The ecology of plant interactions: Integrating plant behavior, traits, and community assembly

有限的资源可用性影响物种共存、觅食决策和其他生态过程的结果（如植物-微生物相互作用、草食、授粉）。生态和进化生物学家长期以来一直认为竞争是影响个体、种群和社区的一个至关重要的过程。因此，竞争是许多基本理论（如自然选择、竞争排斥、限制相似性等）的中心机制。然而，对植物之间竞争过程的机制理解，以及对群落竞争后果的经验驱动的理解，令人惊讶地有限。我过去和未来的研究计划集中在使用经验方法来理解植物相互作用的生态和进化原因和后果，重点是地下过程。在本提案中，我重点关注三个方面：(I)植物竞争和群落聚集，（ii）植物觅食和行为生态学，以及（iii）多种生态压力源。这项工作建立在最近的几个发现之上，并继续依靠我的实验方法来理解生态过程。更具体地说，在未来五年内，我将实现四个短期目标：检验竞争对群落结构和聚集的影响取决于群落内部竞争规模不对称（CSA）的程度。2. 理清特质、亲缘关系和竞争之间的关系。测试竞争性容忍、抵抗和抑制的框架是否提高了总体理解。植物对土壤养分和邻近根系的行为响应模式与观察到的根系占用生境模式之间的联系。开发一种非破坏性和基于图像的方法，以允许重复测量根分布。将根系分布的行为变化与植物竞争理论对多种胁迫的潜在反应相结合。这项研究的核心是在本科生、硕士和博士以及PDF水平上对HQP进行广泛的培训。我的研究项目的成功高度依赖于有效的指导，帮助鼓励个人发展成为科学家。从我之前的实验室成员的发表记录和现任职位可以证明，我之前的培训工作是成功的。我打算继续推行我在过去14年里制定的HQP培训计划，同时也适应科学文化的变化。虽然提案中提出的研究来自广泛的概念理论，但它与加拿大和其他地方所关注的问题的相关性并非抽象的。我在植物觅食行为方面的工作，以及对影响植物如何探索土壤的因素的理解，对农业和作物育种有直接的影响。虽然这些方面不会通过DG计划得到资助，但我预计在未来五年内会出现合作项目（例如CRD）。同样，生物多样性保护也引起了国家和国际的极大兴趣，而且由于引进新物种和改变的资源，它经常受到挑战。反过来，这些有可能影响自然系统的竞争动态。不幸的是，人们对人为变化和物种丧失之间的机制联系了解得还不够透彻；有效和负担得起的缓解和恢复取决于对核心生态的理解。因此，我也期望从这里概述的基于竞争的研究中出现合作研究的潜力。

Limited resource availability impacts species coexistence, foraging decisions, and the outcome of other ecological processes (e.g. plant-microbe interactions, herbivory, pollination). Ecological and evolutionary biologists have long viewed competition to be a critically important process affecting individuals, populations, and communities. Consequently, competition sits as a central mechanism of many fundamental theories (e.g. natural selection, competitive exclusion, limiting similarity etc.). However, the mechanistic understanding of the competitive process among plants, along with an empirically-driven understanding of competitions consequences for communities, is surprisingly limited. My past and future research program is centered on using an empirical approach to understanding the ecological and evolutionary causes and consequences of plant interactions, with an emphasis on belowground processes. In this proposal, I focus on three areas: (i) plant competition and community assembly, (ii) plant foraging and behavioural ecology, and (iii) multiple ecological stressors. This work builds upon several recent discoveries, and continues to rely upon my experimental approach to understanding ecological processes. More specifically, over the next five years, I will address four short-term objectives: 1. Test the prediction that the impact of competition impact on community structure and assembly is dependent upon the degree of competitive size-asymmetry (CSA) occurring within the community. 2. Disentangle the relationships among traits, relatedness, and competition. Test whether the framework of competitive tolerance, resistance, and suppression improves general understanding.3. Link patterns in plant behavioral responses to soil nutrients and neighboring roots to observed patterns of habitat occupancy by roots. Develop a non-destructive and image-based methodology to allow for repeated measures of root distributions.4. Integrate the consequences of behavioral shifts in root distributions with plant competition theory potential responses to multiple stressors. Central to this research will be the extensive training of HQP at the undergraduate, MSc & PhD, and PDF levels. The success of my research program is highly dependent upon effective mentorship, helping encourage individuals as they develop as scientists. As evidenced from the publication record and current positions of my previous lab members, I have previously been successful in my training efforts. In intend to carry forward with the HQP training plan I have developed over the last 14 years, while also adapting to changes in scientific culture.Though the research presented in the proposal is drawn from broad conceptual theory, its relevance to issues of concern in Canada and elsewhere is not abstract. My work on plant foraging behaviour, and understanding the factors which influence how plant explore the soil has direct implications for agriculture and crop breeding. Though those aspects will not be funded through the DG program, I anticipate collaborative projects (e.g. CRD) to emerge over the next five years. Similarly, biodiversity conservation is of great national and international interest, and it is routinely being challenged through the introduction of novel species and altered resources. In turn, these have the potential to impact the competitive dynamics of natural systems. Unfortunately, the mechanistic linkages between anthropogenic changes and species loss are less well understood than needed; effective and affordable mitigation and restoration is dependent upon core ecological understanding. Thus, I also anticipate potential for collaborative studies to emerge from the competition-based research outlined here.