Collaborative Research: Species Diversity and Abundance in Insular Systems

这项赠款利用小岛屿作为模型系统来了解生态系统是如何运作的。小岛屿结构简单，数量众多，便于解释和统计复制。主要目标是确定大型掠食性物种的影响，集中研究该物种如何影响中级掠食性物种，并通过它影响食物网的较低层次，如其他掠食性动物、食草动物和植物。虽然许多种类的影响将被研究，但一个特别的焦点是自然选择如何改变中间捕食者的特征，进而改变后者如何影响较低水平。将继续开发灭绝模型，并用实地数据进行测试。我们将确定研究地点的动物、植物和栖息地从飓风中恢复的速度和程度。这项拨款的部分目的是建立广泛的生态原则，其成果也具有重要的应用价值。这些措施包括提高农业生态系统的产量，预测生物入侵的后果，评估飓风的破坏和恢复潜力，以及保护物种和栖息地。这项拨款对教育推广，特别是本科生的教育推广作出了重要贡献，使他们有可能直接参与实地和实验室研究。

This grant uses small islands as a model system to understand how ecological systems work. Small islands are simple and numerous, facilitating interpretation and statistical replication. A major goal is to determine the effects of a large predatory species, concentrating on how that species affects an intermediate predatory species, and through it,lower levels of the food web such as other predators, herbivores and plants. While many kinds of effects will be studied, a particular focus is how natural selection changes traits of the intermediate predator, in turn modifying how the latter affects lower levels. Models of extinction will continue to be developed and tested with field data. The speed and extent of recovery from hurricanes will be ascertained for the animals, plants and habitat in our study sites. Results of this grant, which seeks in part to establish broad ecological principles, also have important applications. These include improving yield from agroecosystems, predicting consequences of biological invasions, assessing hurricane damage and potential for recovery, and preserving species and habitat. The grant contributes importantly to educational outreach, particularly of undergraduates, by making possible their direct participation in field and laboratory studies.