DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Carry-over effects in space: Beyond single species studies and towards metacommunity dynamics

论文研究：太空中的残留效应：超越单一物种研究并走向元群落动态

• 批准号: 1311193
• 负责人: Volker Rudolf
• 金额: $ 1.04万
• 依托单位: William Marsh Rice 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: 2013-05-01 至 2014-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1311193&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Carry; over; effects

Understanding what factors determine the distribution and abundance of species across a landscape is a central challenge in ecology. While much progress has been made, little attention has been paid to the history of individuals. Yet, where individuals come from and what conditions they have experienced in the past often strongly affects their current traits and performance. When interacting with other species, such carry-over effects can have the potential to alter the dynamics of populations and species interactions. However, the consequences of these effects for long-term dynamics of communities and the spatial distribution of species are largely unknown. This research project will conduct a combination of experiments using the classic model laboratory system of flour beetle, and apply computational modeling to investigate how carry-over effects influence the dynamics of communities across variable landscapes. By explicitly linking variation at the individual level to spatial variation, this research will provide novel insight into how variation at different organizational scales interacts to determine community dynamics and species coexistence in nature.This research will contribute to society by improving our understanding in applied areas such as conservation biology and invasive species ecology. Conservation biology already recognizes that more high quality individuals improve population persistence, but how individual quality interacts in a community setting is poorly understood. Determining whether complex community interactions are important for how carry-over effects alter population dynamics could open new venues to investigation into conservation program success. Increased understanding of carry-over effects has implications for predicting the successful establishment and spread of invasive species as well, since it explores how habitat quality can combine with species interactions to promote or stop the movement of a species across a landscape. This project will provide multiple undergraduate students with research experience and career mentoring, and will support the dissertation research of a doctoral student.

了解是什么因素决定了物种在景观中的分布和丰度，是生态学的核心挑战。虽然取得了很大的进展，但很少有人关注个人的历史。然而，一个人来自哪里，过去经历过什么，往往会强烈地影响他现在的性格和表现。当与其他物种相互作用时，这种携带效应可能会改变种群和物种相互作用的动态。然而，这些影响对群落的长期动态和物种的空间分布的影响在很大程度上是未知的。本研究项目将采用粉甲虫经典模型实验室系统进行实验结合，并应用计算模型研究不同景观下的结转效应对群落动态的影响。通过明确地将个体水平的变异与空间变异联系起来，本研究将为不同组织尺度的变异如何相互作用决定自然界中群落动态和物种共存提供新的见解。本研究将有助于提高我们对保护生物学和入侵物种生态学等应用领域的认识。保护生物学已经认识到更多高质量的个体可以提高种群的持久性，但是个体质量如何在社区环境中相互作用却知之甚少。确定复杂的群落相互作用是否对结转效应如何改变种群动态很重要，可以为研究保护计划的成功开辟新的领域。增加对携带效应的理解，对于预测入侵物种的成功建立和传播也有意义，因为它探索了栖息地质量如何与物种相互作用相结合，以促进或阻止物种在景观中的移动。该项目将为多名本科生提供研究经验和职业指导，并将支持一名博士生的论文研究。