Moose Foraging Strategy, Energetics, and Ecosystem Processes in Boreal Landscapes

摘要/ Abstract摘要：PI-PASTOR：动物或植物的个别物种可以产生强烈的生态系统或景观效应。这些生物的种群动态，或这些物种的灭绝，会对生态系统产生巨大的影响。这样一种具有如此强大生态足迹的动物就是驼鹿。这个项目使用了与全球定位系统（GPS）相连的最先进的跟踪技术来研究驼鹿对MN旅行者国家公园的影响。研究驼鹿个体的能量平衡、驼鹿对植物物种分布的影响、动物对土壤养分循环的影响，并建立模拟模型研究驼鹿的觅食策略和驼鹿对景观格局的影响。这项研究是有价值的，因为它将行为和人口研究与生态系统和景观水平的反应联系起来。尽管种群生物学和生态系统生态学之间的双向互动经常得到承认，但这些学科之间的界面往往不重叠。研究的三个组成部分特别精心制定和规划。首先，动物追踪工作为研究动物行为、觅食策略和空间显性景观效应提供了必要的细节。其次，模拟模型量化了这种大型食草动物的影响，并可能在许多其他大型食草动物中找到应用。第三，除了植物群落分布等生态系统的结构成分外，该研究还探讨了动物与营养循环和分解等过程的联系。

Abstract: PI-PASTOR: Individual species of animals or plants can produce effects which are strongly manifest at the ecosystem or landscape level. The population dynamics of such organisms, or the elimination of such species, can have dramatic ecosystem impacts. Such an animal with such a strong ecological footprint is the moose. This project uses state-of-the-art tracking technology linked to a global positioning system (GPS) to study the effects of moose at Voyageurs National Park, MN. The project studies the energetic balance of individual moose, the effect of moose on plant species distribution, the animal's effects on soil nutrient cycling, and develops a simulation model to study foraging strategy of moose and the impact of moose on landscape patterns. This research is valuable because it links behavioral and population studies with ecosystem and landscape level responses. The interfaces between these disciplines often do not overlap, although the two-way interaction between population biology and ecosystems ecology is often acknowledged. Three components of the research are especially well formulated and planned. First, the animal tracking work provides the detail necessary to examine animal behavior, foraging strategy, and spatially-explicit landscape effects. Second, the simulation model quantifies the impacts of this large grazing animal and may find application with numerous other large herbivores. Third, the research addresses animal linkages to processes such as nutrient cycling and decomposition in addition to structural components of ecosystems such as plant community distributions.