Top-Down versus Bottom-Up Control in Insect Populations: High Order Interactions and Spatial Variation

[903601]本研究将探讨“自上而下与自下而上”控制在昆虫种群中的作用。它将为解决这些问题和评估空间变化提供一个独特的机会，并可能在控制飞虱种群方面有许多应用。本研究将采用一系列的实地和实验室实验，结合路径分析和结构建模。特别是，本研究将调查两种丰富的无脊椎食肉动物（狼蛛和蝽）共同出现在北美大西洋盐沼的个体和相互作用的影响。人们希望它能确定它们之间的相互作用对它们共同猎物——一种以米草的韧皮部汁液为食的普通飞虱——的数量和生长的影响。预测多种捕食者的综合影响的能力对于改进捕食者-猎物的努力和改进对严重农业害虫（如飞虱）的管理都是至关重要的

9903601DennoThis study will examine the role of "top-down versus bottom-up" control in insect populations. It will provide a unique opportunity to address these issues and to assess spatial variation and may have many applications in the control of planthopper populations. This study will use a series of field and laboratory experiments coupled with path analysis and structural modeling. In particular, this research will investigate the individual and interactive effects of two abundant invertebrate predators (wolf spiders and mirid bugs) which co-occur on the Atlantic salt marshes of North America. It is hoped it will determine the consequence of their interaction on the population and growth of their shared prey, a common planthopper that feeds on the phloem sap of Spartina cordgrass. The ability to predict the combined effects of multiple predators is critical both to the refinement of predator-prey efforts and to the improved management of severe agricultural pests such as planthoppers