DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Disentangling local and regional processes operating in a simple metacommunity

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Understanding the processes that maintain biodiversity is of fundamental importance to ecologists and conservationists. In spatially structured habitats, ranging from tidal pools to forest fragments, explaining patterns of species distribution and abundance requires investigation of processes occurring at different spatial scales. Locally, predatory and competitive interactions affect species presence within habitats. Regionally, dispersal and colonization influence species presence across habitats. Processes at both scales likely contribute to the patterns of diversity and distribution observed in nature, however, their relative importance is not well understood. This study will evaluate the contributions of local and regional processes to patterns of variation among local communities. The community under investigation consists of four insects associated with red-eyed treefrog egg masses: a social wasp that eats frog eggs; two flies whose larvae infest egg masses; and a parasitoid wasp that attacks fly larvae. Research will examine 1) locally, how competition and parasitism influence the identity and abundance of insects emerging from egg masses and 2) regionally, how damage caused by egg-eating wasps (which is attractive to flies) and the spatial arrangement of egg masses influence where insects colonize. This research fills an important gap in our understanding of how local interactions and spatial dynamics combine to explain patterns of distribution and abundance. This dissertation trains one doctoral student as well as assistants from the US and Latin America. Results will be broadly disseminated to scientific audiences and used in public outreach and educational presentations in the US and in Panama.