EAGER:The 'Keystone Community Concept' as a probe to understand metacommunity ecology.

理解生态群落的经典方法是基于生态位，并将当地环境条件与群落中发现的物种联系起来。最近对这一方法的挑战强调了在更广泛的空间尺度上起作用的过程的重要性，例如扩散和灭绝。虽然自然群落很可能同时受到地方和区域因素的影响，但研究这些因素之间的相互作用极其困难。这个EAGER项目将开发新的理论、统计工具和实验方案，以量化在自然、未被操纵的群落中扩散限制、灭绝和基于生态位的群落聚集的作用。由于所提出的方法很少得到充分发展，因此这项研究是有风险的。它有望将社区生态学领域从目前的二分法转变为一种将广泛空间尺度上的多种过程整合在一起的简单的社区监管观点。因此，对自然群落和生物多样性维护的科学认识将大大提高。通过扩展现有理论并开发一个新的统计工具箱来在自然群落中测试这一理论，这项工作将对生态学的一般领域做出重大贡献。结果将直接适用于保护生物多样性的关键问题。该项目将包括一个讲习班，以巩固理论元群落生态学和保护生物学之间的联系。通过这次研讨会，主要是理论的研究将获得实际应用。本科生、研究生和一名博士后研究员将参与该项目，以获得理论与实验联系的经验。该项目还将邀请中学教师参与德克萨斯大学的U - Teach项目。

The classical approach to understanding ecological communities is based on the niche, and relates local environmental conditions to the species found in a community. Recent challenges to this approach emphasize the importance of processes that act over broader spatial scales, such as dispersal and extinction. While it is likely that natural communities are influenced by both local and regional factors, the interaction between these has been extremely difficult to study. This EAGER project will develop new theory, statistical tools, and experimental protocols to quantify the roles of dispersal limitation, extinction, and niche-based community assembly in natural, unmanipulated communities. Because few of the proposed approaches are thoroughly developed, the research is risky. It promises to transform the field of community ecology from its current dichotomous and therefore simplistic view of community regulation to one that integrates diverse processes across broad spatial scales. As a result, scientific understanding of natural communities and the maintenance of biodiversity will be significantly improved.By extending existing theory and developing a new, statistical toolbox to test this theory in natural communities, the work will contribute significantly to the general field of ecology. Results will be directly applicable to critical questions in conservation of biodiversity. The project will involve a workshop to consolidate links between theoretical metacommunity ecology and conservation biology. Through this workshop, research that is primarily theoretical will gain practical application. Undergraduate students, graduate students and a postdoctoral researcher will participate in the project, gaining experience in linking theory with experimentation. The project will also engage secondary school teachers in association with the University of Texas U Teach program.