Coordination Funds

本研究单元旨在了解物种相互作用网络的动态，以揭示高度多样化的热带低地雨林生态系统中物种相互作用网络的分解和重组规则。我们将研究(1)农业用地（牧场和可可种植园）的影响，以表征网络对森林砍伐的抵抗力；(2)农业自然森林恢复的动态时序；(3)重新组装的网络对生态系统过程抗扰动的弹性的贡献。我们将比较捕食者-猎物、植物-传粉者和植物-种子传播者网络的轨迹，以及哺乳动物、屎壳郎和种子之间的分解网络，以及枯木、蚂蚁、白蚁和甲虫之间的分解网络。因此，我们的项目研究了由种间相互作用介导的所有主要生态系统过程的网络：捕食、授粉、初级和次级种子传播、食草、分解和树苗招募。这项研究是在厄瓜多尔西北部的乔科低地森林进行的，该地区面临着特别高的森林砍伐率。我们将在厄瓜多尔私人保护基金会Fundación Jocotoco拥有的森林保护区内及其周围开展工作。我们的62个研究样地包括从以前用作牧场或人工林的不同时间跨度恢复的森林（16个农业用途，30个恢复森林和16个原始森林）。所有子项目将调查一个时间序列，以评估和比较相互作用网络的重组和生态系统过程的轨迹。为了研究这种新组成的网络如何提供更高的处理速率和时间稳定性，我们将沿着时间序列进行扰动招募实验。我们将量化预测对网络重组和对扰动的恢复能力很重要的功能特征的影响：对环境条件的响应特征，以及作为网络连接决定因素的相互作用特征。通过分析这些特征在不同生态过程中的相对贡献，我们可以提炼出森林恢复的分解和重组规则。据预测，随着森林恢复，网络复杂性的变化将引发生态系统过程速率和稳定性的变化。总体而言，我们的研究单位将揭示森林生态系统在毁林后如何，在多大程度上以及多快地重建，包括不同的物种群落，复杂的相互作用网络，以及表征这种森林生态系统的相关生态系统过程。

This research unit aims at understanding the dynamics of species interaction network in order to uncover rules of network dis- and reassembly in a highly diverse tropical lowland rainforest ecosystem. We will study (1) the impacts of agricultural land use (pastures and cacao plantations) to characterize the resistance of networks against deforestation, (2) the dynamics of natural forest recovery from agriculture along a chronosequence, and (3) the contribution of re-assembled networks to the resilience of ecosystem processes against perturbation. We will compare the trajectories of predator–prey, plant–pollinator, and plant–seed disperser networks, as well as decomposition networks between mammals, dung beetles and seeds, and between dead wood, ants, termites, and beetles. Our project thus studies networks of all major ecosystem processes mediated by interspecific interactions: predation, pollination, primary and secondary seed dispersal, herbivory, decomposition, and tree seedling recruitment. The study is located in the Choco lowland forest of North-West Ecuador, an area that faces particularly high deforestation rates. We will work within and around forest reserves owned by Fundación Jocotoco, a private Ecuadorian conservation foundation. Our 62 study plots include forests recovering for different time spans from a former use as pasture or plantation (16 under agricultural use, 30 recovering forests and 16 primary forests). All subprojects will investigate a chronosequence to assess and compare the reassembly of interaction networks and trajectories of ecosystem processes. To study how such newly composed networks offer higher process rates and temporal stability, we will perform a perturbation-recruitment experiment along the chronosequence. We will quantify the effects of functional traits that are predicted to be important for network reassembly and resilience to perturbations: response traits to environmental conditions, and interaction traits as determinants of network links. Analysing the relative contribution of these traits across distinct ecological processes allows us to distil dis- and reassembly rules of forest recovery. Changes in the complexity of networks with forest recovery is predicted to trigger variation in the rates and stability of ecosystem processes. Overall, our research unit will unravel how, to what extent, and how fast a forest ecosystem can re-establish after deforestation, including the diverse species communities, complex interaction networks, and relevant ecosystem processes that characterize such forest ecosystems.