Doctoral Dissertation Research: Patterns of Species Composition and Stand Age: The Importance of Dispersal, Species Interactions, and Habitat Preference

落叶林群落的植物种类组成因地而异。 目前还不完全清楚是什么决定了一个特定的工厂是否将设在一个特定的地区。 植物有时会被限制在特定的区域，因为它们无法忍受某些环境条件，这可能是它们生长的土壤差异的结果，也可能是其他植物或树木已经在一个地点生长所带来的变化的结果。 在其他地方，植物将种子或其他繁殖材料带到新地点的能力可能受到限制。 本博士论文的研究项目将探讨植物的扩散和森林年龄的作用，在决定的空间格局草本植被位于树冠下的硬木，铁杉林的埃德蒙奈尔斯Huyck保护区在中部纽约州。 Huyck保护区提供了研究过去150年来森林变化的机会，因为保护区的大部分区域都是在这段时间内被砍伐的，从而提供了不同年龄的森林类型的马赛克。 该项目的目标是确定植物使用的扩散类型是否与其是否存在于一定年龄的林分中有关，并确定某一区域中包含的物种的可能性是否取决于该物种存在于附近区域。 这些关系将通过检查Huyck保护区的植被和30至40个森林林分的年龄来确定。 这些看台的位置将按照彼此之间的距离沿着指定。 位于这些地区的植物物种将根据它们用于传播自己的传播类型（风，动物，重力等）进行分组。以及与森林年龄相关的模式。 其中的假设，将探讨的是，是否使用快速，长距离传播的物种将出现在较年轻的地区之前，物种使用较慢，更受地理限制的传播模式。 每个地区的物种组成将与邻近地区的物种组成进行比较。 在项目的这一方面有待检验的一个假设是，一个地区的物种组成是否取决于其他地区的物种组成。 这种依赖性也可能受到风或坡度等物理因素的影响，因为在紧挨着已建立物种的下风或下坡的地区，物种可能会更集中。 这些结果将有助于阐明扩散在决定物种组成模式中所起的作用。这项研究将有助于进一步理解植物扩散在决定物种生活在哪里中所起的作用。 这将补充我们对影响植物生存的其他因素的了解，例如植物如何与环境相互作用以及它们如何与其他植物物种相互作用。 这种类型的知识在保护环境中是必要的，因为了解维持物种多样性的过程将有助于设计保护物种，社区和生态系统的计划。 土地管理者必须知道哪些过程增加或减少其土地上的物种多样性，然后才能就应采取何种行动以最好地保护它们或恢复栖息地做出明智的决定。 了解哪些程序是必要的，以保持最大的多样性，可以导致更明智的决定分配保护优先事项，以各种领域的情况下，涉及有限的货币资源。 作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立的研究生涯。

The plant species composition of deciduous forest communities varies considerably from place to place. It is not fully understood what determines whether or not a given plant will be located in a given area. Plants are sometimes limited to specific areas because of their inability to tolerate certain environmental conditions, which may be the result of differences in the soil where they grow or the result of changes brought about by other plants or trees already growing at a site. Elsewhere, plants may be limited by their ability to get seeds or other reproductive material to a new site. This doctoral dissertation research project will examine the role that plant dispersal and forest age have in determining spatial pattern in the herbaceous vegetation located underneath the canopy trees in the hardwood-hemlock forest of the Edmund Niles Huyck Preserve in central New York State. The Huyck Preserve provides the opportunity to study forest change over the last 150 years, because most of the area of the preserve was logged sometime during that time period, thereby providing a mosaic of forest types of varying age. The goals of this project are to determine if the type of dispersal a plant uses is related to whether or not it is present in a forest stand of a certain age and to determine if the likelihood of a species being contained in an area is dependent on that species being present in a nearby area. These relationships will be determined by examining the vegetation and the age of 30 to 40 forest stands of the Huyck Preserve. The locations of these stands will be specificed along with their distances from each other. The plant species located in these areas will be grouped by the type of dispersal they use to propogate themselves (wind, animal, gravity, etc.) as well as patterns associated with the age of forest stands. Among the hypotheses that will be explored is whether species using rapid, long-distance dispersal will appear in younger areas before species using slower, more geographically restricted modes of dispersal. Species composition in each area will be compared with species composition in adjacent areas. A hypothesis to be tested in this facet of the project is whether the species composition of an area is dependent on the species composition of other areas. This dependency may also be influenced by physical factors like wind or slope direction, as there may be greater concentration of species in areas located immediately downwind or downslope from established species. These results should help to clarify role that dispersal plays in determination of species composition patterns.This research will help advance understanding of the role plant dispersal plays in determining which species live where. This will complement what already is known about other factors that influence where plants live, such as how plants interact with the environment and how they interact with other plant species. This type of knowledge is necessary in a conservation context, because knowing the processes that maintain species diversity will help design plans for preservation of species, communities, and ecosystems. Land managers must know which processes increase or decrease species diversity on their lands before they can make informed decisions about the types of actions that should be taken to best preserve them or restore habitat. Understanding which processes are necessary to preserve maximum diversity can lead to more informed decisions about assigning protection priorities to various areas in scenarios involving limited monetary resources. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.