DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Trophic Dynamics in the Fine-root Based Food Web: Integrating Resource Heterogeneity, Root Foraging, and Root Herbivory.

虽然细根是生态系统碳循环的关键组成部分，但土壤资源与根之间的相互作用通常被研究而不考虑与根食草动物及其天敌的潜在相互作用。我们建议使用田间和温室实验，调查资源的可用性，资源异质性和根草食动物地上和地下生物量和演替早期美国东南部森林的竞争结果的影响。初步研究结果表明，食草动物在该系统中起着重要作用，根系食草动物对小尺度（50cm 2）资源丰富斑块的响应为强正响应。这可能会对优先在这些斑块中觅食的植物物种产生强烈的负面影响，同时允许不太积极的觅食植物物种在否则它们将被竞争对手击败的地方持续存在。

While fine roots are a key component of ecosystem carbon cycling, interactionsbetween soil resources and roots are typically studied without considering potentialinteractions with root herbivores and their natural enemies. We propose to use field andgreenhouse experiments to investigate the influence of resource availability, resourceheterogeneity and root herbivory on above- and belowground biomass and preliminarycompetitive outcomes in early-successional southeastern U.S. forests. Preliminary datahas shown that herbivores play a strong role in this system, and demonstrated strongpositive responses of root herbivores to small-scale (50cm 2 ) resource-rich patches. This may have strong negative impacts on plant species that preferentially forage in such patches, while allowing less-aggressively foraging plant species to persist where they would otherwise be outcompeted.