REU/ROA: Collaborative Research: Predation, Herbivory and Disturbance: Structuring Forces in the Littoral Zone Community of North Temperate Lakes

生物和非生物因素在构建威斯康星州北部湖泊的海岸带群落中的相对重要性将进行评估。提议的工作建立在5年的合作研究基础上，研究了控制近岸社区结构和功能的主要力量。这种方法是全面的。它评估了复杂的相互作用，捕食者和猎物之间的直接和间接的相互作用，以及级联假说。它们最近都被应用于湖泊的上层动物，但在结构复杂的底栖生物、沿海群落中，它们在很大程度上没有经过测试。这项工作的核心是一个中生态实验，其中小龙虾和小龙虾的鱼类捕食者的密度是处理变量。将采用减少小龙虾的鱼类捕食者以模拟冬杀对顶级营养水平的影响的处理方法。中生态系统是介于实验室和全湖实验之间的尺度。这种方法是容易处理的、现实的，而且绝对需要在理解构成沿海社区的那些力量方面取得进展。

The relative importance of biotic and abiotic factors in structuring the littoral zone community in northern Wisconsin lakes will be evaluated. The proposed work builds on 5 years of collaborative research examining the major forces controlling the structure and function of the nearshore community. The approach is comprehensive. It evaluates complex interactions, direct and indirect interactions among predators and their prey, and the cascade hypothesis. They have all been recently applied to the pelagia of lakes, but are largely untested in the structurally- complex environment of the benthic, littoral cummunity. The centerpiece for this effort is a mesocosm experiment in which densities of fish predators of crayfish and crayfish are treatment variables. Treatments in which the fish predators of crayfish are reduced to mimic the impact of winterkill on the top trophic level will be used. The mesocosms represent a scale intermediate between laboratory and whole-lake experiments. The approach is tractable, realistic, and absolutely required to make progress toward understanding those forces structuring the littoral community.