Collaborative Research: Elucidating the Mechanisms of Coexistance in Communities of Ant-plant Mutualists

合作研究：阐明蚁植物互利共存机制

• 批准号: 0452720
• 负责人: Brian Inouye
• 金额: $ 26万
• 依托单位: Florida State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-02-01 至 2010-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0452720&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Elucidating; Mechanisms; Coexistance

A major goal of ecology is to understand the factors promoting coexistence amongcompeting species. Chief among the hypothesized mechanisms is habitatheterogeneity, but alternatives include temporal fluctuations in resource availability,spatially restricted dispersal, and tradeoffs among fecundity, dispersal, and competitiveability. Only a handful of these mechanisms have ever been shown to operate in thefield, and experimental tests simultaneously evaluating multiple mechanisms are rare.The proposed study will evaluate alternative coexistence mechanisms in an emergingmodel system in community ecology - ants that compete to establish colonies inspecialized plant structures known as domatia. Three species of ants colonize thedomatia of the Amazonian trees Tococa bullifera and Maieta guianensis. Using thissystem, non-mutually exclusive mechanisms that may promote ant coexistance will betested with a combination of field observations, manipulative experiments, andmathematical models. Because this system is composed of two specialists that coexistwith a generalist on two resources, our results could provide unique insights into theevolution of specialization in ecological communities. The project will provide ampleopportunities for students at multiple stages of their academic careers to developresearch, modeling, and mentorship skills. Furthermore, the collaborating PI's are atinstitutions with large minority enrollments, which will allow them to continue mentoringstudents from underrepresented groups. Finally, this project will strengthen a dynamicand productive international collaboration, and allow US students to gain their firstexperience working in Amazonian ecosystems.

生态学的一个主要目标是了解促进竞争物种共存的因素。假设的机制中的主要是habitatheteropathy，但替代品包括时间波动的资源可用性，空间限制的扩散，以及繁殖力，扩散和竞争力之间的权衡。这些机制中只有少数被证明在野外发挥作用，同时评估多种机制的实验测试也很罕见。这项拟议中的研究将评估社区生态学中一个新兴模型系统中的替代共存机制--蚂蚁在被称为domatia的专门植物结构中竞争建立殖民地。三种蚂蚁定居在亚马逊河流域的树木Tococabullifera和Maieta guianensis的领地上。利用这个系统，可以促进蚂蚁共存的非互斥机制将被测试与现场观察，操作实验和数学模型相结合。由于该系统由两个专家和一个通才组成，因此我们的研究结果可以为生态群落专业化的演化提供独特的见解。该项目将为处于学术生涯多个阶段的学生提供充分的机会，以发展研究，建模和指导技能。此外，合作PI的机构有大量的少数民族入学，这将使他们能够继续指导学生从代表性不足的群体。最后，该项目将加强充满活力和富有成效的国际合作，并让美国学生获得在亚马逊生态系统中工作的第一次经验。