International Research Fellowship Program: Interactions between Plants, Herbivores and Natural Enemies along a Latitudinal Gradient of Australian Rainforests

0601921理查兹国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行三到二十四个月的研究。 该计划的奖项提供了联合研究的机会，以及使用独特或互补的设施，专业知识和国外的实验条件。理查兹与澳大利亚悉尼麦考瑞大学的马克·韦斯特比博士合作。食草动物受到食物资源和捕食者的限制。 这些限制的相对重要性受到植物生产力的影响，这可能在几个空间尺度上有所不同。 在全球范围内，生产力一般向赤道方向增长。 当热带雨林中的大树倒下时，会产生更局部的变化。 与没有光隙的森林地面相比，这种对森林地面的新的光照射导致植物快速生长，从而增加了差距的生产力。这项研究利用当地生产力变化的结果来确定全球规模的模式。利用这项技术，该研究正在验证一个假设，即食草动物对热带雨林中的捕食更敏感，对温带雨林中的食物资源更敏感。 该研究比较了节肢动物群落、植物质量和数量、植食率和捕食率的变化，以及随着光隙大小的增加而增加的植物生产力。 与悉尼马夸里大学的马克·韦斯特比合作，从澳大利亚东部沿着从热带到温带的总共六个雨林地点收集数据。

0601921RichardsThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twenty-four-month research fellowship by Dr. Lora A. Richards to work with Dr. Mark Westoby at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.Herbivores are limited by a combination of food resources and predators. The relative importance of these limitations is influenced by plant productivity, which can vary at several spatial scales. On a global scale, productivity generally increases towards the equator. Variation on a much more local scale occurs when large trees fall in rainforests creating light gaps. This new light exposure to the forest floor causes plants to grow quickly increasing the productivity of the gap in comparison to the forest floor without a light gap. The study is using results from local variation in productivity to determine global scale patterns. Using this technique the study is testing the hypothesis that herbivores are more sensitive to predation in the tropical rainforests, and they are more sensitive to food resources in temperate rainforests. The study is comparing changes in arthropod communities, plant quality and quantity, herbivory rates and predation rates with increasing plant productivity as the light gap size increases. Data are being collected from a total of six rainforest sites ranging from tropic to temperate along eastern Australia in collaboration with Mark Westoby at the Maquarie University in Sydney.