Element Linkage and Growth-Competition Tradeoffs in Freshwater Zooplankton

淡水浮游动物的元素联系和生长竞争权衡

• 批准号: 0344228
• 负责人: Jacques Finlay
• 金额: $ 33.71万
• 依托单位: University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-03-15 至 2011-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0344228&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Element; Linkage; Growth; Competition; Tradeoffs

This project will explore a new and general model that ties together three parameters - an organism's growth rate, its elemental composition, and a new parameter referred to as catalysis power - to predict that there will be a tradeoff between growth rate and competitive ability when the concentration of one element controls changes in another. The model, called the Elemental Linkage Model, is highly general and makes a single assumption - that organisms maintain balanced growth or equal specific rates of change of all elements within organism biomass. Considerable previous work on phosphorus concentrations in freshwater zooplankton supports the application of the Element Linkage model to these organisms. This project will focus on the growth-competition tradeoff the model predicts. Food threshold experiments (to measure growth rates) and competition trials will be initiated using seventeen species of cladoceran zooplankton and six clones of one species to compare predictions of the Elemental Linkage Model at several taxonomic levels. These comparisons will be used to detect interspecific growth-competition tradeoffs, which the linkage model predicts will occur on low-P but not high-P foods. These experiments explore thoroughly this tradeoff using an otherwise well-known experimental system and extend the application of stoichiometric (nutrient abundances and ratios) models to competitive interactions. Broader impacts of the research will be to advance a potentially important new model in ecology. Career and educational opportunities will be generated for the PI, a graduate student, a technician and extended to undergraduates and high school teachers, who will participate in the project via ongoing University of Minnesota initiatives.

该项目将探索一种新的通用模型，该模型将三个参数-有机体的生长速度、其元素组成和一个被称为催化能力的新参数-联系在一起，以预测当一种元素的浓度控制另一种元素的变化时，增长速度和竞争力之间将存在权衡。这个模型被称为元素联动模型，具有很高的通用性，并且只做了一个假设--生物体保持平衡的生长或生物体生物量内所有元素的相同的比变化率。之前大量关于淡水浮游动物磷浓度的工作支持将元素链接模型应用于这些生物。该项目将关注该模型预测的增长与竞争之间的权衡。将使用17种枝角类浮游动物和一个物种的6个克隆启动食物阈值实验(以测量生长速度)和竞争试验，以比较元素链接模型在几个分类水平上的预测。这些比较将被用来检测物种间的生长-竞争权衡，链接模型预测这种权衡将发生在低磷食品上，但不会发生在高磷食品上。这些实验使用一个众所周知的实验系统彻底探索了这一权衡，并将化学计量(营养丰度和比率)模型的应用扩展到竞争性相互作用。这项研究的更广泛影响将是推进一个潜在的重要的生态学新模型。将为研究生、技术员和本科生和高中教师创造职业和教育机会，他们将通过明尼苏达大学正在进行的倡议参与该项目。