Competition for Biotic Resources and Coexistence in Variable Environments

生物资源的竞争与多变环境中的共存

• 批准号: 0640416
• 负责人: Lin Jiang
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Georgia Tech Research Corporation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-02-15 至 2009-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0640416&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Competition; Biotic; Resources; Coexistence; Variable

Competition is a central force shaping ecological communities. Classic competition theory predicts that the number of species that can coexist should be no more than the number of resources that are in limited supply. Natural communities, however, often harbor a large number of species, despite the typically small number of resources in limited supply. For example, one ha of Panamanian rainforest supports 18,000 species of beetle. How could such a large number of specie possibly coexist in nature without facing extinction? Ecologists have proposed a myriad of hypotheses explaining this discrepancy between theory and data. This project will experimentally test some of these hypotheses. The research will examine the consequence of changes in resource availability over time and the consequences of changes in resource availability across space for species coexistence. Work will be conducted in laboratory microbial microcosms containing bacteria-feeding single-celled protists and their bacterial resources. Results from this project will help scientists understand mechanisms of maintenance of species diversity in natural communities. Further, this project will contribute to educational outreach by training graduate and undergraduate students (including underrepresented minority students), providing case studies for undergraduate ecology courses, and facilitating science learning among K-12 students.

竞争是形成生态群落的核心力量。经典的竞争理论预言，能够共存的物种数量不应该超过有限供应的资源数量。然而，自然群落往往拥有大量的物种，尽管资源通常很少，供应有限。例如，一公顷的巴拿马雨林供养着18000种甲虫。这么多的物种怎么可能在自然界中共存而不面临灭绝？生态学家提出了无数的假设来解释理论和数据之间的差异。这个项目将通过实验检验其中的一些假设。本研究将探讨资源可得性随时间变化的后果，以及资源可得性跨空间变化对物种共存的影响。工作将在实验室微生物微环境中进行，其中包含以细菌为食的单细胞原生生物及其细菌资源。这个项目的结果将帮助科学家了解自然群落中物种多样性的维持机制。此外，该项目将通过培训研究生和本科生（包括代表性不足的少数民族学生），为本科生态学课程提供案例研究，促进K-12学生的科学学习，从而促进教育推广。