EAGER: The causes and consequences of spatial modularity for populations

了解影响动植物种群持久性的因素是生态学的核心，对于解释正在进行的环境变化的影响至关重要。借鉴物理学和社会科学的空间模块化概念，对于加深我们对环境变化下的人口持续性和景观连通性的理解具有很大的潜力。在种群生态学中，当资源斑块通过有机体的运动与其他斑块高度相连，但与景观中剩余斑块的联系较弱时，就会出现空间模块化。这个早期的探索性研究概念补助金(AGER)项目将通过使用高度模块化的消费者资源系统--以仙人掌为食的昆虫和片状、多刺的梨仙人掌--来评估空间模块化概念在生态学中的应用。这项研究将把实地实验和调查与网络建模结合起来，以解决两个主要目标：估计空间模块化对遭受栖息地丧失的种群的影响；以及确定空间模块化的原因。空间模块化的概念扩展了生态学中关于不同类型元种群的思想，为斑块对连通性的重要性提供了新的见解，并通过识别运动对动力学的空间和非空间作用，补充了生态学中关于斑块聚集的工作。虽然空间模块化具有很大的生态学潜力，但还没有发生过对这种现象的实验测试，这种现象的原因和后果也很少受到经验上的关注。该项目将首次测试空间模块化是否增加了元种群的持久性，减少了栖息地丧失的负面影响，与现有方法相比，更好地预测了动态和连通性，并且是种群动态的基本尺度。模块化概念与应用生态学高度相关，例如，在环境变化下管理野生动物种群，以及设计栖息地单元以实现保护目标。为了促进这些应用，该项目将包括为应用科学家和保护从业者举办一个实用培训讲习班，介绍“模块化管理”的概念和应用。此外，该项目将为高中、本科生和研究生提供实地研究经验，并将支持数量空间生态学博士后研究人员的培养。

Understanding the factors influencing the persistence of animal and plant populations lies at the heart of ecology and is essential for interpreting the effects of ongoing environmental change. The concept of spatial modularity, borrowed from physics and social sciences, has great potential to increase our understanding of population persistence and landscape connectivity under environmental change. In population ecology, spatial modularity occurs when resource patches are highly connected to other patches through movement of organisms, but only weakly connected to the remaining patches in the landscape. This Early Concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) project will assess the utility of the spatial modularity concept in ecology by using a highly modular, consumer-resource system of a cactus-feeding insect and patchy, prickly pear cactus. This research will couple field experiments and surveys with network modeling to address two major objectives: estimate the consequences of spatial modularity for populations undergoing habitat loss; and identify the causes of spatial modularity. The concept of spatial modularity extends ideas in ecology regarding different types of meta-populations, provides new insight to patch importance for connectivity, and complements work on patch aggregation in ecology by identifying the spatial and non-spatial roles of movement on dynamics. While spatial modularity holds much potential for ecology, no experimental tests of this phenomenon have occurred, and the causes and consequences of this phenomenon have received little empirical attention. This project will be the first to test if spatial modularity increases meta-population persistence, reduces negative effects of habitat loss, better predicts dynamics and connectivity compared to existing approaches, and is a fundamental scale for population dynamics. The modularity concept is highly relevant to applied ecology, e.g., managing wildlife population under environmental change, and designing habitat units to achieve conservation goals. To facilitate these applications, this project will include a practical training workshop for applied scientists and conservation practitioners on the concept and application of "Managing for Modularity". In addition, this project will provide field research experiences for high school, undergraduate, and graduated students, and will support the training of a postdoctoral researcher in quantitative spatial ecology.