RUI: The interaction of scale, habitat, and dispersal limitation in Great Lakes shoreline plant communities

RUI：五大湖沿岸植物群落规模、栖息地和扩散限制的相互作用

• 批准号: 0919007
• 负责人: Erin Girdler
• 金额: $ 13.5万
• 依托单位: Kalamazoo College
• 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: 2009-08-01 至 2012-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0919007&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RUI; interaction; scale; habitat; dispersal

Local environmental factors (e.g., soil chemistry, light) interact with the characteristics of plants to influence the abundance of species in a community. Dispersal can also influence species composition, but may be much more stochastic in its effect if it is a relatively uncommon event. The relative importance of environmental factors and dispersal, and the way that their roles may change at different spatial scales, is not well known. Plant communities on islands in Lake Michigan will be used as a model system to test the relative importance of environmental factors versus dispersal in determining plant community composition at a variety of spatial scales. Individuals of three clonal 'phytometer' species will be planted into the native shoreline environment and monitored for two growing seasons. The degree to which plant performance varies with distance will indicate the plant?s eye view of habitat heterogeneity in the environment. Species-area relationships will be analyzed for breaks in the slope, an indication of changes in plant-relevant (instead of human-defined) habitat factors. To complement field studies, a simulated plant community with known degrees of habitat sorting and dispersal limitation will be sampled using a variety of designs, and analyzed using several methods currently debated in the literature. The project will establish methods for similar approaches in other ecological communities to facilitate comparison and generalization of this important ecological question. The broader impacts include research experiences for about ten students at an undergraduate institution. The scientific results will be available via electronic appendices and posted on-line for comparative analyses, as well as educational uses. A plant community simulation program will be developed and made freely available to ecologists for use in teaching and research.

当地环境因素（如土壤化学、光照）与植物的特性相互作用，影响群落中物种的丰度。扩散也会影响物种组成，但如果是相对不常见的事件，其影响可能更加随机。环境因素和扩散的相对重要性，以及它们的作用在不同空间尺度上的变化方式，还不是很清楚。以密歇根湖岛屿上的植物群落为模型系统，考察不同空间尺度下环境因子对植物群落组成的相对重要性。三个克隆“植物计”物种的个体将被种植到当地的海岸线环境中，并监测两个生长季节。植物性能随距离变化的程度将指示植物？环境中生境异质性的视角。物种-区域关系将分析斜坡的断裂，这是植物相关（而不是人类定义的）栖息地因素变化的指示。为了补充野外研究，我们将使用各种设计对一个已知生境分选和扩散限制程度的模拟植物群落进行采样，并使用目前文献中存在争议的几种方法进行分析。该项目将为其他生态群落建立类似的方法，以促进对这一重要生态问题的比较和概括。更广泛的影响包括为一所本科院校的大约10名学生提供研究经验。科学结果将通过电子附录提供，并在网上公布，以供比较分析和教育用途。将开发一个植物群落模拟程序，并免费提供给生态学家用于教学和研究。