Integrating Consumer-Resource Theory into Density-Dependent Mechanisms for Limiting Population Growth and Overexploitation in a Pollinating Seed-eating Mutualism

互惠物种可以在其人口比率和自然丰度上表现出很大的差异。推动互利互动研究的核心是为其密度依赖和种群动态提供机制理论和经验检验。该项目利用墨西哥和亚利桑那州索诺兰沙漠仙人掌和飞蛾之间的授粉食籽互惠作用，将捕食者-猎物和竞争相互作用的消费者资源理论扩展到互惠作用的密度依赖。该项目将使用实验和建模方法，研究每个互助者密度的变化如何影响另一个人的人口比率和丰富度的差异，进而研究这种依赖密度的消费者-资源互动如何防止无限制的人口增长和过度开发。从更广泛的意义上讲，解决这一缺陷可能有助于理解互惠共生如何有助于世界各地生物系统的模式和过程，从许多动植物的繁殖、生存和扩散，到因其生态系统服务(例如授粉、种子传播、固氮)而产生的日益增长的保护努力。该项目还通过让本科生直接参与与墨西哥和美国国家公园相关的国际研究和公共宣传，为他们提供研究、教育和跨文化培训。

Mutualistic species can show great variation in their demographic rates and natural abundances. Central to advancing the study of mutualistic interactions is a mechanistic theory for and empirical tests of their density dependence and population dynamics. This project extends consumer-resource theory of predator-prey and competitive interactions to the density dependence of mutualistic interactions using the pollinating seed-eating mutualism between senita cacti and senita moths in the Sonoran Desert of Mexico and Arizona. Using both experimental and modeling methods, the project will examine how variation in the densities of each mutualist affects variation in the other's demographic rates and abundance, and in turn, how such density-dependent consumer-resource interactions may prevent unbounded population growth and overexploitation from arising. Addressing such a shortcoming may more generally aid in understanding how mutualism contributes to patterns and processes of biological systems worldwide, ranging from the reproduction, survival, and dispersal of many plants and animals to ever growing conservation efforts arising from their ecosystem services (e.g., pollination, seed dispersal, nitrogen fixation). The project also provides research, education, and cross-cultural training for undergraduate students by directly involving them in international research and public outreach associated with National Parks in Mexico and the United States.