Disturbance and Environmental Variability Effects on Plant Colonization and Establishment

生态学家、地理学家和其他科学家最近 投入了大量的精力去研究那些 影响生物多样性的形式和程度 各种各样的地方。 在研究过的因素中 各种类型的自然和人类的影响， 引起的干扰（如火灾或洪水）以及 植物和动物群落的变化 环境条件（如温度变化或 沉淀）。 相对较少的研究致力于 这些因素之间的相互作用。 这个项目 将重点描述和分析的植被变化， 北部Huyck保护区的混合落叶林生态系统 纽约。 本项目将重点回答两个问题：（1） 干扰在决定物种中起什么作用 森林和老农田群落的组成和丰富程度？和 (2)林下植被物候学和 空间种群动态可以与环境 年内和年间的变化？ 这些问题将 使用通过各种方式收集的数据进行回答，包括 植被普查和制图，树木年轮测量， 测量植被间隙，测试土壤样品，以及 控制环境变量的实验， 复制不同的气候状况。 该项目将提供新的信息， 对不同形式的干扰和 不同类型的环境变化会影响 温带落叶阔叶混交林不同种的分布 生态系统 因为对这两个一般因素的分析， 同时，该项目还将提高 理解干扰和不同干扰之间的相互作用 环境变化的形式，因为它们影响植被。 的 因此，该项目的结论将有助于增加 了解植被内部和植被之间的精细尺度动态 社区，他们也将推动更多的发展， 综合的区域和全球模型， 人类和物理活动。

Ecologists, biogeographers, and other scientists recently have devoted considerable attention to the study of factors that influence the form and extent of biological diversity within various types of locales. Among the factors that have been studied intensively are the impacts of various types of natural and human- induced disturbances (like fires or floods) and the response of vegetative and faunal communities to changes in general environmental conditions (like changes in temperature or precipitation). Relatively little research has been devoted to interactions between these general factors, however. This project will focus on description and analysis of vegetation change in the mixed deciduous forest ecosystems of the Huyck Preserve in upstate New York. The project will focus on answering two questions: (1) What role does disturbance play in determining the species composition and richness of forest and old field communities? and (2) What responses in understory forest-vegetation phenology and spatial population dynamics can be related to environmental variability within and between years? These questions will be answered using data gathered through a variety of means, including vegetation censuses and mapping, tree-ring measurements, measurement of vegetation gaps, testing of soil samples, and experiments in which environmental variables are controlled to replicate different climatic regimes. This project will provide new information about and new insights into the ways that different forms of disturbance and different types of environmental change affect the number, form, and location of different species in temperate mixed deciduous ecosystems. Because analyses of these two general factors will be conducted simultaneously, the project will also enhance understandings of interactions among disturbances and different forms of environmental variability as they affect vegetation. The conclusions of this project therefore will contribute to increased knowledge of the fine-scale dynamics within and between vegetative communities, and they also will advance the development of more comprehensive regional and global models that relate natural change to human and physical activities.