OPUS: Control Processes and Interaction Pathways in Terrestrial Food Webs

营养级联是捕食者发起的相互作用途径，对食物网产生间接影响，可以影响基本生态系统过程的速率，例如植物生产力和落叶分解。理论预测，陆地食物网中通才捕食者的高度多样性会严重抑制涉及营养级联的控制过程。 PI 研究计划的一些结果支持这些预测，而其他研究结果未能证实理论。通过利用多种统计技术来综合和整合实验结果，拟议的研究将确定营养级联的主要途径，并揭示气候变量的变化如何影响涉及这些途径的控制过程。研究产生的科学见解与当代社会面临的几个挑战直接相关：（1）了解生物多样性和食物网动态之间的关系，这对于制定生物多样性保护计划至关重要； (2) 了解如何利用多面性捕食者来控制农业害虫，从而减少对农药的依赖； (3) 了解气候变化如何影响物种相互作用，从而改变森林生态系统中的凋落物分解和养分循环。该研究将通过将统计学研究生引入当代生态研究来加强科学基础设施。

Trophic cascades, which are predator-initiated interaction pathways producing indirect effects in food webs, can influence rates of basic ecosystem processes such as plant productivity and leaf-litter decomposition. Theory predicts that the high diversity of generalist predators in terrestrial food webs should severely dampen control processes involving trophic cascades. Some results of the PI's research program support these predictions, whereas other findings fail to confirm theory. By utilizing several statistical techniques to synthesize and integrate experimental results, the proposed research will identify major pathways of trophic cascades and reveal how variation in climatic variables may affect control processes involving these pathways. The scientific insights generated by the research relate directly to several challenges facing contemporary society: (1) understanding how biodiversity and food-web dynamics are related, which is critical to developing programs in biodiversity conservation; (2) understanding how generalist predators can be utilized to control insect pests in agriculture, leading to reduced reliance on pesticides; and (3) understanding how changes in climate may affect species interactions that alter litter decomposition and nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems. The research will strengthen the infrastructure of science by introducing a graduate student in statistics to contemporary ecological research.