Mechanisms of Species Coexistence in a Guild of African acacia-Ants

斯坦顿9726663长期以来，生态学一直对理解允许相互竞争的物种共存的机制感兴趣。这一领域仍然存在许多问题。这项研究将利用肯尼亚一个地区广泛存在的蚂蚁-相思共生现象来观察、实验和模拟相互竞争的物种之间的相互作用。在干旱的高地地区，相思树占据了有限的树木数量。这些物种，就像在其他干燥的热带栖息地一样，表现出与蚂蚁的互惠关系。蚂蚁的存在大大降低了树木的死亡率，并从蚂蚁本身获得了实质性的好处。在这一地区有四种共生蚂蚁，它们在相互竞争中表现出明显的等级关系。每一棵树都被单一的蚂蚁物种占据，并且蚂蚁物种之间存在攻击性的相互作用，占据每一棵树，其中一个物种通常是优势种。然而，与此同时，这四种蚂蚁在该地区持续存在了很长一段时间，该项目将测试促进这种持续共存的因素。它将试验性地将蚂蚁从一些树上移走，检查这些树以及允许在没有蚂蚁的情况下生长的盆栽树木的再繁殖，并将这些信息结合到一个矩阵模型中，该模型预测该地区内每种蚂蚁物种发生的转变。这项工作将对肯尼亚的保护规划和教育发展产生重大影响。

Stanton 9726663 There has long been an interest in ecology in understanding the mechanisms that allow competing species to coexist. Numerous questions remain in this area. This research would take advantage of a widespread occurrence of ant-acacia symbioses in a region of Kenya to observe, experiment with, and model interactions between competing species. In arid upland regions, Acacias dominate the limited numbers of trees present. These species, as in other dry tropical habitats exhibit a mutualistic relationship with ants. The presence of ants substantially decrease tree mortality and derive substantial benefits from the ants themselves. There are four symbiotic ant species occurring throughout this region where they exhibit a distinct hierarchy in competitive interactions. Individual trees are colonized by a single ant species and there are aggressive interactions among the ant species for the occupation of each tree with one species being the usual dominant. At the same time, however, the four ant species have persisted in the region for an extended time and this project will test the factors that foster this continued coexistence. It will remove ants experimentally from some trees, examine recolonization of such tree as well as of potted trees that had been allowed to grow without ants, and combine this information in a matrix model that predicts the transitions that occur in the occurrence of each ant species within the region. This work will have substantial effects for conservation planning and educational development in Kenya.