Collaborative research: Measuring and modeling the ecological consequences of associational effects

本项目将研究虫害如何影响植物物种多样性组合范围内的单个植物种群。当昆虫寻找植物吃时，它们会受到周围植物的外观和气味的影响。邻近植物可以增加和减少昆虫对植物的损害，这一术语称为关联效应（AE）。虽然很明显，关联效应可以发生在单个植物的水平上，但很少有人知道这些效应是否重要到足以改变自然界中的植物种群，或者它们在多大程度上影响了农田中的作物产量。该项目将使用短期实验结合数学模型来推断关联效应如何影响本土植物的种群。该项目中开发的方法也可用于确定如何利用关联效应来最大限度地提高作物产量。该项目将为本科生、研究生和博士后学生以及一名学士后技术人员提供STEM培训，研究人员将与K-12教师合作，利用学校花园和羽衣甘蓝等作物之间的关联效应开展科学教学活动。本项目将结合联合收割机的数学模型和实验，以解决关联效应是否以及如何影响植物种间竞争的结果（共存和/或相对丰富度）在一个旧的领域系统，使用Solanum carolinense（卡罗莱纳horsenettle）和一枝黄花（一枝黄花）作为焦点物种。该项目将解决三个问题的经验：1）什么是空间尺度的AE在这个系统中？（使用Nelder Fan设计的田间实验）2）来自多个物种的AE如何联合收割机？（使用单一栽培、双栽培和三栽培在两种不同密度下的实验）和3）关联效应如何影响竞争（使用先前有和没有食草动物的竞争实验的数据）。空间隐式和显式模型将解决植物空间结构和频率依赖的形式如何改变预测的AE对植物种群的影响。研究人员将使用实证研究的数据对模型进行参数化，以测试关联效应如何扩展到人口水平。总体而言，该项目将首次直接量化关联效应如何影响植物竞争，并为理解不同形式的关联效应如何影响不同类型消费者资源系统的群体水平过程提供一个总体框架。该项目还将建议如何最好地操纵农业中的关联效应，以最大限度地提高作物产量。

This project will study how insect pests affect individual plant populations within the context of diverse assemblages of plant species. When insects search for plants to eat, they can be influenced by the look and smell of surrounding plants. Neighboring plants can both increase and decrease insect damage to plants, and the term for this is associational effects (AE). Although it is clear that associational effects can occur at the level of individual plants, little is known about whether these effects are important enough to alter plant populations in nature, or to what degree they contribute to affecting crop yield in agricultural fields. This project will use short-term experiments in combination with mathematical models to infer how associational effects influence populations of native plants. The methods developed in this project can also be used to determine how to use associational effects to maximize crop yields. The project will provide STEM training for undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students and a post-baccalaureate technician, and the researchers will partner with K-12 teachers to develop activities for teaching science using school gardens and associational effects between crops such as collards and mustards. This project will combine mathematical models and experiments to address whether and how associational effects influence the outcome of plant interspecific competition (coexistence and/or relative abundance) in an old-field system, using Solanum carolinense (Carolina horsenettle) and Solidago altissima (goldenrod) as focal species. The project will address three questions empirically: 1) What is the spatial scale of AE in this system? (using a Nelder fan design field experiment) 2) How do AE from multiple species combine? (using an experiment with monocultures, bicultures, and tricultures at two different densities) and 3) how do associational effects influence competition (using data from a previous competition experiment with and without herbivores). Spatially implicit and explicit models will address how plant spatial structure and the form of frequency dependence alter predicted effects of AE on plant populations. The researchers will parameterize models using data from the empirical studies to test how associational effects scale up to the population level. Overall, this project will quantify directly for the first time how associational effects influence plant competition and provide a general framework for understanding how different forms of associational effects influence population-level processes across different types of consumer-resource systems. This project will also suggest how best to manipulate associational effects in agriculture, in order to maximize crop yields.