Dissertation Research: The Relative, Long-Term Importance of Trait- and Density-Mediated Indirect Interactions in a Freshwater Snail Community

生物体嵌入食物网中，它们直接或间接地与其他物种相互作用。 虽然许多研究表明直接和间接的相互作用在改变群落结构（即物种丰度和多样性）方面的重要性，但这方面的工作大多集中在组成物种密度的变化上。 然而，越来越多的证据表明，从短期实验（即= 1代），物种的性状的变化可以导致类似的结果，独立于密度的变化。 如果物种特征的变化导致与密度相似的影响，那么它们对生态群落的长期结构可能同样重要。 我们建议的研究将实施一个长期的方法，以检查物种的密度与物种的性状的变化对生态群落结构的相对重要性。 我们的研究还提供了一些更广泛的影响。 我们在将代表性不足的群体（少数民族和妇女）纳入我们的研究方面有着出色的记录。 我们的学生积极参与研究，并鼓励他们将自己的兴趣发展到实验中，以补充我们自己的工作并将其扩展到新的方向。 这些学生在科学会议上介绍了他们的研究，并在顶级期刊上发表了他们的研究结果。 因此，本科生学习必要的技能，发展为科学家，包括如何发表他们的结果。 总之，我们的研究结果将在向国家和国际观众介绍的研讨会上传播，将我们的研究成果介绍给科学界和公众社区的网页，以及包括全球读者在内的大众媒体。

Organisms are embedded within food webs in which they interact directly and indirectly with other species. While many studies have shown the importance of direct and indirect interactions in altering community structure (i.e. species abundance and diversity), much of this work has focused on changes in the density of the component species. However, there is growing evidence from short-term experiments (i.e. = 1 generation) that changes in the traits of species can lead to similar results independent of changes in density. If changes in species traits lead to similar effects as density they may be equally important to the long-term structure of ecological communities. Our proposed research will implement a long-term approach to examine the relative importance of changes in species' density versus species' traits to the structure of ecological communities. Our research also offers a number of broader impacts. We have an excellent record of incorporating underrepresented groups (minorities and women) into our research. Our students are actively engaged in the research and are encouraged to develop their interests into experiments that supplement our own work and expand it in new directions. These students have presented their research at scientific meetings and published their results in top-tier journals. Thus, undergraduates learn the skills necessary to develop as scientists including how to publish their results. In sum, our results will be disseminated in seminars presented to national and international audiences, webpages that present our research to scientific and public communities, and in the popular press including with worldwide readership.