Collaborative Research: BEE: Ecological and coevolutionary feedbacks in multi-mutualist communities

共生关系是物种之间有益的相互作用，在自然群落和农业系统中很重要，因为它们产生物种持续存在所需的关键资源和服务。例如，授粉相互作用对许多农作物的果实生产至关重要，传粉者依赖于他们从这些花中获得的食物。总的来说，互惠关系通常涉及许多物种在复杂的群落中相互作用，但我们对控制它们的因素知之甚少。因此，随着全球变化继续改变地球上的生态系统，我们迫切需要了解形成共生关系的物种如何根据环境和彼此的变化而变化。例如，竞争物种的存在，利用互惠互利者创造的资源，可能会改变互惠互利者为回应彼此而改变的方式。这项研究将探讨在不同的环境中，大群体的互惠物种如何相互响应而变化，以及其他竞争物种如何影响这些变化。该项目使用一个基于啤酒酵母的实验系统来了解物种如何在涉及许多物种的复杂互惠关系中相互响应而变化。除了测试在物种丰富的社区中互惠关系是如何变化的，还将开发一款引人入胜的电子游戏，向高中生传授互惠关系的经济价值以及它们是如何随时间变化的。该项目将使用一种以实验室为基础的营养互惠共生，由芽殖酵母菌株组成，它们相互交换营养资源，从而模拟互惠物种。利用这一系统，研究人员将操纵群落中共生物种的数量和环境可用资源的数量，以实现以下目标：1)评估互惠性状变化（即共同进化）在有或没有从当地环境获得额外交易资源的复杂互惠群落中是如何变化的；2)测试共同进化如何影响物种丰富的互惠群落中新互惠群落的建立；3)测试竞争性物种如何改变互惠群落的共同进化，以及共同进化如何影响互惠群落对这些竞争者的抵抗。该研究的结果将确定影响共生共同进化的生态环境，允许非常驻物种建立的进化环境，以及共同进化如何影响共生物种和竞争物种的生态持久性。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。

Mutualisms are beneficial interactions between species that are important in natural communities and agricultural systems because they generate critical resources and services needed for species to persist. For example, pollination mutualisms are essential for fruit production in many crop plants, and pollinators are dependent on the food they obtain from those flowers. Mutualisms, in general, usually involve many species interacting with one another in complex communities, yet we know relatively little about the factors that govern them. Thus, as global change continues to alter ecosystems on Earth, there is a strong need to understand how species that form mutualisms change in response to the environment and to one another. For instance, the presence of competitive species that use the resources made by mutualists could alter the way in which the mutualists change in response to one another. This research will examine how large groups of mutualist species change in response to each other across different environments and how other competitive species can influence these changes. The project uses an experimental system based on brewer’s yeast to understand how species change in response to one another in complex mutualisms involving many species. In addition to testing how mutualisms change in species rich communities, an engaging video game will be developed to teach high school students about the economic value of mutualisms and how they change over time.The project will use a laboratory-based nutritional mutualism composed of strains of budding yeast that exchange nutrient resources with each other, thus simulating mutualistic species. Using this system, the researchers will manipulate the number of mutualist species in the communities and the amount of environmentally-available resources to address the following goals: 1) Evaluate how reciprocal trait changes (i.e., coevolution) vary in complex mutualist communities with and without traded resources additionally available from the local environment, 2) Test how coevolution influences the establishment of new mutualists in species-rich mutualist communities, 3) Test how a competitive species alters the coevolution of mutualists and how coevolution impacts mutualism resistance to these competitors. Results from the proposed study will identify the ecological contexts that affect coevolution in mutualisms, the evolutionary contexts that allows establishment of nonresident species, and how coevolution impacts ecological persistence of mutualists and competitive species.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.