From Individuals to Communities: Consequences of Ontogenetic Functional Diversity for Community Structure and Functioning

从个人到社区：个体发生功能多样性对社区结构和功能的影响

• 批准号: 0841686
• 负责人: Volker Rudolf
• 金额: $ 35.25万
• 依托单位: William Marsh Rice University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-03-15 至 2014-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0841686&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Individuals; Communities; Consequences; Ontogenetic; Functional

A central challenge in community ecology is to understand the connection between biodiversity and the functioning of ecosystems. The traditional approach in community ecology and particular in food web theory is based on the premise that predictions can be made by treating a species as a homogenous entity. However, no population is truly homogenous and individuals within a species often vary considerably in their ecological function. By far the largest source of this functional variation between individuals stems from differences in size and developmental stage. Indeed, the functional variation across developmental stages within a species often exceeds the variation across species. The unresolved question is how this functional variation within species affects the structure and functioning of natural ecosystems. This question will be answered using a combination of field experiments manipulating the stage-structure in predatory invertebrates in natural pond communities, and development of a new theoretical framework that accounts for functional variation across developmental stages. Together these studies will provide first insight into how the ecological variation across developmental stages within species may alter the structure, dynamics, and functioning of entire ecosystems. Human activities are fundamentally changing ecological systems and natural populations. Our ability to predict how such changes will affect the functioning of ecosystems will critically depend on our understanding of the detailed mechanisms that connect intraspecific diversity to ecosystem functions. The study will permit a new detailed understanding of the mechanisms that determine how individuals scale up to affect entire communities and their functioning. The obtained results will advance our conceptual understanding of whether and what details need to be included in a general predictive framework for community dynamics and ecosystem processes and guide the development of conservation and harvest strategies to assure that vital ecosystem functions are not lost in the future. It will also provide training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, including underrepresented groups in science.

社区生态学中的一个核心挑战是了解生物多样性与生态系统功能之间的联系。社区生态学的传统方法，尤其是食品网理论中的基于以下前提：预测可以通过将物种视为同质实体。但是，没有人口真正同质，并且一个物种中的个体在其生态功能上常常有很大差异。 到目前为止，个体之间这种功能差异的最大来源源于规模和发育阶段的差异。实际上，一个物种内发育阶段的功能变化通常超过物种之间的变化。尚未解决的问题是物种内部的功能变化如何影响自然生态系统的结构和功能。该问题将通过对自然池塘群落中掠食性无脊椎动物的阶段结构的结合进行回答，并开发了一个新的理论框架，该框架解释了跨发育阶段的功能变化。这些研究将共同​​洞悉物种内部发育阶段的生态变化如何改变整个生态系统的结构，动力学和功能。人类活动从根本上改变了生态系统和自然种群。我们预测这种变化将如何影响生态系统的功能的能力将严重取决于我们对将种内多样性与生态系统功能联系起来的详细机制的理解。该研究将允许对决定个人如何扩展到整个社区及其功能的机制有了新的详细了解。获得的结果将提高我们对社区动态和生态系统过程的一般预测框架中是否需要以及哪些细节的概念理解，并指导保护和收获策略的发展，以确保将来重要的生态系统功能不会丢失。 它还将为本科和研究生提供培训机会，包括科学领域的人数不足。