Collaborative Research: Higher order interactions, functional trait changes, and species coexistence in an annual plant community

合作研究：一年生植物群落中的高阶相互作用、功能性状变化和物种共存

• 批准号: 2022213
• 负责人: Jonathan Levine
• 金额: $ 54.09万
• 依托单位: Princeton 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: 2020-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2022213&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Higher; order; interactions

Natural communities are often composed of dozens or hundreds of interacting species. However, for simplicity, the study of species interactions in ecology most often focuses on interactions between pairs of species. Ecologists often then assume that our understanding of interactions between species pairs can be used to make sense of the dynamics of entire communities. This core assumption is challenged by the potential for Higher Order Interactions (HOIs), which occur when the interaction between a pair of species is changed by the presence of a third species. HOIs can either make it easier or more difficult for species to coexist in a diverse community, depending on the strength and the nature of the effects. The possible existence of these interactions therefore fundamentally challenges our understanding of how biodiversity is maintained in natural communities. However, we know very little about how strong or widespread HOIs might be in nature. The research will quantify the strength and prevalence of HOIs among plant species in a grassland community and test if certain physical or physiological characteristics of plant species make HOIs more likely to occur. The project will address a fundamental challenge in community ecology, train a graduate student and postdoctoral researcher, and be used to improve courses offered at the high school, undergraduate and graduate level. The research will combine large-scale field experiments, detailed measurements of plant functional traits, and the application of mathematical theory to ask three questions: (1) How strong are Higher Order Interactions (HOIs) among competitors in nature? (2) How do HOIs affect opportunities for species coexistence? (3) Can ecologists predict the magnitude of these interactions in nature with knowledge of plant functional traits? The project will quantify the magnitude of nearly 150 three-way HOIs through a large field experiment in a California annual plant community subjecting focal species to simultaneously varying densities of two different competitor species. Models with HOIs will then be fit to the demographic data collected. To address the coexistence consequences of the fitted HOIs, the invasion condition for coexistence and species persistence times will be evaluated in parameterized models that either include or exclude these HOI terms. To assess the predictability of HOIs, the research will measure how plant functional traits plastically respond to the densities of other competitors, and this information will be used to predict the value of the fitted HOIs. Taken together, the research will allow ecologists to both quantify the importance of HOIs for species coexistence and identify their functional basis, laying the groundwork for further mechanistic studies of these interactions.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.

自然社区通常由数十种或数百种相互作用的物种组成。但是，为简单起见，对生态学中物种相互作用的研究最常集中于对物种之间的相互作用。然后，生态学家经常假设我们对物种对之间的相互作用的理解可以用来理解整个社区的动态。这种核心假设受到高阶相互作用（HOI）的潜力（HOI）的挑战，这是当一对物种之间的相互作用因第三种的存在而改变时发生的。 HOI可以使物种在多样化的社区中共存变得更容易或更困难，具体取决于效果的强度和性质。因此，这些相互作用的可能存在从根本上挑战了我们对自然界生物多样性如何维持的理解。但是，我们对大自然的强大或普遍性的知识一无所知。 这项研究将量化草原社区中植物物种中HOI的强度和普遍性，并测试植物物种的某些物理或生理特征是否使HOI更可能发生。该项目将应对社区生态学的根本挑战，培训研究生和博士后研究员，并用于改善高中，本科和研究生层面提供的课程。 这项研究将结合大规模的现场实验，植物功能性状的详细测量以及数学理论的应用提出三个问题：（1）自然界竞争者之间的高阶相互作用（HOIS）的强度如何？ （2）HOI如何影响物种共存的机会？ （3）生态学家能否通过对植物功能性状的了解来预测这些相互作用的大小？该项目将通过在加利福尼亚州的年度植物社区进行大型野外实验来量化近150个三向HOI的大小，从而使焦点物种同时改变了两个不同竞争者物种的密度。然后，带有HOI的模型将适合收集的人口统计数据。为了解决拟合HOI的共存后果，将以包括或排除这些HOI项的参数化模型来评估共存和物种持久时间的入侵条件。为了评估HOI的可预测性，该研究将衡量植物功能性状如何塑料对其他竞争者的密度做出反应，并将这些信息用于预测合适的HOI的价值。综上所述，这项研究将使生态学家既可以量化HOI对于物种共存的重要性并确定其功能基础，从而为这些相互作用进行进一步的机械研究奠定了基础。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子和更广泛影响的评估来审查的审查标准，从而被视为值得通过评估来提供支持。

项目成果

Competition for water and species coexistence in phenologically structured annual plant communities

• DOI: 10.1111/ele.13990
• 发表时间: 2022-03-17
• 期刊: ECOLOGY LETTERS
• 影响因子: 8.8
• 作者: Levine, Jacob, I;Levine, Jonathan M.;Pacala, Stephen W.
• 通讯作者: Pacala, Stephen W.

Competition for pollinators destabilizes plant coexistence

• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04973-x
• 发表时间: 2022-07-20
• 期刊: NATURE
• 影响因子: 64.8
• 作者: Johnson, Christopher A.;Dutt, Proneet;Levine, Jonathan M.
• 通讯作者: Levine, Jonathan M.