CRB: Dynamic Interactions Between Plant Distributions and Animal-Generated Disturbances: Trajectories of Restored Communities

9806377 Reichman几十年来，生态学家已经意识到干扰在决定群落结构方面的重要性。人们对干扰模式如何影响社区发展的轨迹知之甚少，而社区发展可能源于恢复自然社区等努力。恢复提供了一个独特的机会，调查初始条件和干扰之间的关系及其对群落发展的影响，因为功能，如植物物种和分布，必须选择，而不是依赖于预先存在的恭维和物种模式。本项目旨在确定加州草地的恢复是如何受到植物的初始分布和囊地鼠产生的干扰强度和空间格局的影响。此外，这个实验系统将作为一个模型，分析资源分配和干扰之间的复杂相互作用的一般特征。研究人员将分析植物之间的相互影响和对动物产生的干扰的影响，以及地鼠之间和植物群落之间的相互影响。此外，实验设计将提供一个机会，以区分的总和的影响，个别地鼠从地鼠之间的复杂的社会相互作用产生的影响，产生缓冲区减少干扰。虽然任何恢复研究都有一个固有的特定地点的组成部分，这样的研究可以揭示一般的生态模式。本研究中的植物系统和干扰因子在北美具有广泛的地理分布。更一般地说，关于恢复群落中动物行为和物种共存之间的相互作用的结论，将适用于许多其他由动物干扰主导的系统。复杂的相互作用是很难研究的，但是通过对恢复的系统进行操纵，这项调查将产生重要的见解，初始条件和干扰制度对社区发展的轨迹的影响。

9806377ReichmanFor decades, ecologists have been aware of the importance of disturbance in determining the structure of communities. Less is known about how patterns of disturbance affect the trajectory of community development that might emanate from efforts such as restoring natural communities. Restoration provides a distinctive opportunity to investigate the relationship between initial conditions and disturbance and their effect on the development of communities because features, such as plant species and distributions, must be chosen rather than relying on a preexisting compliment and pattern of species. This project is designed to determine how the restoration of California grassland is influenced by the initial distribution of plants and the intensity and spatial pattern of disturbance generated by pocket gophers. In addition, this experimental system will serve as a model for analyzing general features of the complex interactions between resource distribution and disturbance. The investigators will analyze the effect of plants on each other and on the disturbances generated by the animals, and the reciprocal effects of gophers on each other and the plant community. Furthermore, the experimental design will provide an opportunity to distinguish between the sum of effects of individual gophers from the effects generated by the complex social interactions between gophers which generate buffer zones of reduced disturbance. While any restoration research has an inherent site specific component, such studies can reveal general ecological patterns. The plant system and disturbance agents in this study have wide geographic distributions in North America. More generally, the conclusions drawn about the interactions between animal behavior and the coexistence of species in restored communities will be applicable in numerous other systems that are dominated by animal disturbance. Complex interactions are difficult to study, but by imposing manipulations on a system under restoration, this investigation will yield important insights into the effect of initial conditions and disturbance regimes on the trajectory of community development.