Collaborative Research: Demography and Population Dynamics of a Fire-adapted Tree Species, Pinus Rigida

福克斯9815469 从缅因州和马萨诸塞州到马里兰州和阿巴拉契亚山脉，沿着大西洋沿岸平原，沥青松占主导地位，是松树荒地和其他森林的重要组成部分，覆盖面积超过100万英亩。在纽约的长岛，大约有10万英亩的松树贫瘠地，并受到保护。与许多其他松树物种一样，沥青松对火灾有许多适应性，需要频繁的火灾才能再生并保持其在这些植物群落中的优势。 更深入地了解塑造沥青松种群生长和衰退的力量，有望对影响其他易受干扰的植物种群和群落行为的因素提供更全面的了解。 虽然生态学家已经了解了一段时间，自然种群和社区通常永远不会接近稳态条件，这项研究将有助于开发实用的工具，弥合这种概念性的理解和我们实际研究和分析自然种群的方式之间的鸿沟。 将从具有已知火灾历史的长岛松树贫瘠地收集关于沥青松幼苗和成熟植物的存活、生长和繁殖力的数据。这些数据将使用我们将开发的数学人口矩阵模型的扩展进行分析，扩展了以前植物种群研究中使用的方法。

Fox 9815469 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.