NSFDEB-NERC: Diversity, Disturbance and Invasion. Using experimental microcosms to illuminate ecological theory

生物入侵对农业，流行病学和保护产生了重大的经济和环境影响，但我们目前对所涉及过程的理解受到孤立研究因果驱动因素和在很大程度上忽视快速进化的阻碍。在这里，我们的目标是使用实验种群的微生物，结合相关的理论和建模议程，研究：1）独立的，并结合，操纵干扰和多样性的入侵成功的影响;和2）预适应干扰制度在介导入侵抗性的作用。这种综合的理论-经验方法将大大提高我们对干扰和多样性在介导入侵中所起作用的概念性理解。

Biological invasions have major economic and environmental impacts on agriculture, epidemiology and conservation, yet our current understanding of the processes involved is hampered by studying causal drivers in isolation and largely ignoring rapid evolution. Here, we aim to use experimental populations of microbes, combined with a related theoretical and modeling agenda, to study: 1) the effect of independent, and combined, manipulation of disturbance and diversity on invasion success; and 2) the role of pre-adaptation to disturbance regimes in mediating invasion resistance. This integrated theoretical-empirical approach will greatly improve our conceptual understanding of the role disturbance and diversity play in mediating invasion.