Dissertation Enhancement: Impacts of a migratory detritivorous fish on nitrogen cycling in a tropical stream

这篇论文增强拨款支持布拉德利·泰勒在怀俄明大学罗伯特·O·霍尔的指导下，研究一种迁徙的有害鱼类对委内瑞拉热带溪流中氮循环的影响。该奖项支持在整合单一鱼类物种对氮循环多个组成部分的影响方面具有新颖性的研究。生态学家基本上感兴趣的是生物对生态系统结构和功能的影响程度。尽管物种多样性与植物类群生态系统功能之间的关系已经引起了很大的关注，但我们对动物如何影响生态系统功能的理解仍处于起步阶段。这项建议侧重于在热带安第斯溪流中潜在的强大相互作用的洄游鱼类，并建立在先前工作的基础上，以测试这种单一物种是否影响河流氮循环，河流氮循环是生态系统功能的基本组成部分。

This dissertation enhancement grant supports Bradley Taylor under the direction of Robert O. Hall of the University of Wyoming to study the impacts of a migratory detrivorous fish on nitrogen cycling in a tropical stream in Venezuela. This award supports research that is novel in integrating the impacts of a single fish species on multiple components of the nitrogen cycle. Ecologists are fundamentally interested in the degree to which organisms influence ecosystem structure and function. Although much attention has focused on the relationship between species diversity and ecosystem function for plant taxa, our understanding of how animals influence ecosystem function is still in its infancy.This proposal focuses on migratory fish (Prochilodus mariae) that is a potentially strong interactor in tropical Andean streams and builds on previous work to test whether this single species affects the stream nitrogen cycle, a fundamental component of ecosystem function.