DISSERTATION RESEARCH: A Unified Explanation for Dominance and Relative Abundance: Integrating Competition Theory, Predation Theory, and Community Complexity

研究人员的目标是解释在占据美国东部废弃农田的本地植物群落中反复发现的一种广泛的植物物种优势模式。他们将测试一个简单而优雅的资源竞争理论(Tilman‘s R*)，该理论预测，任何群落中的优势物种都能够将最有限或最受欢迎的资源(即水、氮或光)减少到极低水平，导致其他物种的种群数量下降。这项研究还将试图确定食草动物和其他因素如何通过影响竞争植物物种利用有限资源的能力来改变竞争的结果。换句话说，研究人员将把许多已知影响植物群落结构(多样性、相对丰富度)的因素(即草食或疾病)的影响合并为一个简单的衡量标准：一个物种所需的资源量。如果成功，可以通过一种共同的货币(一种资源)来衡量复杂有机体群落中的多种过程，从而极大地提高预测变化的能力。广泛的影响：这项研究具有强大的生态和经济应用。预期的结果可能会影响控制和预测入侵物种传播的方法，为稀有和濒危物种的保护方法提供关键见解，并有助于预测栖息地恢复的成功。这项研究还有可能预测植物群落(自然的、农业的和商业的)将如何应对全球气候变化和其他人为影响导致的快速变化的资源制度。

The investigators aim to explain a broad-scale pattern of plant species dominance that is repeatedly found among native plant communities occupying abandoned agricultural fields of the eastern U.S. They will test a simple and elegant theory of resource competition (Tilman's R*) that predicts that the dominant species in any community is the species capable of reducing the most limiting, or sought after, resource (i.e. water, nitrogen, or light) to a critically low level, causing other species' populations to decline. This research will also attempt to determine how herbivores and other factors may alter the outcome of competition by affecting the ability of competing plant species to use the limiting resource. In other words, the investigators will combine the effects of numerous factors (i.e. herbivory or disease) known to influence plant community structure (diversity, relative abundance) into one simple measure: the amount of resource a species requires. If successful, multiple processes in complex communities of organisms can be measured via a common currency (a resource), greatly increasing the ability to predict change.Broader impacts: This research has strong ecological and economic applications. Prospective results may influence methods of controlling and predicting the spread of invasive species, provide key insights into conservation methods for rare and endangered species, and aid in predicting the success of habitat restoration. This research also has the potential to predict how plant communities (natural, agricultural, and commercial) will respond to rapidly changing resource regimes resulting from global climate change and other anthropogenic influences.