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

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富度。扩散也可以影响物种组成，但如果它是一个相对不常见的事件，其影响可能更具随机性。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可能发生变化的方式尚不为人所知。密歇根湖岛屿上的植物群落将被用作一个模型系统，以测试环境因素与扩散在确定各种空间尺度上的植物群落组成方面的相对重要性。三个克隆‘植物测量仪’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。植物表现随距离变化的程度将预示植物？S眼中的栖息地环境异质性。将分析物种-区域关系，以确定坡度的中断，这表明与植物相关的(而不是人类定义的)栖息地因素的变化。为了补充实地研究，将使用各种设计对具有已知栖息地分类和扩散限制程度的模拟植物群落进行采样，并使用目前文献中争论的几种方法进行分析。该项目将在其他生态社区建立类似做法的方法，以便于对这一重要的生态问题进行比较和推广。更广泛的影响包括一所本科院校约10名学生的研究经历。科学结果将通过电子附录提供，并发布在网上，用于比较分析和教育用途。将开发一个植物群落模拟程序，供生态学家免费使用，用于教学和研究。

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.