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巨大的未知数。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“如果你建造了它，它们就会来”；换句话说，如果实现了某种植物群落结构，那么动物殖民就会随之而来。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修复，动物的存在和数量会受到什么影响？拟议的野外实验将探讨基于功能特征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不同之处。有意选择具有特定特征的物种可能有助于指导和设计被修复地点吸引的动物物种，这为土地管理者提供了工具，引导退化地点走向更健康的生态系统状态。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，并在当地一所夏威夷语言沉浸式特许学校为中学生扩大开发模块。恢复实验将在夏威夷低地湿地森林中进行，包括对照(入侵森林)和实验处理，其中保留原生植物，清除所有非原生植物，种植10个物种的4种不同混交物。这10个物种的四个不同的混交物在功能特征上有所不同，以及它们在恢复的群落中的重叠。本研究将验证这样的假设，即在植物物种功能性状值具有较大多样性的处理中，凋落物节肢动物群落的动物多样性将更高，物种之间的相互作用将在连接性、相互作用多样性和相互作用专门化方面更加复杂。这些入侵的森林是新生态系统如何聚集新的社区成员的活生生的实验，环境条件是研究多种营养相互作用的理想条件。稳定同位素分析、网络分析和统计建模将提供在相对低多样性的热带环境中动物聚集和相互作用复杂性的不同方面的指数。反过来，生态系统服务价值评估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NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.