DISSERTATION RESEARCH: How will climate change affect trophic interactions?

论文研究：气候变化将如何影响营养相互作用？

• 批准号: 0910047
• 负责人: Oswald Schmitz
• 金额: $ 1.3万
• 依托单位: Yale University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-07-01 至 2011-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0910047&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; How; will; climate

Global climate change is believed to pose a huge threat to ecological systems. But there is much uncertainty about the way interactions among species will be affected and, consequently, how the environmental services these species provide to human kind are going to be altered. This study reduces this uncertainty by experimentally evaluating the capacity of species to adapt with a changing climate. Using an experimental system of grassland plants, grasshopper herbivores, and spider predators, this study will evaluate the ability of predators to adapt with warming and continue to control the herbivores in the system. To do this, the experiment will evaluate spider performance in controlling grasshoppers along a gradient of temperature reflective of the changes predicted by climate change models.This research is especially relevant to tax payers and policy makers concerned with how ecological and agricultural systems are going to be affected by climate change. Insect species like grasshoppers can be quite destructive to agricultural crops, requiring government aid to cover monetary losses. Global warming may enhance the likelihood of this outcome. This study, on the other hand, will evaluate the extent to which natural enemies of grasshoppers can adapt to climate change and thereby keep damage from herbivores in check.

据信，全球气候变化会对生态系统构成巨大威胁。 但是，将影响物种之间的相互作用的方式存在很多不确定性，因此，这些物种为人类提供的环境服务将如何改变。这项研究通过实验评估物种适应气候变化的能力来降低这种不确定性。 本研究使用草原植物，蚱hopper食草动物和蜘蛛捕食者的实验系统，将评估捕食者适应变暖并继续控制系统中的食草动物的能力。 为此，该实验将评估蜘蛛的性能，以控制蚱hoppers的温度梯度，反映了气候变化模型所预测的变化。这项研究尤其与纳税人和与生态和农业系统有关的税务付款人和政策制定者尤为相关。 像蚱hoppers这样的昆虫物种可能对农作物具有很大的破坏性，需要政府援助来弥补货币损失。 全球变暖可能会增加这种结果的可能性。 另一方面，这项研究将评估蚱hoppers天生敌人可以适应气候变化的程度，从而控制草食动物的损害。