Species roles and the impacts of species loss in the formation and maintenance of an iconic mixed-species animal group

物种角色以及物种丧失对标志性混合物种动物群形成和维持的影响

• 批准号: 2138040
• 负责人: Corey Tarwater
• 金额: $ 76.38万
• 依托单位: University of Wyoming
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-04-15 至 2025-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2138040&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Species; roles; impacts; species; loss

All species are involved in interactions with other species, and these interactions shape patterns of biodiversity. These interactions are being disrupted around the globe due to human activities, and such disruptions can have cascading effects on communities, ecosystems, and human well-being. In groups of interacting species, as examined in this study, species may vary in their roles in the community: the loss of some species can have large impacts on the community, while the loss of others may have little to no effect. Determining which species to target for conservation requires understanding the roles that species play, the importance of behavior in maintaining species interactions, and how loss of particular species alters the community. Yet, these questions have received little attention. Further, insight into how interactions may vary in response to changing environments can be gained from examining if, how, and why the loss of different types of species alters or disrupts species interactions. This project will include training of underrepresented early career scientists and an undergraduate field-based course in Panama, supported by team-wide training in mentoring to increase equity and inclusivity. The team will also develop open educational research modules for use at the undergraduate level across multiple universities.To examine species interactions and the links between behavior and community ecology, researchers will study one type of mixed-species animal group, army-ant-following birds, using a well-replicated network analytic and experimental approach in tropical forests. The team will test a recently proposed theoretical framework for understanding mixed-species animal group organization, and will greatly expand upon this framework by adding new behavioral roles, context-dependency in roles, and evaluating linkages between behaviors, net benefits, and group structure. In particular, this study will evaluate the behavioral roles of species within these groups, whether roles vary across contexts, and whether temporary loss of a species with differing roles alters (1) the structure of the group during the formation stage (when the group is first forming), and (2) the behaviors, net benefits of interacting, and structure during the maintenance stage (after they have formed). This will be done by conducting two experiments - an acoustic species removal experiment during the formation stage and a physical species removal experiment during the maintenance stage. In each experiment, species with differing behavioral roles will be removed. Behavioral observations will be conducted to assess the impacts of species loss on recruitment, foraging, competition, and group structure. The project will uniquely bridge the fields of animal behavior and community ecology by examining the underlying behavioral mechanisms altering group structure and community resistance, and do so by conducting novel, experimental field tests of how networks respond to species loss.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.

所有物种都参与了与其他物种的互动，这些互动塑造了生物多样性的格局。由于人类活动，这些相互作用正在全球范围内被破坏，这种破坏可能会对社区、生态系统和人类福祉产生连锁影响。在相互作用的物种群体中，正如本研究所考察的那样，物种在群落中的作用可能有所不同：一些物种的丧失可能对群落产生重大影响，而另一些物种的丧失可能几乎没有影响。确定哪些物种是保护的目标，需要了解物种扮演的角色，维持物种互动的行为的重要性，以及特定物种的丧失如何改变群落。然而，这些问题几乎没有受到关注。此外，通过研究不同类型物种的丧失是否、如何以及为什么改变或破坏物种相互作用，可以获得对相互作用如何随环境变化而变化的洞察。该项目将包括培训任职人数不足的早期职业科学家，以及在巴拿马举办本科实地课程，并得到全队辅导培训的支持，以增加公平和包容性。该团队还将开发开放的教育研究模块，供多所大学的本科生使用。为了检验物种相互作用以及行为和群落生态学之间的联系，研究人员将研究一种类型的混合物种动物群体--军队蚂蚁追随鸟，使用在热带森林中复制良好的网络分析和实验方法。该团队将测试最近提出的用于理解混合物种动物群体组织的理论框架，并将通过添加新的行为角色、角色中的上下文依赖以及评估行为、净收益和群体结构之间的联系来极大地扩展该框架。特别是，这项研究将评估物种在这些群体中的行为角色，角色是否在不同的环境中变化，以及具有不同角色的物种的暂时丧失是否会改变(1)形成阶段(当群体第一次形成时)的群体结构，以及(2)维持阶段(形成后)的行为、互动的净收益和结构。这将通过进行两个实验来完成--形成阶段的声学物种去除实验和维护阶段的物理物种去除实验。在每个实验中，具有不同行为角色的物种将被移除。将进行行为观察，以评估物种丧失对招募、觅食、竞争和群体结构的影响。该项目将通过研究改变群体结构和社区抵抗的潜在行为机制，独特地在动物行为和社区生态学领域架起桥梁，并通过对网络如何应对物种损失进行新颖的试验性实地测试来做到这一点。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。