DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Trophic Dynamics in the Fine-root Based Food Web: Integrating Resource Heterogeneity, Root Foraging, and Root Herbivory.

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While fine roots are a key component of ecosystem carbon cycling, interactionsbetween soil resources and roots are typically studied without considering potentialinteractions with root herbivores and their natural enemies. We propose to use field andgreenhouse experiments to investigate the influence of resource availability, resourceheterogeneity and root herbivory on above- and belowground biomass and preliminarycompetitive outcomes in early-successional southeastern U.S. forests. Preliminary datahas shown that herbivores play a strong role in this system, and demonstrated strongpositive responses of root herbivores to small-scale (50cm 2 ) resource-rich patches. This may have strong negative impacts on plant species that preferentially forage in such patches, while allowing less-aggressively foraging plant species to persist where they would otherwise be outcompeted.