The Interplay of Biotic and Abiotic Factors in a Chilean Semiarid Community: A Long-Term Study at Multiple Temporal and Spatial Scales

这个项目将继续一项长期的、大规模的实验操作，以检验包括捕食、种间竞争和草食在内的生物相互作用在智利半干旱群落中的重要性。该项目将继续对温带新热带地区的非生物和生物因素进行最长时间的大规模实验研究，并将有助于理解生态规模、集合种群动态以及非生物与生物过程在这个重要但鲜为人知的系统中的重要性。由于这项研究的长期性，生物多样性通过ENSO对群落动态的影响正在得到解决。实验包括测试“自下而上”的力量对小型哺乳动物的重要性。在这一轮拟议的研究中，还将启动对种子雨和谷物、养分、菌根和集合种群动态的研究。

9873708MeserveThis project will continue a long-term, large-scale experimental manipulation examining the importance of biotic interactions including predation, interspecific competition and herbivory in a Chilean semiarid community. This project would continue the longest large-scale experimental study of abiotic and biotic factors in the temperate neotropics and would help to understanding the importance of ecological scale, metapopulation dynamics, and abiotic vs. biotic processes in this important but little known system. Due to the long-term nature of this research the effects of biotic variability on community dynamics, via ENSO are being addressed. Experiments include the testing of the importance of "bottom-up" forces on small mammals. Studies of seed rain and granivory, nutrients, mycorrhiza and metapopulation dynamics will also be initiated in this proposed round of research.