Collaborative Reserach: Demography and Population Dynamics in a Fire-adapted Tree Species, Pinus Rigida

从缅因州和马萨诸塞州到马里兰州和阿巴拉契亚山脉，沿大西洋沿岸平原覆盖了100多万英亩的松林和其他森林，是松林荒地的主要组成部分或重要组成部分。在纽约长岛，大约有10万英亩的沥青松占主导地位的松树荒地存在，并受到保护。像许多其他松树物种一样，沥青松对火灾有许多适应性，并且需要频繁的火灾来再生和保持它们在这些植物群落中的优势地位。更深入地了解影响沥青松种群生长和下降的力量，有望为影响其他易受干扰植物种群和群落行为的因素提供更全面的见解。虽然生态学家已经认识到自然种群和群落通常不会接近稳态条件，但这项研究将有助于开发实用工具，以弥合这种概念性理解与我们实际研究和分析自然种群的方式之间的鸿沟。有关沥青松幼苗和成熟植物的生存、生长和繁殖力的数据将从已知火灾历史的长岛松树荒地收集。这些数据将使用我们将开发的数学人口统计矩阵模型的扩展来分析，扩展以前在植物种群研究中使用的方法。

Gurevitch 9806923 Pitch pines, Pinus rigida, dominate or are important components of pine barrens and other forests covering over a million acres along the Atlantic coastal plain from Maine and Massachusetts to Maryland and the Appalachians. Approximately 100,000 acres of pitch pine dominated pine barrens exist and have protected status on Long Island, New York. Pitch pines, like many other pine species, have many adaptations to fire and require frequent fire both to regenerate and to retain their dominance in these plant communities. A greater understanding of the forces shaping the growth and decline of pitch pine populations promises to offer more general insight into factors affecting the behavior of other disturbance- prone plant populations and communities. While ecologists have understood for some time that natural populations and communities commonly never approach steady-state conditions, this study will help to develop practical tools needed to bridge the gulf between this conceptual understanding and the way we actually study and analyze natural populations. Data on the survival, growth and fecundity of pitch pine seedlings and mature plants will be collected from sites in the Long Island pine barrens with known fire histories. The data will be analyzed using an extension of mathematical demographic matrix models that we will develop, expanding upon the approaches used in previous studies of plant populations.