Dissertation Research: The Ecological and Evolutionary Significance of Interaction Modification in Ant-phorid Interactions

0104946 - D。费纳和爱德华·勒布伦决定哪些物种生活在特定地区的因素以及这些物种的相对丰度只有部分了解。 我们的大部分知识都来自于研究物种间的相互作用。 间接效应是第二类物种间的相互作用，一个物种通过与第三个物种的相互作用影响第二个物种，也可以影响群落结构。 蚤蝇对工蚁的寄生改变了被蚤蝇攻击的蚂蚁与其他蚂蚁之间竞争性相互作用的结果。 寄生的结果是，通常会输给被寄生物种的物种获胜。 竞争互动结果的这种变化构成了一种间接效应，可能对竞争蚂蚁群落的结构产生强烈影响。初步调查已经揭示了与这一过程有关的其他间接影响。 这项拟议中的研究将在亚利桑那州东南部进行，将量化蚤蝇寄生对宿主蚂蚁的间接影响，并确定间接影响如何改变竞争蚂蚁之间相互作用的结果。 目标是：1）量化寄生对宿主蚂蚁与非寄生物种竞争能力的影响; 2）确定竞争对手是否从寄生导致的宿主失去的食物资源中受益; 3）测试理论的有效性，预测寄生对竞争相互作用的结果有多强。 这项工作是重要的，因为它将提供第一个详细的调查如何强烈的间接影响，修改物种之间的相互作用的影响的身份和丰富的竞争群体的物种。 它将直接解决这种影响的可预测性问题。 它将扩大我们的理解如何当地共存的蚂蚁物种，一个非常重要的生态群体，组装和如何蚤状寄生虫影响这一过程。最后，它将提高我们预测使用蚤蝇在生物控制蚂蚁入侵物种方面的效果的能力。

0104946 - D. Feener and Edward LeBrunThe factors that determine which species live in a particular area and the relative abundance of those species are only partially understood. Much of our knowledge is derived from studying pairs of species interacting. Indirect effects, a second category of species interactions in which one species affects a second via its interactions with a third, can also influence community structure. Parasitism of worker ants by phorid flies changes the outcome of competitive interactions between the ant species attacked by the fly and other ant species. The result of parasitism is that the species that would normally lose to the parasitized species wins. This change in the outcome of competitive interactions constitutes an indirect effect that potentially has a strong influence on the structure of the community of competing ants. Preliminary investigation has already revealed additional indirect effects relevant to this process. The proposed research, to be conducted in Southeastern Arizona, will quantify the indirect effects that parasitism by phorid flies has on the host ant and determine how the indirect effects change the outcome of interactions between competing ants. The goals are to: 1) quantify the effect of parasitism on the ability of the host ant to compete with non-parasitized species; 2) determine whether competitors benefit from food resources lost by the host as a result of parasitism; 3) test the validity of a theory predicting how strongly the outcome of competitive interactions will be modified by parasitism. This effort is important because it will provide the first detailed investigation into how strongly indirect effects that modify interactions between species effect the identity and abundance of competing groups of species. It will directly address the predictability of this impact. It will expand our understanding of how locally co-existing groups of ant species, an extremely ecologically important group, are assembled and how phorid parasitoids impact this process. Finally, it will increase our ability to predict the efficacy of using phorid flies in efforts to biologically control invasive species of ants.