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

互惠物种在其人口统计率和自然丰度方面可以表现出很大的差异。推进互惠互动研究的核心是其密度依赖性和种群动态的机械理论和经验检验。该项目扩展了消费者资源理论的捕食者-猎物和竞争性的相互作用，互惠互利的相互作用的密度依赖性，在墨西哥和亚利桑那州的索诺兰沙漠之间的Senita仙人掌和senita蛾授粉吃种子的互惠关系。使用实验和建模方法，该项目将研究如何在每个互利的密度变化影响其他的人口率和丰度的变化，反过来，这种密度依赖的消费者资源的相互作用可能会防止无限的人口增长和过度开发的出现。解决这一缺陷可能更普遍地有助于理解互利共生如何促进全球生物系统的模式和过程，从许多植物和动物的繁殖，生存和扩散到因其生态系统服务而不断增长的保护工作（例如，授粉、种子传播、固氮）。该项目还为本科生提供研究，教育和跨文化培训，直接让他们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。

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.