The Influence of Plant Functional Traits on Multi-trophic Interactions: An Experimental Community Restoration Approach in a Hawaiian Lowland Wet Forest

对生物多样性和生态系统功能之间的直接和间接联系的理解在生态学中仍然是一个很大的未知数。这种知识的缺乏阻碍了退化土地的恢复，因为在恢复过程中很少计划建立一个复杂的食物网。人们通常认为，“如果你建了它，它们就会来”；换句话说，如果实现了某种植物群落结构，假设动物将会殖民化。然而，人们对因果关系的理解是有限的；如果选择某些植物物种进行恢复，动物的存在和数量会受到怎样的影响？野外实验将探讨基于功能性状的恢复是否会影响动物群落的物种和功能多样性。植物物种在资源利用、生长和繁殖方面有许多具体的差异。有意选择具有特定特征的物种可能有助于指导和设计被恢复地点吸引的动物物种，这为土地管理者提供了引导退化地点走向更健康生态系统状态的工具。这项研究将为学生和技术人员提供研究培训机会、公共宣传，并为当地一所夏威夷语浸入式特许学校的中学生扩展一个模块的开发。恢复实验将在夏威夷低地湿森林中进行，该森林由参考森林（入侵森林）和实验处理组成，其中原生植物留在原位，所有非本地植物物种被清除，并种植了四种不同的混合物。这四种不同的混合物种在功能特征上有所不同，在恢复的群落中也有重叠。本研究将验证凋落叶节肢动物群落的动物多样性在连通性、相互作用多样性和相互作用专业化方面更高，物种间相互作用更复杂的假设。这些被入侵的森林是研究新生态系统如何聚集新社区成员的活生生的实验，其环境条件是研究多营养相互作用的理想条件。稳定同位素分析、网络分析和统计模型将提供在相对低多样性的热带环境中动物组合和相互作用复杂性的不同方面的指标。反过来，生态系统服务价值估计将为处理比较和可持续生态系统管理提供额外的背景。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

An understanding of the direct and indirect links between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning is still a large unknown in ecology. This lack of knowledge impedes restoration of degraded lands, because the establishment of a complex food web is rarely planned for in restoration. It is often assumed that "if you build it, they will come"; in other words, if a certain plant community structure is achieved, the assumption is that animal colonization will follow. Yet, there is a limited understanding of cause and effect; if certain plant species are chosen for restoration, how is animal presence and abundance affected? The proposed field experiment will address if functional trait-based restoration influences the species and functional diversity of animal communities. Plant species differ in many tangible ways relating to resource use, growth, and reproduction. Intentionally choosing species with specific traits may help direct and engineer the species of animals attracted to restored sites, which provides land managers with tools to guide degraded sites towards healthier ecosystem states. This research will offer student and technician research training opportunities, public outreach, and expand development of a module for middle school students at a local Hawaiian language immersion charter school. The restoration experiment will be conducted in a Hawaiian lowland wet forest, which consists of a reference (invaded forest) and experimental treatments in which native plants were left in situ, all non-native plant species were cleared, and four different mixtures of ten species were planted. The four different mixtures of ten species vary by functional traits, as well as their overlap in the restored community. This research will test the hypothesis that animal diversity of the litter arthropod community will be higher and interactions among species will be more complex in terms of connectance, interaction diversity, and interaction specialization in the treatments where the plant species have a greater diversity in their functional trait values. These invaded forests are living experiments in how novel ecosystems assemble new community members, with environmental conditions ideal for examining multi-trophic interactions. Stable isotope analyses, network analyses, and statistical modeling will provide indices of different aspects of animal assemblage and interaction complexity in a relatively low diversity tropical environment. In turn, ecosystem services value estimation will provide additional context for treatment comparisons and sustainable ecosystem management.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.