Consumer-Resource Interactions: Impacts of a plant invasion on the individual and colony performance of a native pollinator

该奖项是根据2009年美国恢复和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。入侵物种是环境变化的主要组成部分，也是全球生物多样性丧失的主要因素。 越来越多的人认识到，植物入侵者可以影响本地物种之间的竞争和互利互动，但大多数工作只考虑入侵者对本地植物的直接影响。 入侵植物如何影响本地传粉者的表现很少受到关注，这是入侵者如何影响本地生物多样性研究的一个关键空白。 该项目将结合联合收割机的观察和操作研究，以研究如何在美国西部，柳穿鱼属占主导地位的入侵开花植物，影响本地蜜蜂授粉的性能和丰富。 这项工作还将测试入侵植物的短期和长期管理对传粉者觅食和繁殖的影响程度，并对本地开花物种的授粉和繁殖产生潜在的反馈。 通过结合入侵植物对本地传粉者的影响，这项研究超越了以植物为中心的方法，研究入侵植物对授粉互利关系的影响。在全球范围内，大约30万种开花植物中有90%依赖昆虫或其他动物进行授粉服务，传粉者的保护对本地植物和作物授粉具有生态和经济的重要性。 鉴于广泛丰富的授粉互惠和传粉者在赋予关键的生态系统服务的作用，这项研究对生物多样性，本地和农业植物的授粉，以及对依赖开花植物的饲料，栖息地和保护的其他生物的反馈具有广泛的影响。 该项目将结合积极的发现过程，为科罗拉多落基山生物实验室的K-6，本科生和研究生提供教育机会。 为了提高公众对本地传粉者和入侵植物物种的认识，该项目将在当地博物馆举办展览。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Invasive species are a leading component of environmental change and a major factor associated with biodiversity loss worldwide. There is growing recognition that plant invaders can affect competitive and mutualistic interactions among native species, but most work has considered only the direct effects of invaders on native plants. How invasive plants affect the performance of native pollinators has received little attention, representing a critical gap in the study of how invaders affect native biodiversity. This project will combine observational and manipulative studies to examine how a dominant invasive flowering plant in the western USA, Linaria vulgaris, affects the performance and abundance of native bee pollinators. The work will also test the degree to which short-term and long-term management of the invasive plant affect pollinator foraging and reproduction, with potential feedback to the pollination and reproduction of native flowering species. By incorporating the effects of an invasive plant on the performance of a native pollinator, this research moves beyond a primarily plant-centered approach to the study of invasive plants on pollination mutualismsWorldwide, 90% of approximately 300,000 flowering plant species rely on insects or other animals for pollination service, and the conservation of pollinators has both ecological and economic importance for native plant and crop pollination. Given the widespread abundance of pollination mutualisms and the role of pollinators in conferring critical ecosystem services, this research has broad implications for biodiversity, pollination of native and agricultural plants, and feedbacks to other organisms that rely on flowering plants for forage, habitat, and protection. This project will couple the active process of discovery with educational opportunities for K-6, undergraduate, and graduate students at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Colorado. To increase public awareness of native pollinators and invasive plant species this project will create an exhibit to be displayed at a local museum.