Plant-Insect Food Webs and Tropical Rain Forest Succession

植物及其食草昆虫占全球陆地生物多样性的40%，但人们对它们在热带地区的生态知之甚少。例如，从热带雨林中随机挑选的昆虫是更有可能是以多种植物为食的多面手，还是完全依赖于一种植物的专才，目前尚不清楚。需要这些信息来预测由于热带生态系统的破碎和丧失而导致的昆虫物种灭绝的脆弱性。这项研究是对热带地区植物-食草动物相互作用最全面的调查之一，重点研究了巴布亚新几内亚低地雨林中以许多树种的叶子和木材为食的昆虫食草动物的几个生态群体（行会）。研究人员希望记录大约1000种昆虫的幼虫阶段、寄主关联和寄生性，这些昆虫以年轻和成熟雨林中最常见的树种为食。将对4公顷森林（每种森林类型各2公顷）内的所有木本植物进行调查，并从植被中饲养昆虫。研究人员将测试不同森林类型在寄主特异性和物种丰富度方面的差异，以了解干扰后植物-昆虫食物网的组装。这项活动的更广泛影响包括加强国际科学合作，培训新一代热带生物学家，以及为热带森林管理和决策收集数据。该项目通过学生培训和公民科学家（辅助分类学家），使代表性不足的太平洋岛民参与科学研究。它通过加强一个地方研究站和发展国家植物和昆虫收集，在新几内亚建立昆虫学和植物学能力。研究结果可用于制定新几内亚的保护战略，新几内亚是世界上仅存的三大热带荒野地区之一。

Plants and their insect herbivores represent 40% of global terrestrial biodiversity and yet little is known of their ecology in the tropics. It is not known, for example, whether an insect picked at random from a tropical rainforest is more likely to be a generalist, feeding on numerous plant species, or a specialist that is fully dependent on a single plant species. This information is needed to predict the vulnerability of insect species to extinction resulting from the fragmentation and loss of tropical ecosystems. This study is one of the most comprehensive surveys of plant-herbivore interactions in the tropics, focusing on several ecological groups (guilds) of insect herbivores that feed on the foliage and wood of numerous tree species in the lowland rainforest of Papua New Guinea. The investigators expect to document the larval stages, host associations and parasitoids of approximately 1,000 insect species feeding on the most common tree species in young and mature rainforests. All woody plants in four hectares of forest, two of each forest type, will be inventoried, and insects will be reared from the vegetation. The investigators will test differences between forest types in host specificity and species richness to understand the assembly of plant-insect food webs after disturbance. The broader impacts of this activity include the strengthening of international scientific collaboration, the training of a new generation of tropical biologists, and the collection of data for tropical forest management and policy making. The project involves underrepresented Pacific Islanders in scientific research through student training and citizen scientists (parataxonomists). It builds capacity for entomology and botany in New Guinea by strengthening a local research station and developing national plant and insect collection. Results can be applied to developing conservation strategies for New Guinea, one of the top three remaining tropical wilderness areas in the world.