Dissertation Research: Insect Species Diversity on Patchy Ephemeral Resources: A Field Test of Patch Dynamics Coexistence Models

本项目在整个群落水平上对“斑块动态”群落生态模型的预测进行了检验。这将有助于解释昆虫群落的多样性和昆虫整体的进化多样性。“斑块动力学”模型描述了分散、种内聚集和干扰如何使竞争物种或捕食者和猎物物种在斑块状的短暂资源上共存。将回答两个具体问题：1。群落物种多样性是否随着资源空间斑块性的增加而增加？2. 随着资源的时间不连续性增加，群落多样性是否会在几代之后增加？三个实验将利用实验室培育的蘑菇作为昆虫的短暂资源。第一个实验将决定暴露的时间长短，这将使其他实验中蘑菇上的昆虫多样性最大化。第二个实验将比较被分成1块、4块或16块的标准质量蘑菇所支持的昆虫的多样性。第三个实验将比较在不同时间间隔更新的相同空间阵列蘑菇在几代之间的多样性。

This project tests the predictions of 'patch dynamics' community ecology models at the level of the whole community. It will help explain the diversity of insect communities and the evolutionary diversity of insects as a whole. 'Patch dynamics' models describe how dispersal, intra-specific aggregation, and disturbance allow competing species or predator and prey species to coexist on patchy ephemeral resources. Two specific questions will be answered: 1. Does community species diversity increase as the spatial patchiness of a resource is increased? 2. Does community diversity increase over several generations as the temporal discontinuity of the resource increases? Three experiments will manipulate laboratory-grown mushrooms as a patchy ephemeral resource for insects. The first experiment will determine the length of exposure that will give maximum insect diversity on mushrooms in the other experiments. The second experiment will compare the diversity of insects supported by a standard mass of mushrooms divided into either one, four, or sixteen patches. The third experiment will compare diversity over several generations between identical spatial arrays of mushrooms that are renewed at different temporal intervals.