The Formation and Influence of Spatially Structured Trophic Interactions in Primary Succession at Mount St. Helens

研究将研究营养相互作用(即摄食关系)如何通过自然生物入侵影响演替，在这种入侵中，本土植物(羽扇豆属)及其相关的专业食草动物正在重新定居圣海伦斯山。将努力量化营养相互作用动态的空间差异对初级演替的速度和模式的影响程度。这将提供一个独特的机会，在大范围内解开消费者与资源互动之间的复杂联系。事实上，圣海伦斯山的景观提供了一个独特但转瞬即逝的机会来研究草食动物在演替阶段之间的过渡。将详细回答三个问题。首先，在初级演替过程中，与羽扇豆斑块相关的资源或消费者梯度是否会驱动食草动物的空间结构动态？第二，羽扇豆属和羽扇豆属食草性植物是否会影响植物群落的动态？第三，这种复杂的三性再入侵是如何进展并影响初级演替的？这些详细的调查将构成一个关键的案例，研究寄生-草食-植物系统各组成部分的连续空间推进如何影响分析景观尺度上的物种变化动态。

Research will examine on how trophic interactions (i.e., feeding relationships) influence succession using a natural biological invasion in which a native plant (lupine) and its associated specialist herbivores are recolonizing Mount St. Helens. Efforts will quantify the extent to which spatial variation in the dynamics of trophic interactions influences the pace and pattern of primary succession. This will afford a unique opportunity to unravel complex connections between consumer-resource interactions over a large landscape. Indeed, the Mount St. Helens landscape provides a unique but fleeting opportunity to study an herbivore-mediated transition between successional phases. Three questions will be answered in detail. First, do resource or consumer gradients associated with patches of lupine drive spatially structured herbivore dynamics during primary succession? Second, do lupines and lupine herbivory affect the community dynamics of plants? Third, how is this complex tritrophic reinvasion progressing and influencing primary succession? The detailed investigations will constitute a key case study of how sequential spatial advance of components of a parasitoid-herbivore-plant system can influence the dynamics of species change at the landscape scale of analysis.