Dissertation Research: Impact of a Predator and Competitor on a Multi-species Community: Brook Trout and Appalachian Salamanders

微扰实验已经成为群落生态学家试图了解决定物种分布和丰度的因素的重要工具。生物扰动，如新物种进入群落，是特别感兴趣的。群落如何对新物种做出反应，以及该物种如何融入现有的相互作用框架，在推断群落组织机制方面特别有用。捕食和竞争是河边蝾螈群落中重要的相互作用。这些群落与一种大型掠食性鱼类鳟鱼部分同域，提供了与自然分布相关的生物扰动。在这个蝾螈群落中，捕食和竞争是重要的相互作用。鳟鱼的影响可能包括捕食和竞争，并可能通过直接和间接的影响影响社区。群落组织、物种相互作用和对鳟鱼的反应将采用三种方法进行研究。自然实验将提供长期共存影响的数据。重复的现场实验允许严格的假设测试，小溪鳟鱼影响社区组织在河边蝾螈。在一系列人工流中的析因实验将确定相互作用的性质和相对重要性。

Perturbation experiments have become an important tool of community ecologists trying to understand what factors determine the distribution and abundance of species. Biotic perturbations, such as the introduction of new species into communities, are of particular interest. How a community responds to a new species and how that species integrates itself into the existing framework of interactions are especially useful in inferring mechanisms of community organization. Predation and competition are important interactions within streamside salamander communities. These commnunities are partially sympatric with a large predatory fish, the brook trout, providing a biotic perturbation relevant to natural distributions. Predation and competition are important interactions within this salamander community. Impact of trout likely involves both predation and competition and may affect the community via direct and indirect effects. Community organization, species interactions and responses to brook trout will be studied using three approaches. Natural experiments will provide data on the effects of long-term co-occurrence. Replicated field experiments allow rigorous testing of the hypothesis that brook trout affect community organization in streamside salamanders. Factorial experiments in an array of artificial streams will determine the nature and relative importance of interactions.