Collaborative Research: Community ecology of partial consumption: Integrating plant demography into herbivore competition

合作研究：部分消费的群落生态学：将植物人口学纳入食草动物竞争

• 批准号: 1257882
• 负责人: Charlotte Lee
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: Duke University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-08-15 至 2017-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1257882&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Community; ecology; partial

Ecologists are well-equipped with theory for competition between species that consume and deplete shared resources. Resource depletion, i.e., consuming resources quickly enough to limit the resources available to other consumers, is a well-established pathway by which different consumer species interact. Unfortunately, approaches based on resource depletion apply to only a subset, and perhaps a minority, of consumer-resource interactions in nature. Many consumer species consume resource organisms only partially, and do not appear substantially to reduce available resources. This includes many herbivores, which leave much green plant material unconsumed; non-fatal parasites, parasitoids, and pathogens, whose hosts can continue to forage, mate, and otherwise go about life while infected; and mutualists such as pollinators, defenders, and cleaners, which collect rewards provided by hosts in return for these services. A key feature of such species interactions is that resource organisms respond to partial consumption via changes in their survival, growth, and reproduction. The effects of these demographic responses on resource competition have been little studied. Building on previous promising theoretical results showing that resource demographic responses can critically affect the outcome of competition, this project will develop mathematical theory to accomplish three goals. First, general theory will establish the different possible roles of the demography of partial consumption in biological settings, ranging from competition between herbivores to competition for access to mutualistic partners. Second, models will integrate plant demographic responses to herbivore attack with other known pathways of interaction between the different herbivores of a shared plant host. Third, applications such as biological control of resource populations will be investigated quantitatively.The theory developed in this project will have broad application within and potentially beyond the ecological sciences. Further, the project will support the quantitative training and mentoring of a postdoctoral researcher in the construction and analysis of mathematical models to address ecological questions, as well as training in presenting results to non-mathematical audiences. Attempts will be made to recruit applicants from groups underrepresented in STEM fields. Postdoctoral involvement will also broaden dissemination of research results through increased publication and presentation.

生态学家拥有丰富的理论来解释消耗和耗尽共享资源的物种之间的竞争。资源枯竭，即，足够快地消耗资源以限制其他消费者可获得的资源是不同消费者物种相互作用的既定途径。 不幸的是，基于资源消耗的方法只适用于自然界中消费者-资源交互的一个子集，也许是少数。许多消费物种仅部分地消耗资源生物，并且似乎并没有实质性地减少可用资源。这包括许多食草动物，它们留下许多未被消耗的绿色植物材料;非致命的寄生虫、拟寄生虫和病原体，它们的宿主可以继续觅食、交配，或者在感染的情况下继续生活;以及互利主义者，如传粉者、防御者和清洁工，它们收集宿主提供的回报，以换取这些服务。 这种物种相互作用的一个关键特征是，资源生物通过生存、生长和繁殖的变化对部分消耗作出反应。这些人口反应对资源竞争的影响很少被研究。 基于以前有希望的理论结果表明，资源人口的反应可以严重影响竞争的结果，这个项目将开发数学理论，以实现三个目标。首先，一般理论将建立不同的可能作用的人口部分消费在生物环境中，从食草动物之间的竞争竞争，以获得互利合作伙伴。第二，模型将整合植物的人口反应，草食动物攻击与其他已知的途径之间的相互作用，不同的草食动物的一个共同的植物宿主。 第三，将对资源种群的生物控制等应用进行定量研究。本项目中开发的理论将在生态科学内外具有广泛的应用。 此外，该项目将支持定量培训和指导博士后研究人员构建和分析数学模型，以解决生态问题，以及培训向非数学受众展示结果。 将尝试从STEM领域代表性不足的群体中招募申请人。 博士后的参与也将通过增加出版和介绍扩大研究成果的传播。