Community-Wide Ecological Displacement and Community Assembly

竞争排斥原则规定，具有相似生态需求的物种将竞争有限的资源，不太可能在当地共存。然而，不同的开发资源的能力(例如，不同的形态)可能会促进共存和增强地方多样性。物种之间的差异可能是预先存在的，也可能是在与生态相似的物种接触时出现的。后一种现象，性格置换(CD)，是竞争排斥的逻辑产物。由于其有可能改变现有的生物形式和产生新的生物形式，镉是竞争的最重要、最不为人所知的生态/进化后果。特别是，它在构建生态社区和加强当地和区域生物多样性方面的潜力尚未得到彻底挖掘。本研究评价了Cd在异质景观物种共存和局部物种多样性中的作用。鉴于社会对维持物种多样性及其在生态系统功能中的作用的既得利益，该项目的重点放在维持和产生物种多样性的机制上是及时的。广泛的野外采样和详细的机械实验相结合，在阿巴拉契亚山脉的地方和区域尺度上检查了物种数量和物种特性不同的火蜥蜴种群中的Cd。该项目涉及一个由博士后、本科生和研究生组成的小组，他们在定量生态学方法方面接受第一手培训，包括定量现场采样和分析、基于概念的假设检验、进化生态学问题的实验方法、实验生境的设计和使用、计算机在数据获取和分析中的使用，以及从概念到发表的科学过程的所有阶段。

The competitive exclusion principle states that species with similar ecological requirements will compete for limiting resources, and are unlikely to locally co-exist. However, different abilities to exploit resources (e.g., different morphologies) may foster coexistence and enhance local diversity. Differences among species may pre-exist or may arise in contact with ecologi-cally similar species. The latter phenomenon, character displacement (CD), is a logical out-growth of competitive exclusion. Because of its potential for altering existing biological forms and generating new biological forms, CD is the most important and least understood ecologi-cal/evolutionary consequence of competition. In particular, its potential for structuring ecologi-cal communities and for enhancing local and regional biodiversity has not been thoroughly ex-plored. The research evaluates the role of CD in species coexistence and local species diversity arcoss heterogeneous landscapes. Focus of the project on mechanisms maintaining and generating species diversity is timely given society's vested interest in the maintenance of species diversity and its role in ecosystem function. Extensive field sampling and detailed mechanistic experiments are combined to examine CD in salamander species groups differing in numbers of species and spe-cies identity at local and regional scales across the S. Appalachians. Project involves a substan-tial team including post-docs, undergraduates and graduate students, who get first-hand training in quantitative ecological methods including quantitative field sampling and analysis, conceptu-ally-based hypothesis testing, experimental approaches to questions in evolutionary ecology, de-sign and use of experimental habitats, use of computers in data acquisition and analysis, and ex-posure to all phases of the scientific process from conceptualization to publication.