Dispersal as a Mechanistic Basis for Landscape Ecology: The Role of Scale and Heterogeneity

近年来，了解种群的空间动态，包括栖息地破碎化的影响，对于制定更好的自然资源管理方法至关重要。景观生态学已经发展了描述空间环境格局的方法，而人口生态学在研究这些格局背后的机制方面有着强大的传统。这个项目将在生态学的两个方向之间架起桥梁，在简单的环境中使用一个简单的有机体。研究的生物是一种陆地等足类动物（“丸虫”），它的生物结构简单，它的环境是以色列的内盖夫沙漠，它提供了一个简单的景观，有一个明确的限制因素——水。本研究将集中在分散作为解释与资源分布相关的等足类动物空间分布的最重要机制。对这一系统的研究将对空间种群动态如何运作产生一般性的见解，并最终有助于更好地理解更复杂的生态系统。

ABSTRACT 97-07785 Turchin Dispersal as a mechanistic basis for landscape ecology: The role of scale and heterogeneity In recent years it has become clear that understanding spatial dynamics of populations, including the effects of habitat fragmentation, is critical for developing better methods of managing natural resources. Landscape ecology has developed approaches for describing environmental patterns in space, while population ecology has a strong tradition of research on mechanisms that underlie these patterns. This project will bridge these two directions in ecology, using a simple organism in a simple environment. The study organism, a terrestrial isopod ("pillbug"), has a simple biology, and its environment, the Negev Desert of Israel, provides a simplified landscape with a clear limiting factor, water. This research will focus on dispersal as the most important mechanism explaining isopod spatial distribution in relation to the distribution of resources. Studying this system will yield general insights into how spatial population dynamics work, and will eventually lead to better understanding of more complex ecological systems.