The Evolutionary and Ecological Significance of Natural Disturbance in a New England Salt Marsh

9420186布鲁尔生态演替是群落生态学研究最广泛的过程之一。然而，虽然已经发展了许多群落动力学的生态学模型来解释对干扰的演替反应，但对干扰对植物群落动态的历史影响知之甚少。这项研究的主要目的是探索埋葬干扰对新英格兰盐沼植物群落动态的历史影响。要做到这一点，将采用三种实验方法。首先，将在三个已知干扰历史差异的沼泽地区创建重复的WARK干扰，以检验具有不同干扰历史的沼泽植物对干扰做出不同反应的假设。其次，干扰历史对克隆形态种内变异的影响将通过三个共生的高沼泽多年生物种的普通园艺实验来量化。第三，干扰历史影响种间相互作用强度的假设将通过温室中的一系列附加竞争实验进行验证。本研究将明确探讨干扰历史在植物群落动态研究中的重要性，并明确研究干扰频率作为一种选择力量对沼泽植物的作用。这项研究的结果将探索植物种群生物学和群落动态之间的一个重要接口，但令人惊讶的是，它几乎没有受到关注。

9420186 Brewer Ecological succession is one of the most widely studied processes in community ecology. Nonetheless, while numerous ecological models of community dynamics have been developed to explain successional responses to disturbance, very little is known about historical effects of disturbance on plant community dynamics. The main goal of the proposed research is to explore the historical effects of wrack-burial disturbance on plant community dynamics in a New England salt marsh. To do this, three experimental approaches will be employed. First, replicated wrack disturbances in three marsh areas with known differences in disturbance history will be created to test the hypothesis that marsh plants with different disturbance histories respond differently to disturbance. Secondly, disturbance history influences on intraspecific variation in clonal morphology will be quantified with common garden experiments in three co-occurring high-marsh perennial species. Third, the hypothesis that disturbance history influences the intensity of interspecific interactions will be tested with an additive series of competition experiments in the greenhouse. %%% This study will explicitly examine the importance of considering disturbance history in studying plant community dynamics and specifically will examine the role of disturbance frequency as a selective force on marsh plants. The results of this study will explore an important interface between plant population biology and community dynamics that has received surprisingly little attention.