Collaborative Research: Habitat Specialization and the Community Assembly of Amazonian Tree Lineages

合作研究：栖息地专业化和亚马逊树系的群落大会

• 批准号: 0743103
• 负责人: Christopher Baraloto
• 金额: $ 19.95万
• 依托单位: University of Florida
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-04-01 至 2012-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0743103&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Habitat; Specialization; Community

Tropical forests are extremely diverse. One can find more than 1000 species of trees within a few square miles in many areas. For comparison, the entire U.S. contains about 600 species. It is also common to find many closely-related species in close proximity, despite predictions that close relatives should share similar traits and therefore competitively exclude one another. One phenomenon that may explain this pattern is that species composition can change dramatically with habitat. This idea will be tested by studying five common and diverse tree lineages that occur in three distinct forest types, surveying all of their species across large areas of Peru and French Guiana. Floras of both countries are highly diverse yet share very few species; this allows a powerful, replicated test of habitat specialization. DNA will be used to construct phylogenies of these five lineages to test if close relatives are generally found in different environments. Finally, a reciprocal transplant experiment will help determine whether closely related tree species share traits that confer flood tolerance, nutrient use efficiency, and defenses against natural enemies, and how these traits benefit survival in each habitat. This project will determine the relationship between environmental heterogeneity, habitat specialization and species coexistence. The results will have importance to policy makers interested in conserving the forests with the highest biodiversity on Earth. The project will provide research opportunities for students within U.S. institutions and will also foster international exchange among the three countries by including Guianan and Peruvian students.

热带森林是非常多样化的。 人们可以在许多地区的几平方英里内找到1000多种树木。 相比之下，整个美国约有600种。尽管预测近亲应该具有相似的特征，因此竞争性地排斥彼此，但发现许多密切相关的物种非常接近也很常见。可以解释这种模式的一个现象是，物种组成可以随着栖息地的变化而发生显着变化。 这一想法将通过研究发生在三种不同森林类型中的五种常见和不同的树木谱系进行测试，调查秘鲁和法属圭亚那大片地区的所有物种。 这两个国家的植物区系是高度多样化的，但共享很少的物种，这使得一个强大的，重复的栖息地专业化测试。 DNA将用于构建这五个谱系的系统发育，以测试是否通常在不同环境中发现近亲。 最后，一个相互移植实验将有助于确定是否密切相关的树种共享特性，赋予洪水耐受性，养分利用效率和防御天敌，以及这些特性如何有利于在每个栖息地的生存。该项目将确定环境异质性、生境专门化和物种共存之间的关系。研究结果将对有兴趣保护地球上生物多样性最高的森林的决策者具有重要意义。该项目将为美国机构的学生提供研究机会，并将通过包括圭亚那和秘鲁学生在内的方式促进三国之间的国际交流。