Dissertation Research: Influence of Priority Effects on Community Assembly in Fragmented Habitats

优先效应（英语：Priority effects），即已经存在于群落中的物种对后来到达的物种成功定居的影响，在生态群落的形成（群落组装）过程中很重要。 由于栖息地日益破碎化，重要的是要了解优先效应的影响是否可以在不同地点推广。 拟议中的研究将在一个模型系统中考察优先效应：栖息在亚利桑那州杂酚油灌木丛中的昆虫和蜘蛛群落。 实验将在两种生境类型中进行（即，以前的研究发现，这些地区在破碎化程度、多样性、扰动后的恢复以及对优先效应的反应方面各不相同。 研究将调查两个掠夺性先驱殖民者对社区恢复的影响，并确定在社区集会中可以检测到多长时间的优先效应。 这种社区生态学的方法将说明物种组装过程中的初始条件的重要性，这将有助于恢复生态学家在破碎的栖息地工作。

Priority effects - influences of species already present in a community on the successful colonization by later arriving species - are important during the formation of ecological communities (community assembly). Because of increasing habitat fragmentation, it is important to understand whether the influence of priority effects can be generalized across locations. The proposed research examines priority effects in a model system: insect and spider communities inhabiting creosote bush in Arizona. Experiments will be conducted in two habitat types (i.e., desert remnants and outlying desert areas) that previous research found to differ in degree of fragmentation, diversity, recovery following disturbance, and response to priority effects. Research will investigate the influence of two predatory pioneer colonists on community recovery and determine how long priority effects are detectable in community assembly. This approach to community ecology will illustrate the importance of initial conditions during species assembly that will be useful to restoration ecologists working in fragmented habitats.