NSFDEB-NERC: Diversity, Disturbance and Invasion: Using experimental microcosms to illuminate ecological theory

外来物种的入侵威胁着农业、人类健康、本地物种的保护和生物多样性的维持。这些威胁对美国国内和全球的经济和环境都有影响。试图了解入侵成功的原因是失败的，因为有大量的因素可以影响入侵的成功。本项目将结合实验室实验与理论研究，探讨生物多样性与环境干扰如何相互作用影响入侵。随着人类对环境改变的增加，对这些过程的深入了解将推动应用研究。这项研究扩展了富有成效的国际合作，并将在实验、数学和理论方面培养早期的美国研究人员。大一本科生将被提供一个研究轨道，从研究方法的一般课程开始，然后是额外的研讨会和独立的研究项目。来自弱势群体的中学生将参加宾夕法尼亚州立大学（Pennsylvania State University）的“更高成就计划”（Higher Achievement Program）；这是一个非营利性的学术支持项目，帮助学生完成高中学业并为上大学做好准备。由于生物多样性和干扰频繁相互作用，它们对入侵和抵抗入侵的净效应难以预测和解释。快速进化使这些相互作用及其对入侵成功的影响进一步复杂化。本项目将实验操作与数学模型相结合，以迭代的方式研究干扰和多样性的独立和联合操作对入侵成功的影响；以及对干扰的适应在介导入侵抵抗中的作用。研究人员将在因子设计中独立操纵干扰频率和强度以及细菌多样性，以评估这些因素（及其相互作用）在抵抗入侵中的作用。他们还将通过评估先前建立的制度改变后的入侵成功来评估对干扰制度适应的假设重要性。实验室微生物实验将产生快速的结果，允许迭代模型改进，并为测试快速进化提供理想的机会。这种结合超越了对自然群落的研究，并有望发展与多样化自然群落相关的一般生态学理论。这项研究将通过两名具有互补专业知识的研究人员（一位在建模方面，另一位在实验方面）的参与，扩大一项新生的国际合作。

Invasions by exotic species threaten agriculture, human health, the conservation of native species, and the maintenance of biological diversity. These threats have economic and environmental impacts both within the United States and globally. Attempts to understand the causes of successful invasions are frustrated by the large number of factors that can affect invasion success. This project will combine laboratory experiments and theoretical research to examine how biological diversity and environmental disturbance interact to affect invasion. Deeper insights into these processes will advance applied research as human modifications of the environment increase. The research extends a productive international collaboration and will train early-career US researchers in experimentation, mathematics, and theory. Freshman undergraduate students will be offered a research track that begins with a general course in research methods and is followed by additional seminars and independent research projects. Middle school students from underserved groups will participate in a Higher Achievement Program at Pennsylvania State University; this is a non-profit, academic support program that prepares students to complete high school and be college-ready. Because biodiversity and disturbance frequently interact, their net effects on invasion and invasion resistance are difficult to predict and interpret. Rapid evolution further complicates these interactions and their effects on invasion success. This project will combine experimental manipulations with mathematical models in an iterative approach to study the effect of independent, and combined, manipulation of disturbance and diversity on invasion success; and the role of adaptation to disturbance regimes in mediating invasion resistance. The researchers will independently manipulate disturbance frequency and intensity, and bacterial diversity, in a factorial design to assess the role that these factors (and their interactions) play in invasion resistance. They will also assess the hypothesized importance of adaptation to disturbance regimes by assessing invasion success following changes to previously established regimes. Laboratory microbial experiments will generate rapid results, allow iterative model improvement, and provide ideal opportunities to test rapid evolution. This combination surpasses research that could be accomplished with natural communities and promises to develop general ecological theory relevant to diverse, natural communities. The research will extend a nascent international collaboration by engaging two researchers with complementary expertise, one in modeling and the second in experimentation.