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

虽然细根是生态系统碳循环的关键组成部分，但土壤资源与根系之间的相互作用通常没有考虑与根系食草动物及其天敌的潜在相互作用。通过田间和温室试验，研究了美国东南部早期演替森林资源有效性、资源异质性和根系食草性对地上、地下生物量和初步竞争结果的影响。初步数据表明，草食动物在这一系统中发挥了重要作用，根系草食动物对小尺度（50cm 2）资源丰富的斑块有强烈的积极响应。这可能会对优先在这些斑块中觅食的植物物种产生强烈的负面影响，同时允许不那么积极觅食的植物物种在竞争中被淘汰的地方生存。

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.