Collaborative Research: A Role for Insect Herbivores in Plant Population Growth and Regulation: Density Manipulations and Demographic Models

了解控制植物种群规模的因素对于我们对自然的基本理解和发展控制杂草和入侵植物的方法是重要的。生态学家同意，植物往往是有限的竞争与其他植物物种的资源。然而，关于吃植物的昆虫（食草动物）在控制植物种群方面的重要性存在争议。以前的测试的影响，食草动物只考虑在低密度条件下对植物繁殖的影响，并没有考虑到如何影响食草动物的变化与植物密度。本研究将利用田间试验结合数学模型，以确定在一定的种植密度范围内，植食性昆虫对杂草植物种群增长的影响。 入侵植物和杂草在美国造成了巨大的经济和环境成本。许多注意力集中在使用生物控制剂，特别是昆虫食草动物，以控制这些植物。这种方法假设食草动物强烈影响植物种群。该项目将提供迄今为止对这一假设的最完整的检验。它还将帮助培训新的科学家，让学生担任助手（学习研究技术、数据分析和计算机编程）和独立研究人员（学习设计研究和提出结果）。

Knowing the factors that control plant population size is important for our basic understanding of nature and for developing methods for controlling weedy and invasive plants. Ecologists agree that plants are often limited by competition with other plant species for resources. However there is debate about how important insects that eat plants (herbivores) are in controlling plant populations. Previous tests of the influence of herbivores have considered only effects on plant reproduction under low-density conditions and have not accounted for how the influence of herbivores changes with plant density. This study will use field experiments coupled with mathematical models to determine the influence of insect herbivores on the population growth of a weedy plant over a range of plant densities. Invasive and weedy plants impose enormous economic and environmental costs in the USA. Much attention has focused on using bio-control agents, particularly insect herbivores, to control these plants. This approach assumes that herbivores strongly affect plant populations. This project will provide the most complete test of this assumption to date. It will also help train new scientists, involving students as assistants (learning research techniques, data analysis and computer programming), and as independent researchers (learning to design studies, and present results).