LTREB Renewal: Collaborative Research: Understanding the strength, duration, and stability of connectivity effects on community diversity

栖息地丧失是物种多样性丧失的最大原因，因为它隔离了小块栖息地以及这些碎片中的动植物种群。该项目考察了景观连通性，以及自然植被景观廊道在碎片间促进生物活动和减轻碎片隔离效应的程度。虽然景观连通性被认为是维持物种多样性的基础，但很少有证据表明廊道对物种多样性的影响。研究人员将扩展一项正在进行的实验，该实验旨在测试景观连通性对多样性的影响。迄今为止的研究结果表明，当碎片被廊道连接时，植物的物种多样性增加，但这种反应是短期的还是持续的问题仍然存在。该项目将生成长期数据，以解决连通性、多样性和时间之间的关系，以确定连通性效应是持久的还是短暂的，并评估这种关系的潜在原因。一个致力于连接保护走廊的科学和实践的网站，ConservationCorridor.org，将为这些努力做出贡献。研究生和本科生将通过参与研究进行培训，继续与美国林务局成功合作，培训和指导来自代表性不足群体的妇女和学生。景观连通性，或景观促进扩散的程度，被视为调节物种多样性的根本重要因素。这使得多样性生态学理论和受栖息地破碎化和环境变化影响的生态系统保护越来越重视连通性。连通性如何影响时间可变的群落，例如那些正在演替或受到干扰事件或气候变率影响的群落是不确定的。本研究将利用长期数据集加深我们对连通性对社区多样性重要性的理解。研究小组将继续收集核心数据以延长时间序列，并收集新的物种丰度数据，建立植物物种功能性状数据库。拟议的研究将确定负责观察到的物种丰富度随时间变化的生态机制，包括连通性是否增加了定植率或降低了灭绝率。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。

Habitat loss is the greatest cause of species diversity loss, as it isolates small patches of habitat along with the plant and animal populations in these fragments. This project examines landscape connectivity, and the degree to which landscape corridors of natural vegetation among fragments facilitate the movement of organisms and alleviate the isolating effects of fragmentation. Although landscape connectivity is considered to be fundamental to the maintenance of species diversity, there is remarkably little evidence documenting the effects of corridors on species diversity. The investigators will extend an ongoing experiment explicitly designed to test the effects of landscape connectivity on diversity. Results to date show that species diversity of plants increases when fragments are connected by corridors, but the question remains whether these responses are short-term or persistent. The project will generate long-term data to resolve the relationship between connectivity, diversity, and time, in order to determine whether connectivity effects are long-lasting or transient, and evaluate underlying causes of this relationship. A website dedicated to bridging the science and practice of conservation corridors, ConservationCorridor.org, will contribute to these efforts. Graduate and undergraduate students will be engaged in and trained through participation in the research, continuing a successful collaboration with the US Forest Service to train and mentor women and students from underrepresented groups.Landscape connectivity, or the degree to which the landscape facilitates dispersal, is viewed as afundamentally important factor regulating species diversity. This has led to a large and growing emphasis on connectivity in ecological theories of diversity and in conservation of ecosystems impacted by habitat fragmentation and environmental variation. How connectivity affects temporally variable communities, such as those undergoing succession or being influenced by disturbance events or climate variability is uncertain. This research will advance our understanding of the importance of connectivity for community diversity using a long term dataset. The research team will continue to collect core data to extend the time series, as well as new data on species abundances, and create a database of plant species functional traits. The proposed research will identify the ecological mechanisms responsible for observed patterns of species richness over time, including whether connectivity increases colonization rates or decreases extinction rates.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.