DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Understanding how land use alters ecosystem function and population dynamics of key pollinator species

论文研究：了解土地利用如何改变生态系统功能和关键传粉媒介物种的种群动态

• 批准号: 1701522
• 负责人: Shalene Jha
• 金额: $ 2.03万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Austin
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-04-15 至 2019-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1701522&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Understanding; how; land

Cotton is the world's most widely-grown and economically important non-food crop, with a yearly harvest worth nearly $25 billion in the United States. Before cotton?s fluffy heads ("bolls") emerge, the plant produces large white flowers that attract insects, which visit the flowers to collect food (nectar and pollen) and to act as pollinators, moving pollen between flowers. While cotton plants can produce marketable bolls without the help of pollinating insects, pollinators greatly increase the size of bolls, with larger bolls producing greater yields and higher profits for growers. However, as human activities transform cotton-growing landscapes, there is concern that cotton fields are becoming are inhospitable to pollinators, preventing them from moving between fields in search of food and sites to reproduce. If this is happening, pollinators may disappear along with their valuable pollination services. The first steps in conserving cotton pollinators and the services they provide are to identify which insects are the best pollinators, and which human activities may be preventing them from persisting in rapidly-changing landscapes. This project will accomplish these first steps.Using the tools of landscape genetics and ecology, this research looks for ways to restore and maintain pollinators in agricultural landscapes. Through behavioral observation, single visit pollen deposition, pollen load analysis, and the estimation of visitation frequency, researchers will determine the efficacy of all cotton pollinators. They will then use next generation genetic sequencing techniques to determine the population dynamics of the three most effective pollinator species as a function of landscape composition. The goal is to identify specific landscape barriers that may hamper pollinator dispersal and colonization. This research will develop genomic resources to investigate pollinator dispersal, migration, and colonization, which will in turn offer an opportunity to increase crop yields and profits while also benefiting the environment. Additionally, the project will provide research experience and mentoring for an early-career ecologist.

棉花是世界上种植最广泛和经济上最重要的非粮食作物，在美国每年收获价值近250亿美元。在棉花之前？当棉花长出绒毛状的头（“棉铃”）时，植物会开出白色的大花，吸引昆虫，昆虫会到花上采集食物（花蜜和花粉），并充当授粉者，在花间传递花粉。虽然棉花植物可以在没有授粉昆虫的帮助下产生可销售的棉铃，但授粉昆虫大大增加了棉铃的大小，更大的棉铃为种植者带来更高的产量和更高的利润。然而，随着人类活动改变棉花种植景观，人们担心棉花田正在变得不适合授粉者，阻止他们在寻找食物和繁殖场所的田地之间移动。如果这种情况发生，传粉者可能会沿着消失，同时消失的还有他们宝贵的传粉服务。保护棉花传粉者及其提供的服务的第一步是确定哪些昆虫是最好的传粉者，以及哪些人类活动可能阻止它们在快速变化的景观中持续存在。本计画将完成这些初步的步骤，利用景观遗传学与生态学的工具，寻找农业景观中恢复与维持传粉者的方法。通过行为观察、单次访花花粉沉积、花粉载量分析和访花频率估计，研究人员将确定所有棉花传粉者的功效。然后，他们将使用下一代基因测序技术来确定三种最有效的传粉物种的种群动态，作为景观组成的函数。我们的目标是确定特定的景观障碍，可能会阻碍传粉传播和殖民化。 这项研究将开发基因组资源，以研究传粉媒介的传播、迁移和定殖，这反过来将为提高作物产量和利润提供机会，同时也有利于环境。 此外，该项目将为早期职业生态学家提供研究经验和指导。

项目成果

Small but critical: semi-natural habitat fragments promote bee abundance in cotton agroecosystems across both Brazil and the United States

• DOI: 10.1007/s10980-019-00868-x
• 发表时间: 2019-07-01
• 期刊: LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY
• 影响因子: 5.2
• 作者: Cusser, Sarah;Grando, Carolina;Jha, Shalene
• 通讯作者: Jha, Shalene