How Do Communities Assemble? The Influence of Local Conditions and Regional Processes on Community Composition

DEB - 0194634 ChaseHow do communities assemble？ 当地条件和区域过程对群落组成的影响。相似的群落是否在相似的地点发展？ 如果当地的条件，如初级生产力或干扰率，是最重要的社区集会，那么我们预计，社区组成的网站具有类似的当地条件将收敛到单一的社区状态，在该环境中的青睐。 或者，如果区域过程，例如物种在一个元社区内殖民一个地方的速度，以及它们这样做的顺序，更强烈地驱动社区组装，那么我们可以预期，在类似地点发展的社区将朝着多个社区状态之一分化。 在这个项目中，PI将进行一个长期的实验，旨在辨别当地条件和区域过程对元社区组装的影响。 这项研究将提供一些最全面的证据，以审查当地和区域规模的过程中，在不同的环境中确定社区结构的相对作用。 此外，对社区集会的基本理解是本项目的重点，这将直接关系到恢复退化生态系统的概念基础。

DEB - 0194634 ChaseHow do communities assemble? The influence of local conditions and regional processes on community composition.Do similar communities develop at similar sites? If local conditions, such as the primary productivity or disturbance rate, are of primary importance in community assembly, then we expect that community composition at sites with similar local conditions would converge towards the single community state favored in that environment. Alternatively, if regional processes, such as the rate at which species colonize a locality within a meta-community, and the order in which they do so, more strongly drive community assembly, then we might expect that communities developing at similar sites would diverge towards one of multiple community states. In this project, the PI will perform a long term experiment designed to discern between the influences of local conditions and regional processes on meta-community assembly. This research will provide some of the most comprehensive evidence to date examining the relative roles of local and regional scale processes in determining community structure in different environments. Further, the basic understanding of community assembly that is the focus of this project will directly relate to the conceptual foundation for the restoration of degraded ecosystems.