeling to test the central theory that phenotypic variation in trait-mediated indirect interactions (TMIIs) can have profound and unexpected effects on the community. This project has strong theoretical and empirical components and blends modeling with hypothesis testing at multiple temporal and spatial scales. Although this work is focused on how predators affect food webs, the underlying principles are applicable for investigating diverse types of functional relationships between species.