Research starter grant

研究启动补助金

• 批准号: 0217670
• 负责人: Blair Wolf
• 金额: $ 3.5万
• 依托单位: University of New Mexico
• 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: 2002-08-15 至 2003-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0217670&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Research; starter; grant

Large columnar cacti, such as the saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea), are prominent features of many ecosystems. Because of their extensive distribution and abundant production of large succulent fruit they play an important role in structuring food webs and ecosystems. This research assesses the importance of the saguaro's fruit as a food and water resource to a desert bird community in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona and Mexico. Naturally occurring carbon and hydrogen stable isotope signatures of the saguaro's fruit are used to track the movement of nutrients and water from the plant into the bird community. This project will provide new insight the role of cacti as consumer resources in arid and semi-arid ecosystems and provide direct measurements of frugivory and nutrient transfer rates between the saguaro and animals that consume its fruits.

大型柱状仙人掌，如仙人掌，是许多生态系统的显著特征。由于其广泛的分布和大量生产的大型多汁水果，他们在构建食物网和生态系统中发挥着重要作用。这项研究评估了在亚利桑那州和墨西哥的索诺兰沙漠中，仙人掌果实作为食物和水资源对沙漠鸟类群落的重要性。天然存在的碳和氢稳定同位素标志的仙人掌的果实被用来跟踪运动的营养物质和水从植物进入鸟类群落。该项目将为仙人掌在干旱和半干旱生态系统中作为消费资源的作用提供新的见解，并提供直接测量仙人掌和食用其果实的动物之间的食果性和营养转移率。