COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Hot Today, Cold Tomorrow? Variable Persistence of Generalist Predator Hot Spots and the Dynamics of their Prey and Parasites

自然界并不是统一的：它对任何物种或过程都有“热点”和“冷点”。例如，在一个拥有中等密度的花栗鼠种群的森林斑块中，一些特定的地点（“热点”）比其他地方（“冷点”）更容易被花栗鼠访问。这些热点和冷点的存在可以影响疾病传播的速度，或者猎物物种是否灭绝等过程。这项研究进一步研究了这个问题，专门研究了热点和冷点的持续存在如何影响白足鼠和花栗鼠对它们的猎物（舞毒蛾和地面筑巢的鸟）和寄生虫（蜱虫和莱姆病细菌）的影响。将对这些啮齿动物种群进行操作，形成永久（3年）和临时（1年）的冷点，并比较两种处理方法之间猎物的存活率和蜱虫的感染率。这项研究将展示关键小型哺乳动物热点和冷点的持续存在如何影响人类健康（莱姆病风险）、森林健康（舞毒蛾爆发风险）和鸣禽的丰度。该项目将通过与教育工作者合作创建的网络资源为初等教育做出贡献，目标是6-12年级的学生。该项目还将为本科生和研究生提供研究培训。最后，这项研究将为加强生物害虫控制、保护稀有物种或减少疾病传播的努力提供信息。

Nature is not uniform: it shows "hot spots" and "cold spots" for any species or process. For example, in a forest patch with a moderately dense population of chipmunks, some particular sites ("hot spots") get visited by chipmunks much more often than others ("cold spots"). The existence of such hot and cold spots can affect processes such as how rapidly diseases are transmitted or whether or not a prey species goes extinct. This study takes the problem a step further, by specifically examining how the persistence of hot and cold spots affects the impact of white-footed mice and chipmunks on their prey (gypsy moths and ground-nesting birds) and parasites (ticks and Lyme disease bacteria). Populations of these rodents will be manipulated to create permanent (3 years) and temporary (1 year) cold spots, and survival of their prey and infection prevalence of ticks will be compared between the two treatments. The research will show how the persistence of hot and cold spots of pivotal small mammals affects human health (Lyme disease risk), forest health (gypsy moth outbreak risk), and abundance of songbirds. The project will contribute to primary education through a web-based resource created in collaboration with educators and targeted toward grades 6-12. The project will also provide research training for both undergraduate and graduate students. Finally, the research will inform efforts to enhance biological pest control, conserve rare species, or reduce spread of diseases.