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、本土物种的保护和生物多样性的维持。这些威胁在美国国内和全球都有经济和环境影响。由于影响入侵成功的因素很多，人们试图了解入侵成功的原因时会受挫。该项目将结合实验室实验和理论研究，研究生物多样性和环境干扰是如何相互作用影响入侵的。随着人类对环境的更多修改，对这些过程的更深入的洞察将推动应用研究。这项研究扩展了富有成效的国际合作，并将在实验、数学和理论方面培训职业生涯早期的美国研究人员。一年级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研究项目。来自贫困群体的中学生将参加宾夕法尼亚州立大学的更高成就计划；这是一个非营利性的学术支持计划，旨在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经常相互作用，它们对入侵和抵抗入侵的净影响很难预测和解释。快速进化使这些相互作用及其对入侵成功的影响变得更加复杂。该项目将以迭代的方式将实验操作与数学模型相结合，以研究干扰和多样性的独立和组合操作对入侵成功的影响，以及对干扰机制的适应在调节入侵抗性中的作用。研究人员将在析因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)在抵抗入侵方面所起的作用。他们还将通过评估在改变以前建立的制度后的入侵成功来评估适应干扰制度的假设重要性。实验室微生物实验将产生快速结果，允许迭代模型改进，并提供测试快速进化的理想机会。这种结合超过了自然群落可以完成的研究，并有望开发出与多样化的自然群落相关的一般生态理论。这项研究将通过聘请两名具有互补专业知识的研究人员来扩展新生的国际合作，一名研究人员从事建模，另一名研究人员从事实验。

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.