LTREB: Ecology and Demography of the Florida Scrub-Jay

9707622菲茨帕特里克本提案将支持继续对佛罗里达灌丛鸦的生态学、人口统计学和保护生物学进行长期研究，灌丛鸦是一种被列为联邦濒危物种的物种。自1969年以来，在佛罗里达中南部的阿赫博尔德生物站，对一个有颜色标记的种群的研究一直在进行。这项研究在动物行为学、社会生物学、人口统计学、生活史理论、进化论和生态学方面产生了重要发现，并引起了对佛罗里达独特的古老生态系统的保护生物学的广泛关注。除了对佛罗里达约60个灌丛松鸦领地进行劳动密集型人口监测外，目前的实地工作强调1）节肢动物、脊椎动物和植物食物资源在空间和时间上的分布，2）自然火灾周期和火灾后演替对松鸦人口、资源可用性和橡树繁殖努力的长期影响; 3）偶发性疾病在种群调节中的作用;（4）自然生境与人工生境的源-汇动态。最近完成的一个重大计划的GIS数据准备，和一系列大规模的现场实验，采用规定的燃烧，打开了新的机会，了解长期影响的环境变化和自然扰动内的佛罗里达灌木生态系统。总的来说，本项目将继续广泛的问题驱动的生态监测制度，这是这个长期研究的基础。

9707622 Fitzpatrick This proposal will support the continuation of a long-term study of the ecology, demography, and conservation biology of the Florida Scrub Jay, a species listed as federally threatened. The study of a color-marked population at Archbold Biological Station in south-central Florida has proceeded uninterrupted since 1969. The study has produced a important discoveries in animal behavior, sociobiology, demography, life history theory, evolution, and ecology, and has spawned widespread attention to the conservation biology of an ancient ecosystem unique to Florida. In addition to labor-intensive demographic monitoring of about 60 Florida Scrub Jay territories, current field work emphasizes 1) distribution of arthropod, vertebrate, and plant food resources through space and time, 2) long-term effects of natural fire cycles and post-fire succession on jay demography, resource availability, and oak reproductive effort; 3) the role of episodic disease in population regulation; and 4) source-sink dynamics in natural as compared with human-modified habitats. Recent completion of a major program of GIS data-preparation, and a series of large-scale field experiments employing prescribed burning, have opened new opportunities to understand the long-term effects of environmental variation and natural perturbation within the Florida scrub ecosystem. Overall, this project uill continue the extensive regime of question-driven ecological monitoring which represents the foundation of this long-term study.