Phenotypic Plasticity Species Interactions and Indirect Effects in a Larval Anuran Community

0089809. 厄尔·沃纳。 多个物种的相互作用创造和维持自然群落。 营养级联，物种多样性和社区的脆弱性外来入侵者可以间接影响捕食者-猎物的相互作用。 该项目建立在并扩展了一个关于齿类捕食者（Anax和Tramea），牛蛙和绿色蛙蝌蚪猎物之间相互作用的大量数据库，以及蝌蚪所依赖的碎屑/附着生物资源。每个物种（例如，捕食者，猎物，寄生虫）在食物网中扮演着复杂的角色，并表现出受环境和社区中其他物种相互作用影响的行为。 了解这些相互作用是生态学最基本的目标之一。 例如，捕食者之间的竞争可以影响猎物的特征和行为，如猎物觅食率。 这种捕食者介导的猎物摄食行为的修改可以对食物网动态产生短期和长期的影响。 为了研究这些社区的相互作用，该项目将使用田间实验和建模来测试中心理论，即性状介导的间接相互作用（TMIIs）中的表型变异可能对社区产生深远和意想不到的影响。该项目具有很强的理论和经验成分，并在多个时间和空间尺度上将建模与假设检验相结合。 虽然这项工作的重点是捕食者如何影响食物网，基本原则是适用于调查不同类型的物种之间的功能关系。

0089809. Earl Werner. Interactions multiple species create and sustain natural communities. Trophic cascades, species diversity, and community vulnerability to exotic invaders can be indirectly influenced by predator-prey interactions. This project builds upon and extends a substantial database gathered on the interactions between odonate predators (Anax and Tramea), bullfrog and green frog tadpole prey, and the detritus/periphyton resources the tadpoles rely on. Each species (e.g., predator, prey, parasite) plays a complex role in food webs, and exhibits behaviors that are influenced by interactions with the environment, and with other species in the community. Understanding these interactions is one of the most fundamental objectives in ecology. For example, competition between predators can affect the traits and behaviors of prey, such as prey foraging rates. Such predator-mediated modifications of prey feeding behaviors can have short and long-term effects on food web dynamics. To investigate these community interactions, this project will use field experiments and modeling to test the central theory that phenotypic variation in trait-mediated indirect interactions (TMIIs) can have profound and unexpected effects on the community. This project has strong theoretical and empirical components and blends modeling with hypothesis testing at multiple temporal and spatial scales. Although this work is focused on how predators affect food webs, the underlying principles are applicable for investigating diverse types of functional relationships between species.