Dissertation Research: Interactions among Salamander and Arthropod Predators in Forest-Floor Food Webs

本研究探讨了在落叶林地面食物网中占据多个层次的生物之间的相互作用。 该提案的重点是利用实地和实验室实验相结合的方法，研究分类上不同的森林地面捕食者（蝾螈、蜈蚣、蜘蛛和甲虫）之间的相互作用。实验室实验将测试捕食者之间的相互作用，特别是行会内捕食，侵略和种间领土。在凯霍加谷国家公园（俄亥俄州）建立了捕食者清除区，以检验以下假设：清除森林地面捕食者将对其他捕食者产生影响，并降低食物链中的水平，包括食草动物、真菌和落叶分解率。 了解提供这种生态系统服务的生物体之间的相互作用是很有价值的，因为在不断变化的环境中，不确定哪些物种会在人类生境改变的情况下继续存在。 例如，目前两栖动物的减少预计将在我们的有生之年消灭大部分热带青蛙物种，但人们很大程度上不知道这些物种在热带生态系统中发挥着什么作用。 同样地，我们对两栖动物及其行会成员在温带网中的功能作用知之甚少。

This study examines the interactions among organisms occupying multiple levels in deciduous forest-floor food webs. The proposal focuses on interactions among taxonomically-divergent forest floor predators (salamanders, centipedes, spiders and beetles) using a combination of field and laboratory experiments. Laboratory experiments will test for interactions among predators, particularly intraguild predation, aggression and interspecific territoriality. Predator-removal plots have been established in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park (Ohio) to test the hypothesis that removal of forest-floor predators will have effects on other predators, and lower levels within the food chain, including detritivores, fungi, and rate of leaf litter decomposition.Forest-floor food webs are important in global nutrient cycling and the formation of healthy soils. Knowledge of interactions among organisms that provide such ecosystem services is valuable because, in a changing environment, it is uncertain which species will persist in the face of human habitat alteration. For example, the current amphibian decline is expected to claim the majority of tropical frog species in our lifetimes, but it is largely unknown what role these species play in tropical ecosystems. Likewise, little is known about functional roles that amphibians and their guild members play in temperate webs.