DISSERTATION RESEARCH: A Unified Explanation for Dominance and Relative Abundance: Integrating Competition Theory, Predation Theory, and Community Complexity

研究人员的目标是解释一种广泛的植物物种优势模式，这种模式在占据美国东部废弃农田的本土植物群落中反复发现。他们将测试一种简单而优雅的资源竞争理论（Tilman's R*），它预测任何群落中的优势物种都是能够减少最有限或最受追捧的资源的物种。水、氮、光等物质的浓度降至极低水平，导致其他物种的数量下降。 这项研究还将试图确定食草动物和其他因素如何通过影响竞争植物物种利用有限资源的能力来改变竞争的结果。 换句话说，研究人员将联合收割机将已知影响植物群落结构（多样性、相对丰度）的众多因素（即食草动物或疾病）的影响结合成一个简单的衡量标准：物种所需的资源量。如果成功的话，复杂的生物群落中的多个过程可以通过一种共同的货币（一种资源）来衡量，从而大大提高预测变化的能力。更广泛的影响：这项研究具有强大的生态和经济应用。 前瞻性的结果可能会影响控制和预测入侵物种传播的方法，为稀有和濒危物种的保护方法提供关键见解，并有助于预测栖息地恢复的成功。这项研究也有可能预测植物群落（自然，农业和商业）将如何应对全球气候变化和其他人为影响导致的快速变化的资源制度。

The investigators aim to explain a broad-scale pattern of plant species dominance that is repeatedly found among native plant communities occupying abandoned agricultural fields of the eastern U.S. They will test a simple and elegant theory of resource competition (Tilman's R*) that predicts that the dominant species in any community is the species capable of reducing the most limiting, or sought after, resource (i.e. water, nitrogen, or light) to a critically low level, causing other species' populations to decline. This research will also attempt to determine how herbivores and other factors may alter the outcome of competition by affecting the ability of competing plant species to use the limiting resource. In other words, the investigators will combine the effects of numerous factors (i.e. herbivory or disease) known to influence plant community structure (diversity, relative abundance) into one simple measure: the amount of resource a species requires. If successful, multiple processes in complex communities of organisms can be measured via a common currency (a resource), greatly increasing the ability to predict change.Broader impacts: This research has strong ecological and economic applications. Prospective results may influence methods of controlling and predicting the spread of invasive species, provide key insights into conservation methods for rare and endangered species, and aid in predicting the success of habitat restoration. This research also has the potential to predict how plant communities (natural, agricultural, and commercial) will respond to rapidly changing resource regimes resulting from global climate change and other anthropogenic influences.