Consumer-Resource Interactions: Impacts of a plant invasion on the individual and colony performance of a native pollinator

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)资助的。入侵物种是环境变化的主要组成部分，也是全球生物多样性丧失的主要因素。越来越多的人认识到，植物入侵者可以影响本地物种之间的竞争和互惠互动，但大多数工作只考虑了入侵者对本地植物的直接影响。入侵植物如何影响本地传粉者的行为几乎没有受到关注，这是入侵者如何影响本地生物多样性研究的一个关键空白。该项目将结合观察性和操纵性研究，研究美国西部一种主要的入侵开花植物--普通丝兰如何影响本地蜜蜂传粉者的表现和数量。这项工作还将测试入侵植物的短期和长期管理对传粉者觅食和繁殖的影响程度，以及对本地开花物种的授粉和繁殖的潜在反馈。通过结合入侵植物对本地传粉者行为的影响，这项研究超越了主要以植物为中心的方法来研究入侵植物对授粉互换的影响全球范围内，大约30万种开花植物中90%依赖昆虫或其他动物进行授粉服务，传粉者的保护对本地植物和作物授粉具有生态和经济意义。鉴于广泛存在的授粉互惠和传粉者在提供关键生态系统服务方面的作用，这项研究对生物多样性、本地和农业植物的授粉以及对依赖开花植物作为饲料、栖息地和保护的其他生物的反馈具有广泛的影响。这个项目将把积极的发现过程与科罗拉多州落基山生物实验室的K-6、本科生和研究生的教育机会结合起来。为了提高公众对本土传粉者和入侵植物物种的认识，该项目将制作一个展览，在当地的一家博物馆展出。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Invasive species are a leading component of environmental change and a major factor associated with biodiversity loss worldwide. There is growing recognition that plant invaders can affect competitive and mutualistic interactions among native species, but most work has considered only the direct effects of invaders on native plants. How invasive plants affect the performance of native pollinators has received little attention, representing a critical gap in the study of how invaders affect native biodiversity. This project will combine observational and manipulative studies to examine how a dominant invasive flowering plant in the western USA, Linaria vulgaris, affects the performance and abundance of native bee pollinators. The work will also test the degree to which short-term and long-term management of the invasive plant affect pollinator foraging and reproduction, with potential feedback to the pollination and reproduction of native flowering species. By incorporating the effects of an invasive plant on the performance of a native pollinator, this research moves beyond a primarily plant-centered approach to the study of invasive plants on pollination mutualismsWorldwide, 90% of approximately 300,000 flowering plant species rely on insects or other animals for pollination service, and the conservation of pollinators has both ecological and economic importance for native plant and crop pollination. Given the widespread abundance of pollination mutualisms and the role of pollinators in conferring critical ecosystem services, this research has broad implications for biodiversity, pollination of native and agricultural plants, and feedbacks to other organisms that rely on flowering plants for forage, habitat, and protection. This project will couple the active process of discovery with educational opportunities for K-6, undergraduate, and graduate students at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Colorado. To increase public awareness of native pollinators and invasive plant species this project will create an exhibit to be displayed at a local museum.