Invasive earthworm effects on plant functional traits and diversity

入侵蚯蚓对植物功能性状和多样性的影响

• 批准号: 421786068
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Nico Eisenhauer
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Deutsches Zentrum für integrative Biodiversitätsforschung (iDiv)
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2018-12-31 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/421786068?language=en
• 关键词: Invasive; earthworm; effects; plant; functional

Invasions of natural communities by nonindigenous species are a threat to native biodiversity and are currently rated as one of the most important global-scale environmental problems. Invasive species can radically transform native ecosystems when they introduce novel traits that are dissimilar from those of the native community. Among belowground invaders, invasive earthworms are receiving increasing attention because of their role as ecosystem engineers in terrestrial ecosystems and their functional dissimilarity to the native soil fauna at various locations around the world. The invasion of exotic earthworms often causes non-random changes in diversity above- and belowground, suggesting that earthworm invasion may alter how trait-mediated mechanisms impact ecosystem functioning.This project aims to elucidate how invasive exotic earthworms affect intraspecific plant functional trait variation and plant community composition using earthworm-free regions of northern North America as a model system. In order to derive a comprehensive framework regarding the mechanisms by which earthworm invasions could modify plant community composition, we will assess the plant functional traits and the taxonomic and functional composition of plant communities in different forests with active earthworm invasion fronts. We will also disentangle the underlying mechanisms to these modifications with laboratory experiments. Empirical work will be complemented by a meta-analysis of published literature on invasive earthworm effects on plant communities. Thus, the proposed work integrates different ecological scales (plant species-specific physiological and morphological traits to populations to plant communities) by using a novel, synthetic combination of field observations, laboratory experiments, and meta-analyses. First, a comprehensive field study will explore the effects of invasive earthworm communities on the functional diversity of plant communities based on realized plant traits in invaded and non-invaded areas of deciduous forests (WP1). Second, a laboratory study will allow us to differentiate the effects of different ecological groups of earthworms on plant community composition, and to disentangle the underlying mechanisms via the study of their effects on plant-plant and plant-herbivore interactions (WP2). Third, a meta-analysis will integrate the information from existing literature and WPs 1 and 2 to investigate the role of earthworms as environmental filters selecting for specific plant traits based on observed changes in plant community composition (WP3). This meta-analysis will compare the effects of different ecological groups and communities of (invasive) earthworms on plant traits, plant community diversity, and plant community composition/homogenization. The functional trait-based approach will allow us to develop a general conceptual framework of plant responses to exotic earthworms.

非本地物种对自然群落的入侵是对本地生物多样性的威胁，目前被列为最重要的全球规模的环境问题之一。当入侵物种引入与本地社区不同的新特征时，它们可以从根本上改变本地生态系统。在地下入侵者中，入侵蚯蚓由于其在陆地生态系统中作为生态系统工程师的作用以及其在世界各地与原生土壤动物的功能差异而受到越来越多的关注。外来蚯蚓的入侵往往会导致地上和地下多样性的非随机变化，这表明蚯蚓入侵可能会改变性状介导的机制如何影响生态系统functioning.This项目旨在阐明外来入侵蚯蚓如何影响种内植物功能性状变异和植物群落组成使用无蚯蚓地区的北方北美作为一个模式系统。为了得到一个全面的框架，通过该机制，入侵可以修改植物群落组成，我们将评估植物功能性状和分类和功能组成的植物群落在不同的森林与积极的入侵前线。我们还将通过实验室实验解开这些修饰的潜在机制。经验性工作将通过对已发表的关于入侵对植物群落影响的文献进行荟萃分析来补充。因此，拟议的工作整合了不同的生态尺度（植物物种特异性的生理和形态特征的种群植物群落），通过使用一种新的，综合的野外观察，实验室实验和荟萃分析相结合。首先，一个全面的实地研究将探讨入侵的植物群落的功能多样性的植物群落的基础上实现的入侵和非入侵地区的落叶林（WP 1）的植物性状的影响。第二，实验室研究将使我们能够区分不同生态组的蚯蚓对植物群落组成的影响，并通过研究它们对植物-植物和植物-草食动物相互作用的影响来解开潜在的机制（WP 2）。第三，荟萃分析将整合现有文献和WP 1和2的信息，以调查蚯蚓作为环境过滤器的作用，根据观察到的植物群落组成（WP 3）的变化选择特定的植物性状。该荟萃分析将比较不同生态群体和（入侵）蚯蚓群落对植物性状、植物群落多样性和植物群落组成/均质化的影响。功能性状为基础的方法将使我们能够开发一个一般的概念框架植物反应外来蚯蚓。