Dissertation Enhancement Grant: Impact of Local and Regional Processes on Foraging Patterns and Community Organization

9724719 Loiselle这项美洲计划学位论文增强赠款将资助Grace Servat在密苏里大学圣路易斯分校Bette Loiselle博士的指导下进行一项研究，以阐明与南美洲安第斯高地独特的林地栖息地相关的鸟类觅食生态的模式和潜在机制。该群落非常适合于本研究，因为它是一个独特的生物系统，具有高度特有的特点，其在安第斯山脉的分散分布为研究提供了离散的重复，与较低海拔物种丰富的森林相比，植物和鸟类的种类组成相对简单，从而有利于在群落水平上进行详细的生态学研究。这项研究的主要目的是记录和比较以树栖节肢动物为食的个别鸟类的觅食生态；确定鸟类觅食生态中观察到的模式和整个群落在不同地区重复的程度；以及确定哪些尺度和因素最能解释个别物种觅食生态的差异。这项研究将把自然历史观察与关于节肢动物资源的可用性、植被结构以及潜在竞争对手和捕食者的丰度的详细生态学研究结合起来。这项拟议的研究将提供关于一个独特的、受到高度威胁的安第斯系统的新信息，并提供一个模型，以检验当地和区域过程在塑造个体觅食生态和群落格局方面的重要性。***

9724719 Loiselle This Americas Program dissertation enhancement grant will fund Grace Servat, under the direction of Dr. Bette Loiselle, University of Missouri, St. Louis, on a study to elucidate the patterns and underlying mechanisms that shape the foraging ecology of birds associated with a unique woodland habitat of the High Andes in South America. This community is well suited for the present study because it is a distinctive biological system characterized by high levels of endemism, its scattered distribution in the Andes provides discrete replicates for study, and the plant and bird species composition are relatively simple, when compared to more species-rich forests at lower elevation, thus facilitating detailed ecological studies at a community level. The major objectives of the study are to document and compare, across replicate sites, the foraging ecology of individual bird species feeding on arboreal arthropods; to determine the extent to which patterns observed in the foraging ecology of bird species and the assemblage as a whole are repeated across regions; and to determine which scale and factors best explain variation in the foraging ecology of individual species. The research will integrate natural history observations with detailed ecological studies on availability of arthropod resources, vegetation structures and the abundance of potential competitors and predators. The proposed study will contribute new information about a distinctive and highly threatened Andean system, as well as provide a model to examine the importance of local and regional processes in shaping individual foraging ecology and community patterns. ***