DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Determining how environmental heterogeneity and species traits interact to affect species invasion and coexistence over large spatio-temporal scales

生物入侵是对全球生物多样性的最大威胁之一，并产生深远的经济影响。 然而，预测入侵是否会导致本地物种的灭绝，或者本地物种是否能在入侵面前坚持下去仍然具有挑战性，因为这些结果取决于所涉及物种的特征和环境的特征。 该项目旨在解释在严重入侵的加州草原的两个大规模的长期数据集中观察到的模式。 研究人员将确定在野外观察到的入侵植物物种在系统发育相关性、原产国和生态特征方面的相似程度。 还将在这些实地地块中测量非生物环境的空间变化，特别是土壤特性。 总之，这些信息将被分析，以确定相对重要性的环境变化与入侵物种的特性，有助于本地物种的保护。 该项目对土地管理具有重要影响;它将为旨在恢复和维持本地物种多样性的努力提供信息。 这项研究将在加州大学自然保护区系统内进行，因此其数据和调查结果将通过保护区系统的在线研究数据库和外联出版物明确提供给所有保护区系统管理人员和公众。 此外，调查员还将举办研讨会和实地图尔斯参观活动，以接待来访者。 该项目支持博士生的论文研究，并将为本科生提供参与实地研究的机会。

Biological invasions pose one of the greatest threats to global biodiversity and have profound economic impacts. However, predicting whether invasions will cause extinctions of native species or if natives can persist in the face of invasion remains challenging because these outcomes depend on both characteristics of the species involved and characteristics of the environment. This project seeks to explain patterns observed in two large-scale, long-term data sets in the heavily invaded California grasslands. The investigators will determine how similar are invasive plant species observed in field plots in terms of their phylogenetic relatedness, country of origin, and ecological traits. Spatial variation in the abiotic environment, especially soil characteristics, will also be measured in these field plots. Together, this information will be analyzed to determine the relative importance of environmental variation versus invasive species traits in contributing to local extinctions of native species. This project has important implications to land management; it will inform efforts directed at restoration and maintenance of native species diversity. The research will be conducted within the University of California Natural Reserve System, thus its data and findings will be explicitly available to all reserve system managers and the public through the reserve system's online research database and outreach publications. Furthermore, the investigators will provide seminars and tours of field plots to reserve visitors. This project supports the thesis research of a doctoral student and will provide opportunities for involvement of undergraduates in field research.