Plant-Environment Relationships in an Anthropogenic World

人类世界中的植物与环境的关系

• 批准号: RGPIN-2016-04390
• 负责人: MacDougall, Andrew
• 金额: $ 3.79万
• 依托单位: University of Guelph
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2018-01-01 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=658256
• 关键词: Plant; Environment; Relationships; Anthropogenic; World

My research program tests how biotic and abiotic mechanisms interact to influence the diversity and functioning of grasslands, and how those mechanisms are transformed by human-based environmental change. At the simplest level, all terrestrial systems, including grasslands, are regulated by the availability of resources such as nutrients, water, and light. Humans affect diversity and function by dramatically altering the availability of these resources, but do so in complicated ways because factors such as climate change, nitrogen pollution, species introductions, habitat loss, and trophic collapse often occur simultaneously. Our lab uses field-based and statistical approaches, at scales from local to global, to investigate these issues, targeting both fundamental theory and its application to management. For the next five years, my lab will be focusing on three projects: how diversity interacts with human-influenced abiotic processes to regulate invasion resistance in grasslands, how trait variation within-species (intraspecific diversity) versus among-species (interspecific diversity) influences responses to environmental change in plant communities, and how climate change and nitrogen pollution combine to transform plaint-insect dynamics in grasslands. A shared theme of these three objectives is untangling how biotic processes relating to species interactions and diversity versus abiotic processes relating to environmental change, transform the availability of limiting resources and the implications for ecosystem function. The regulation of resources is a central tenet of all models of species coexistence, in both ecological terms and as an evolutionary factor with character displacement. Diversity affects resources via niche differences (i.e., different species thriving in different environments), maximizing uptake and thus production, while reducing availability for invading species (e.g., biotic resistance). Abiotic factors affect resources in a range of ways, most importantly when supply exceeds the demand of the plant community (e.g., nitrogen pollution) or fails to meet it (e.g., intense drought, limiting water availability). This reciprocal relationship between diversity affecting the environment (via the demand for resources) and the environment affecting diversity (via the supply of resources) captures many of the fundamental mechanisms that determine the outcome of species interactions in plant communities. It should also predict how human-based environmental change affects these processes, a theme that is central to my research program. **

我的研究计划测试了生物和非生物机制如何相互作用以影响草原的多样性和功能，以及如何通过基于人类的环境变化来改变这些机制。在最简单的层面上，包括草原在内的所有陆地系统都受养分，水和光等资源的可用性进行调节。人类通过极大地改变这些资源的可用性来影响多样性和功能，但以复杂的方式这样做是因为气候变化，氮污染，物种引入，栖息地丧失和营养崩溃等因素经常同时发生。我们的实验室使用基于现场的和统计方法（从本地到全球）进行研究，以研究这些问题，针对基本理论及其在管理中的应用。 For the next five years, my lab will be focusing on three projects: how diversity interacts with human-influenced abiotic processes to regulate invasion resistance in grasslands, how trait variation within-species (intraspecific diversity) versus among-species (interspecific diversity) influences responses to environmental change in plant communities, and how climate change and nitrogen pollution combine to transform plaint-insect dynamics in grasslands.这三个目标的共同主题是揭示与与环境变化有关的物种相互作用和多样性与非生物过程有关的生物过程如何改变限制资源的可用性以及对生态系统功能的影响。资源的调节是所有物种共存模型的核心宗旨，无论是生态学而言还是具有特征位移的进化因素。多样性通过利基差异（即，在不同环境中蓬勃发展的不同物种）来影响资源，从而最大程度地吸收吸收，从而降低了入侵物种的可用性（例如，生物抗性）。非生物因素以多种方式影响资源，最重要的是，当供应超过植物群落的需求（例如氮污染）或无法满足植物的需求时（例如，强烈的干旱，限制水的可用性）。影响环境的多样性（通过资源需求）与影响多样性的环境（通过资源供应）之间的这种相互关系捕获了许多基本机制，这些基本机制决定了植物群落中物种相互作用的结果。它还应该预测基于人类的环境变化如何影响这些过程，这是我的研究计划核心的主题。 **