DISSERTATION RESEARCH: The effect of temperature on the timing and strength of species interactions in a northern hardwood forest

森林为人们提供了广泛的服务，包括水净化、木材、食品、碳储存和气候调节。它们越来越受到虫害和疾病的威胁。这项研究将记录气候变化对食草动物对木本植物物种的破坏、森林鳞翅目的爆发以及候鸟丰度的影响。该项目超越了更传统的成对互动，研究了影响毛虫丰度的多种互动。这将有助于更彻底地了解影响森林草食动物的因素，从而为森林和鸟类保护工作提供信息。温室气体和大气温度因人类活动而增加的情况以及温度上升的直接生理影响都有很好的记录。例如，较暖的温度会提前繁殖和发育的物候，或事件的时间。然而，个体生物生活在相互作用的物种网络中，随着气候变暖，物种丰富度的变化取决于温度如何影响其食物、竞争对手和捕食者。本研究着眼于树木、鳞翅目幼虫和它们的捕食者之间的相互作用，以考察气候变暖对森林毛虫的积极和消极影响。它结合历史观察、实验和模型来测试温度如何通过对毛虫生理的直接影响和通过对捕食者丰度或食物质量的间接影响来影响毛虫消费者的丰度。气温变暖对这些消费者生理的正面直接影响可能会，也可能不会，超过由于捕食增加或食品质量下降而预期的负面间接影响。这项研究将通过研究捕食者对毛虫成功的作用，并将该项目扩展到包括温度梯度，从而显著改进正在进行的论文项目。培养一位才华横溢的年轻女科学家，这样才能得到改善。

Forests provide a broad range of services to people, including water purification, timber, food, carbon storage, and climate regulation. They are increasingly threatened by insect damage and disease. This research will document the impacts of climate change on herbivore damage to woody plant species, outbreaks of forest Lepidoptera, and the abundance of migratory songbirds. The project reaches beyond more traditional pair-wise interactions to examine multiple interactions affecting caterpillar abundances. It will contribute new information to a more thorough understanding of the factors affecting forest herbivores, thus informing both forest and bird conservation efforts.Increases in greenhouse gases and atmospheric temperatures in response to human activities are well documented, as are the direct physiological effects of increasing temperatures. Warmer temperatures advance the phenology, or timing of events, of reproduction and development, for example. Individual organisms live within a web of interacting species, however, and changes in the abundance of a species with warming depend on how temperature affects its food, competitors, and predators. This research focuses on interactions among trees, Lepidoptera larvae, and their predators to examine both negative and positive effects of warming on forest caterpillars. It combines historical observations, experiments, and models to test how temperature affects the abundance of caterpillar consumers both through direct effects on caterpillar physiology and through indirect effects on predator abundance or food quality. Positive direct effects of warmer temperatures on the physiology of these consumers may, or may not, outweigh the expected negative indirect effects due to increased predation or decreased food quality. The research will significantly improve an ongoing dissertation project by examining the role of predators on caterpillar success and expanding the project to include a temperature gradient. The training of a talented, young, female scientist with thereby be improved.