Community-Wide Ecological Displacement and Community Assembly

竞争排斥原则指出，具有相似生态要求的物种将竞争有限的资源，并且不太可能在当地共存。 然而，开发资源的能力不同（例如，不同的形态）可以促进共存并增强地方多样性。 物种之间的差异可能预先存在，也可能在与生态相似的物种接触时产生。 后一种现象，字符位移（CD），是竞争性排斥的逻辑产物。 由于其改变现有生物形式和产生新生物形式的潜力，CD是竞争的最重要和最不了解的生态/进化后果。 特别是，它在构建生态社区和加强地方和区域生物多样性方面的潜力尚未得到充分探索。本研究评估了CD在物种共存和当地物种多样性arcoss异质景观中的作用。 鉴于社会在维持物种多样性及其在生态系统功能中的作用方面的既得利益，该项目将重点放在维持和产生物种多样性的机制上是及时的。 广泛的实地采样和详细的机械实验相结合，以检查CD在蝾螈物种群不同的物种和物种的身份在当地和区域尺度在整个S。阿巴拉契亚山脉 该项目涉及一个由博士后、本科生和研究生组成的实质性团队，他们在定量生态学方法方面获得第一手培训，包括定量野外采样和分析、基于概念的假设检验、进化生态学问题的实验方法、实验栖息地的设计和使用、计算机在数据采集和分析中的使用、并在从概念化到出版的科学过程的所有阶段中发挥作用。

The competitive exclusion principle states that species with similar ecological requirements will compete for limiting resources, and are unlikely to locally co-exist. However, different abilities to exploit resources (e.g., different morphologies) may foster coexistence and enhance local diversity. Differences among species may pre-exist or may arise in contact with ecologi-cally similar species. The latter phenomenon, character displacement (CD), is a logical out-growth of competitive exclusion. Because of its potential for altering existing biological forms and generating new biological forms, CD is the most important and least understood ecologi-cal/evolutionary consequence of competition. In particular, its potential for structuring ecologi-cal communities and for enhancing local and regional biodiversity has not been thoroughly ex-plored. The research evaluates the role of CD in species coexistence and local species diversity arcoss heterogeneous landscapes. Focus of the project on mechanisms maintaining and generating species diversity is timely given society's vested interest in the maintenance of species diversity and its role in ecosystem function. Extensive field sampling and detailed mechanistic experiments are combined to examine CD in salamander species groups differing in numbers of species and spe-cies identity at local and regional scales across the S. Appalachians. Project involves a substan-tial team including post-docs, undergraduates and graduate students, who get first-hand training in quantitative ecological methods including quantitative field sampling and analysis, conceptu-ally-based hypothesis testing, experimental approaches to questions in evolutionary ecology, de-sign and use of experimental habitats, use of computers in data acquisition and analysis, and ex-posure to all phases of the scientific process from conceptualization to publication.