DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Effects of suburbanization on multispecies plant-animal interactions

论文研究：郊区化对多物种动植物相互作用的影响

• 批准号: 1209321
• 负责人: Rebecca Irwin
• 金额: $ 1.36万
• 依托单位: Dartmouth College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-04-15 至 2013-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1209321&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Effects; suburbanization; multispecies

Urban areas within the United States have rapidly expanded over the past 50 years, increasing the extent of suburban development. Such change in land use has been proposed as a dominant factor in the decline of native bee pollinators, raising concern over the integrity of pollination services in suburban areas. However, many factors likely determine how suburbanization affects bees and the plants that depend on them for pollination. The goal of this study is to determine how suburbanization changes interactions between plants, their bee pollinators, and other insects that consume flowers. Previous research has documented that suburban forests actually harbor more bees than natural forests, but that plants growing in suburban forests are also more likely to have flowers damaged by floral herbivores, which could make plants less attractive to bee pollinators. This research will determine 1) how damage to flowers affects pollination of native plants, and 2) how this relationship varies between suburban and natural forests. This research is novel because few studies have addressed how suburbanization affects pollination indirectly through changes in interactions between beneficial bees and detrimental flower feeding insects. Pollination is of great ecological and economic importance ? pollinators are essential for the reproduction of most flowering plants, and the value of pollination for global food production is estimated to exceed $200 billion annually. In addition, growing concern over declines in native pollinators and the sustainability of their pollination services underscores the need for research on factors driving changes in plant-pollinator interactions. The results of this study will provide ecological insight into how human development affects pollination and could produce recommendations for the conservation of pollination services in developing and developed areas. In addition, this research fosters public interest in and awareness of the importance of pollination through interactions with public and private land owners, cooperation with suburban home owners associations, and communication with individual homeowners. As public interest and involvement are integral to the dissemination of scientific research, an informational pamphlet, including the findings from this and previous research, will be developed and distributed to all cooperating landowners, homeowners, and public agencies.

在过去的50年里，美国的城市地区迅速扩张，增加了郊区发展的程度。这种土地利用的变化被认为是本地蜜蜂授粉者减少的一个主要因素，引起了人们对郊区授粉服务完整性的关注。然而，许多因素可能决定了郊区化如何影响蜜蜂和依赖它们授粉的植物。这项研究的目的是确定郊区化如何改变植物，蜜蜂授粉者和其他消费花卉的昆虫之间的相互作用。以前的研究已经证明，郊区森林实际上比自然森林拥有更多的蜜蜂，但在郊区森林中生长的植物也更有可能被食草动物破坏花朵，这可能使植物对蜜蜂授粉者的吸引力降低。这项研究将确定1）对花朵的损害如何影响本土植物的授粉，以及2）这种关系在郊区和自然森林之间的变化。这项研究是新颖的，因为很少有研究涉及郊区化如何通过有益的蜜蜂和有害的食花昆虫之间的相互作用的变化间接影响授粉。花粉具有重要的生态和经济意义？ 授粉者对大多数开花植物的繁殖至关重要，授粉对全球粮食生产的价值估计每年超过2 000亿美元。此外，对本地授粉者数量减少及其授粉服务可持续性的日益关注，突出表明需要研究推动植物-授粉者相互作用变化的因素。这项研究的结果将提供生态洞察人类发展如何影响授粉，并可能产生建议，在发展中国家和发达地区的授粉服务的保护。此外，这项研究通过与公共和私人土地所有者的互动，与郊区房主协会的合作，以及与个人房主的沟通，促进公众对授粉重要性的兴趣和认识。由于公众的兴趣和参与是传播科学研究的组成部分，将编写一份信息小册子，包括这项研究和以前的研究结果，并分发给所有合作的土地所有者、房主和公共机构。