Collaborative Research: LTREB: The role of ecological heterogeneity in a long-term grassland restoration experiment

植物群落结构和生态系统功能的许多方面都因人类对环境的干扰而退化，如果没有人类的干预，通过生态恢复可能无法恢复。在受干扰的生态系统中恢复生物多样性是一个几乎普遍的挑战，也是检验物种共存的一般生态学原则的机会。该项目将延长14年的测试，以确定环境的异质性是否会产生空缺和可获得的资源，从而使新物种能够在社区中建立和共存。 新物种的种子将被添加到1997年开始的草原恢复实验中。 该实验包括多达四个层次的土壤异质性，这导致了植物群落的发展，不同土壤处理和不同年份之间的物种数量和丰度不同的地块。 这项实验中对植物群落进行了14年的分析，结果表明，植物多样性随着时间的推移而下降，但在土壤资源可变的地块中，更多的物种得以保留。 如果具有更大生态变异性的地块包含更多的资源，供新物种在空间和时间上利用，那么本研究将表明，一般的生态学原理“异质性产生多样性”可以应用于增加恢复草地的生物多样性，随着时间的推移，植物多样性下降是一种常见的现象。 此外，这项研究将确定哪些植物性状有助于成功建立和持久性，这将为物种选择提供信息，以长期保持生物多样性。该项目还将为研究生教育提供支持，为本科生提供恢复方面的实践培训，并促进有关草原恢复的公共教育，作为讲解员培训、自然资源管理人员、高中教师和公众的示范点和资源。

Many aspects of plant community structure and ecosystem functioning have been degraded by human disturbance to the environment, and may not return without human intervention through ecological restoration. Restoring biodiversity in disturbed ecosystems is a nearly-universal challenge, as well as an opportunity to test general ecological principles about species coexistence. This project will extend a 14-year test of whether heterogeneity in the environment creates vacancies and accessible resources that allow new species to establish and coexist in a community. Seeds of new species will be added to a prairie restoration experiment that was initiated in 1997. The experiment includes plots with up to four levels of soil heterogeneity, which has resulted in the development of plant communities that vary in the number and abundance of species among soil treatments and different years. The 14-year analysis of plant communities in this experiment demonstrated that plant diversity has declined over time, but more species have been maintained in plots with variable soil resources. If plots with greater ecological variability contain more resources for new species to exploit in space and time, then this study will demonstrate that the general ecological principle "heterogeneity begets diversity" can be applied to increase biodiversity in restored grasslands, where declining plant diversity over time is a common phenomenon. Further, this study will identify which plant traits contribute to successful establishment and persistence, which will inform species selection to maintain biodiversity over the long term. This project will also provide support for graduate education, offer hands-on training in restoration to undergraduates, and foster public education about prairie restoration as a demonstration site and resource for docent training, natural resource managers, high school teachers, and the general public.