CRB: Vole-driven Change in Tallgrass Dominance

CRB：田鼠驱动的高草优势地位变化

• 批准号: 0129081
• 负责人: Henry Howe
• 金额: $ 11.03万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Chicago
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-03-01 至 2007-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0129081&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CRB; Vole; driven; Change; Tallgrass

Howe0129081Experimental restoration uses land reclamation techniques to test fundamental ecological theory and thereby inform management practices. This work will maintain an existing example of a grassland restoration to (1) monitor vole-driven changes in plant dominance over enough time to distinguish among several possible outcomes; (2) determine whether initial changes in standing crop are persistent or transient, and (3) determine whether vole-driven effects produce persistent increases or decreases in plant richness and diversity. Initial results to date raise the following issues: (1) Will the established vole-driven change in plant dominance result in the promotion of a new single dominant species? (2) Will initial reductions in apparent aboveground productivity persist? (3) Will vole-driven changes increase or decrease diversity? If voles effectively replace a palatable grass with a distasteful single large dicot species, such as Rudbeckia, community aspect will change but apparent productivity and diversity may not. If smaller clonal dicots become co-dominants aspect will change, standing crop will decline, and plant diversity may increase. The outcomes of these questions are compelling for understanding the origins and maintenance of tallgrass communities because they would not simply be incremental changes in relative abundance of species. Within the limits of the experimental set of species, they could amount to rodent-driven changes in fundamental properties of the communities. This is a known and understood possibility for ungulate effects on tallgrass communities, but the potential for rodents to have effects of similar magnitude is not widely recognized.

实验性恢复利用土地复垦技术来测试基本生态理论，从而为管理实践提供信息。这项工作将保持现有的草原恢复的例子，以（1）监测田鼠驱动的植物优势的变化，在足够的时间来区分几种可能的结果;（2）确定在现存作物的初始变化是持久的或短暂的，（3）确定田鼠驱动的影响是否产生持久的增加或减少植物丰富度和多样性。迄今为止的初步结果提出了以下问题：（1）将建立田鼠驱动的植物优势的变化会导致促进一个新的单一的优势种？(2)表观地上生产力的最初下降会持续下去吗？(3)野鼠驱动的变化会增加还是减少多样性？如果田鼠有效地用一种令人讨厌的单一大型双子叶植物物种（如Rudbeckia）取代一种可口的草，那么群落的面貌将发生变化，但表观生产力和多样性可能不会发生变化。如果较小的无性系双子叶植物成为共优势植物，则会改变其外貌，现存量会下降，植物多样性会增加。这些问题的结果是令人信服的理解高草群落的起源和维护，因为他们不会简单地在物种的相对丰富度的增量变化。在实验物种的范围内，它们可能相当于啮齿动物驱动的群落基本特性的变化。有蹄类动物对高草群落的影响是已知和理解的可能性，但啮齿类动物产生类似程度影响的可能性尚未得到广泛认识。