Collaborative Research: The Roles of Community Assembly and Consumer Impacts in Shaping Ecosystem Function

合作研究：社区集会和消费者影响在塑造生态系统功能中的作用

• 批准号: 2016322
• 负责人: Holly Jones
• 金额: $ 45.85万
• 依托单位: Northern Illinois University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-07-15 至 2025-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2016322&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Roles; Community; Assembly

Ecosystems provide important services such as supporting biodiversity and providing clean water and air for people. These functions are driven by the plants and animals living in that ecosystem and determined by the characteristics of those species—their “functional traits.” When new species arrive in an ecosystem, or they leave or die off, it changes the number of species and the combination of functional traits present, so ecosystem functions can change as well. Knowing which species are most likely to arrive or die off, and how they contribute to ecosystems, can help ecologists predict how benefits to people will change over time. Such information is especially important for predicting how ecosystems will respond to disturbances like climate change, and for helping to understand how we can best restore damaged ecosystems. This project will use a carefully designed experiment to change the number and functional traits of prairie plant species growing together and measure the effects of these changes on ecosystem functions. Those results will then be compared to patterns in real-world prairies to test their realism. Throughout the project, students, conservation practitioners, and members of the public will engage with the research process. A course-based undergraduate research experience will be created between the two partner universities; networking field trips for students from underrepresented groups will take place at both universities; and at least 9 students and early-career researchers will be trained.Ecologists’ efforts to understand the relationships between variation in biodiversity and ecosystem function have led to a consensus that the trait diversity of communities influences their function. Biodiversity change includes both changes in richness and community assembly – the non-random additions and subtractions of species from communities. The project will establish a biodiversity–ecosystem function experiment in which species richness, composition, and functional trait diversity are independently manipulated in plots. Species combinations will be parameterized using empirical field data from restored tallgrass prairies to ensure the experiment retains realism. Further, herbivory treatments will simulate bison grazing effects on prairie plants. In this way, the project will use experimental plots with realistic communities to determine how variation in the number of species and their assembly affect ecosystem functions, including above- and belowground biomass, leaf litter decomposition, and ammonium uptake. Community and ecosystem measurements in real-world prairie restorations with bison present will then be compared to results obtained from experimental plots to determine if experimental results can be used to predict dynamics at larger spatial scales.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.

生态系统提供重要服务，例如支持生物多样性，并为人们提供清洁的水和空气。这些功能是由生活在该生态系统中的动植物驱动的，并由这些物种的特征（他们的“功能性状”）决定。当新物种到达生态系统，或者它们离开或死亡时，它会改变物种的数量和功能性状的组合，因此生态系统功能也会改变。知道哪些物种最有可能到达或死亡，以及它们如何对生态系统做出贡献，可以帮助生态学家预测人们对人们的收益会随着时间而变化。此类信息对于预测生态系统将如何应对气候变化等灾难，并帮助了解我们如何最好地恢复受损的生态系统。该项目将使用经过精心设计的实验来改变生长的草原植物物种的数量和功能特征，并测量这些变化对生态系统功能的影响。然后将这些结果与现实世界实践中的模式进行比较，以测试其现实主义。通过该项目，学生，保护从业人员和公众将参与研究过程。两所伙伴大学之间将创造基于课程的本科研究经验；来自代表性不足小组的学生的网络实地考察将在两所大学进行；至少有9名学生和早期研究人员将受到培训。生态学家为了解生物多样性变化和生态系统功能之间关系的努力已导致人们达成共识，即社区的特征多样性会影响其功能。生物多样性的变化包括丰富性和社区集会的变化 - 从社区中的非随机增加和减去。该项目将建立一个生物多样性 - 生态系统功能实验，其中物种丰富度，组成和功能性状多样性在图中独立操纵。物种组合将使用来自恢复的塔格拉斯大草原的经验现场数据进行参数化，以确保实验保留现实主义。此外，草食疗法将模拟对草原植物的野牛光泽作用。通过这种方式，该项目将使用具有现实社区的实验图来确定物种数量及其组装的变化如何影响生态系统功能，包括地下和下地下生物量，叶子垃圾分解和吸收铵。然后，将与实验图获得的现实世界中的野牛的社区和生态系统测量结果进行比较，以确定是否可以使用实验结果来预测较大空间尺度上的动态。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用该基金会的知识优点和广泛影响来评估，认为NSF的法定任务是珍贵的。