DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Effects of matrix habitat on metacommunity dynamics and ecosystem function

论文研究：基质栖息地对元群落动态和生态系统功能的影响

• 批准号: 1110738
• 负责人: Brian Inouye
• 金额: $ 1.46万
• 依托单位: Florida State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-05-01 至 2013-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1110738&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Effects; matrix; habitat

Understanding how the spatial arrangement of habitats in a landscape affects biodiversity, and the resulting consequences for ecosystem services, is a continuing challenge for ecologists. Microcosms provide an opportunity to study landscape-scale processes on a smaller, more tractable scale. A microcosm of soil and leaf litter will be used to examine how the size and spatial arrangement of leaf litter influence the diversity of organisms contained within, and how observed differences in species diversity affects an important ecosystem service: leaf litter decomposition.The results from this project will enable scientists and land managers to manage natural resources more effectively and efficiently, while conserving biodiversity. Conducting research on small, yet critical, soil organisms is challenging because they can be difficult, time consuming, or even impossible to identify visually. This project will use a state-of-the-art method of DNA analysis for rapid and accurate identification of the target organisms. The use and refinement of DNA technology is important for the field of community ecology, and science in general, since adoption of new methods based on the latest technology offers the opportunity to break new ground and to enable research in areas where data collection was previously not practical.

了解景观中栖息地的空间排列如何影响生物多样性，以及由此产生的生态系统服务后果，是生态学家面临的一个持续挑战。微观世界提供了一个在更小、更易处理的尺度上研究微尺度过程的机会。土壤和落叶层的微观世界将被用来研究落叶层的大小和空间排列如何影响其中包含的生物多样性，以及观察到的物种多样性差异如何影响重要的生态系统服务： 落叶分解：该项目的成果将使科学家和土地管理人员能够更有效地管理自然资源，同时保护生物多样性。对小型但关键的土壤生物进行研究是一项挑战，因为它们可能很难，耗时，甚至不可能通过视觉识别。该项目将使用最先进的DNA分析方法，以快速和准确地识别目标生物体。DNA技术的使用和改进对社区生态学领域和一般科学都很重要，因为采用基于最新技术的新方法提供了开辟新天地的机会，并使以前无法进行数据收集的领域的研究成为可能。