RAPID: Comparing Historic and Contemporary Plant-Pollinator Interaction Networks to Investigate the Effects of Climate Change and Invasive Species

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。政治服务在生态和经济上都很重要，是我们吃的大部分食物的来源。 许多植物物种的虫害目前受到人为因素的威胁，包括气候变化和入侵物种。气候变化可能会扰乱植物开花的时间和传粉者的活动，使它们不再重叠。入侵植物可能会从它们通常访问的本地植物那里偷走授粉者。测试授粉是如何被气候变化和入侵物种破坏的是困难的，因为在大多数情况下，没有关于植物-传粉者相互作用的历史信息。然而，一个非常详细的数据集，所有的植物传粉者的相互作用，目前在卡林维尔，IL在19世纪80年代后期提供了一个重要的和难得的机会，比较历史和当代的模式。通过重新采样相同的地区，这些研究人员将更好地了解气候变暖和入侵物种如何影响授粉。该项目的紧迫性源于该地区郊区的快速发展;研究地点可能在不久的将来被转换为住房小区。这项研究将突出那些在环境发生巨大变化的情况下，仍然保持着重要传粉作用的昆虫物种，并将显示哪些物种最容易受到气候或入侵物种相关的影响。这些结果将对依赖昆虫授粉的农业植物物种产生重要影响。这项研究的更广泛的影响包括研究和培训机会，为学生在高中，本科和研究生水平，以及研究技术人员和博士后助理。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Pollination services, important both ecologically and economically, are responsible for much of the food that we eat. Pollination of many plant species is currently threatened by anthropogenic forces, including climate change and invasive species. Climate change may be disrupting the timing of plant flowering and the activity of pollinators such that they no longer overlap. Invasive plants may be stealing pollinators away from the native plants that they usually visit. Testing how pollination is being disrupted by climate change and invasive species is difficult because historical information on plant-pollinator interactions is not available in most cases. However, a very detailed dataset of all of the plant-pollinator interactions that were present in Carlinville, IL in the late 1880's provides an important and rare opportunity to compare historic and contemporary patterns. By re-sampling the same areas, these researchers will better understand how climate warming and invasive species are affecting pollination. The urgency of the project stems from the rapid suburban development in this area; the study sites will likely be converted to housing subdivisions in the near future. This research will highlight insect species that have maintained important roles as pollinators through time, despite large changes in the environment, and will show which species are most vulnerable to climate or invasive species related extinctions. These results will have important implications for agricultural plant species that rely on insect pollination as well. The broader impacts of this research include research and training opportunities for students at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels as well as a research technician and a post-doctoral associate.