Collaborative research: Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in plant-grazer systems: experimental tests in a marine benthic community

维持生物多样性和依赖于它的生态系统过程是保护生物学的关键目标，也是社会关注的重大问题。 在陆地生境中有影响力的研究表明，一些生态系统过程与植物多样性有关。然而，在海洋生态系统中，植物多样性与功能之间的联系仍然研究得很少。此外，消费者在调节初级生产和群落结构方面发挥着核心作用，特别是在海洋中。但是，消费者多样性在调节植物多样性和生产关系以及其他重要的生态系统过程中的重要性对任何系统都知之甚少。随着人类对海洋生境的干扰越来越多，发生前所未有的破坏的可能性越来越大，迫切需要了解海洋动植物的特性和多样性的功能作用。 本研究项目将解决上述问题，使用不同的组合海洋大型藻类及其食草动物，包括端足类，等足类，腹足类，海胆，螃蟹，鱼类，在中围生态系统和现场实验在北卡罗来纳州。藻类和消费者身份和多样性的因子操纵，以及资源可用性（即，养分和光照），将测试这些因素对初级和次级生产力，个人和社区的相对独立和相互作用的影响？广泛的消费率。这个系统的几个特点使它特别容易处理的这项研究，包括详细了解其自然历史和生态。具体而言，本项目将解决以下五个问题：1）藻类的身份和多样性如何影响净初级生产力？ 2)藻类的特性和多样性如何影响个体和整体？社区消费率和次级生产？ 3)消费者身份和多样性如何影响净初级生产？ 4)在控制净初级生产力方面，植物和食草动物的特性和多样性的相对独立和相互作用的影响是什么？ 5)植物多样性和草食性如何与资源有效性相互作用以控制净初级生产力？ 这些相互作用的因素的相对重要性是什么？这将是第一个研究，以测试物种多样性对生态系统特性的影响，使用现场操作的海洋社区，在任何系统中的少数研究之一，同时考虑猎物和消费者多样性的作用，在因子设计。在这样做的过程中，这项研究将直接测试植物多样性对生态系统过程的广泛宣传的影响是如何通过消费者压力的现实水平而改变的。 该研究计划还汇集了三位主要研究人员，他们在实验底栖海洋生态学，恢复和景观生态学以及大型植物，鱼类和无脊椎动物生物学方面具有互补优势。该研究符合NSF生物海洋学计划的海洋系统生物多样性特别主题。研究结果将帮助生态学家和政策制定者了解物种多样性持续丧失的潜在后果，通过帮助明智地保护类似系统，可能造福社会。此外，该项目还将在教育和培训方面产生更广泛的影响，为各种教育水平（从本科到博士后科学家）和背景的青年科学家提供研究机会，包括在科学领域代表性不足的群体。研究结果将通过在顶级期刊上发表的文章进行传播，并通过在非？技术杂志、我们的网站和公共研讨会。

The maintenance of biological diversity and the ecosystem processes dependent on it are key goals of conservation biology and are issues of great societal concern. Influential research in terrestrial habitats has shown that several ecosystem processes are related to plant diversity. Yet links between plant diversity and function remain poorly studied in marine ecosystems. Moreover, consumers play central roles in regulating primary production and community structure, particularly in the oceans. But the importance of consumer diversity in mediating plant diversity and production relationships as well as other important ecosystem processes is poorly known for any system. With increasing human perturbation of marine habitats and the growing likelihood of unprecedented extinctions, there is a pressing need to understand the functional roles of the identity and diversity of marine plants and animals. This research project will address the foregoing issues using a diverse assemblage of marine macroalgae and their herbivores, including amphipods, isopods, gastropods, urchins, crabs, and fish, in mesocosm and field experiments in North Carolina. Factorial manipulations of algal and consumer identity and diversity, as well as resource availability (i.e., nutrients and light), will test the relative independent and interactive effects of these factors on primary and secondary productivity, and individual and community?wide consumption rates. Several characteristics of this system make it exceptionally tractable for this study, including a detailed understanding of its natural history and ecology. Specifically, this project will address the following five questions: 1) How do algal identity and diversity affect net primary production? 2) How do algal identity and diversity affect individual and whole?community consumption rates and secondary production? 3) How do consumer identity and diversity affect net primary production? 4) What are the relative independent and interactive effects of plant and herbivore identity and diversity in controlling net primary production? 5) How do plant diversity and herbivory interact with resource availability to control net primary production? What is the relative importance of these interacting factors?This will be one of the first studies to test the effects of species diversity on ecosystem properties using field manipulations in a marine community, and one of the few studies in any system to consider simultaneously the roles of prey and consumer diversity in a factorial design. In doing so this research will directly test how the widely publicized effects of plant diversity on ecosystem processes are altered through realistic levels of consumer pressure. This research program also brings together three principle investigators with complementary strengths in experimental benthic marine ecology, restoration and landscape ecology, and specializations in macrophyte, fish, and invertebrate biology. The research fits within the Biological Diversity in Marine Systems special theme of emphasis of the NSF Biological Oceanography Program. The results will help ecologists and policy makers understand the potential consequences of the ongoing loss of species diversity, potentially benefiting society by helping to wisely conserve similar systems. In addition, this project will have broader impacts in education and training by providing research opportunities to young scientists at a range of educational levels (from undergraduate to postdoctoral scientists) and backgrounds, including groups that are underrepresented in science. Results will be disseminated through publications in top journals, and to the general public through articles in non?technical magazines, our web sites, and public seminars.