Collaborative Research: Niche and Neutral Controls over the Coexistence of Serpentine Annual Plants

合作研究：对蛇纹一年生植物共存的生态位和中立控制

• 批准号: 0743183
• 负责人: Janneke Hille Ris Lambers
• 金额: $ 7.73万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 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: 2008-03-15 至 2013-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0743183&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Niche; Neutral; Controls

The wide diversity of species found in ecological communities provides numerous ecosystem services to humankind. Yet scientists are only beginning to understand what factors maintain the diversity seen in plant communities. What keeps the fastest growing, most competitive plant from driving other species extinct? For a century, ecologists answered this question with "niche differences", where plant species differ in key ways that allow them to minimize competition. For example, different plants may take up water from different soil depths. Recently however, ecologists have come to recognize that species need not differ to coexist. In fact, identical species co-occur for long periods of time in mathematical models, raising an alternative hypothesis for coexistence. The principle investigators of this proposal have developed a novel framework for determining whether species differences underlie the biodiversity seen in plant communities. This framework relies on the fact that 'niche differences' give species advantages when they drop to low density, decreasing their probability of extinction and increasing diversity. The investigators will assess whether California annual plant species living on serpentine soils experience such advantages when rare. In so doing, they assess the role that niche differences play in maintaining diversity in this unique and diverse habitat. The broader impacts include the training of graduate students at two universities, the development of ecological teaching modules, outreach to students from underprivileged schools, and increased understanding of a habitat of conservation concern. The research will be among the first experimental studies addressing the role that species differences play in controlling biodiversity.

生态群落中物种的广泛多样性为人类提供了大量的生态系统服务。然而，科学家们才刚刚开始了解是什么因素维持了植物群落的多样性。是什么让生长最快、最具竞争力的植物不至于导致其他物种灭绝？一个世纪以来，生态学家用“生态位差异”来回答这个问题，即植物物种在关键方面存在差异，从而使它们能够最大限度地减少竞争。例如，不同的植物可能从不同的土壤深度吸收水分。然而最近，生态学家开始认识到，物种不需要有差异就可以共存。事实上，在数学模型中，相同的物种会长时间共存，这提出了共存的另一种假设。该提案的主要研究人员开发了一个新的框架，用于确定物种差异是否是植物群落生物多样性的基础。该框架依赖于这样一个事实：“生态位差异”在物种密度下降时赋予物种优势，从而降低物种灭绝的可能性并增加多样性。研究人员将评估生活在蛇纹石土壤上的加州一年生植物物种在稀有时是否具有这种优势。在此过程中，他们评估了生态位差异在维持这个独特而多样化的栖息地的多样性方面所发挥的作用。更广泛的影响包括两所大学研究生的培训、生态教学模块的开发、对贫困学校学生的宣传以及对受保护栖息地的更多了解。该研究将是首批探讨物种差异在控制生物多样性中所发挥的作用的实验研究之一。