Multitrophic Consequences of Novel Plant Assemblages in Urban Ecosystems

几个世纪以来，来自其他大陆的植物和动物一直被有意或无意地带到美国。它们中的许多已经建立起来，创造了由以前从未相互作用过的物种组成的生态系统。园艺偏好已经将曾经支持住宅景观中生命的原生植物群落转变为一系列与原生生物没有历史的引进植物。 如果引进的植物在生态上等同于它们所取代的本土植物，那么管理景观中的生态系统功能将与自然区域一样高。但是，如果引进的植物不能像本土植物那样支持生命，那么人类工作、生活和耕作的动物的多样性（远远超过美国土地面积的50%）将减少。这是不可持续的，因为生物多样性驱动着生态系统的功能，而功能性生态系统产生维持人类人口的自然服务。该项目通过比较由本地植物组成的住宅景观中的食物网与由引进植物建造的景观中的食物网，来解决植物支持食物网的能力。这项研究的重点是鸟类和它们的昆虫猎物，因为两者都是食物网稳定性和多样性的极好指标，因此也是整体生物多样性的指标。以卡罗莱纳山雀为研究对象，该研究将测量亚洲植物如何改变景观：1）昆虫群落; 2）筑巢山雀的饮食; 3）山雀在住宅景观中的繁殖成功率。这项研究通过对参加邻里守望（一项公民科学计划）的物业进行研究，将外展与科学结合起来。研究结果将发表在初级和大众文献中，以面向土地所有者和各级环境专门知识的决策者。公众缺乏对植物和以它们为食的昆虫如何使更有魅力的脊椎动物（如鸟类）在城市环境中生存的理解。这项研究将有助于提供这种理解，这是可持续发展的关键，因为公众将决定未来城市生态系统的面貌。 在这项研究的过程中，学生将接受生态学培训，并具备应对未来重大环境挑战所需的技能。

Plants and animals from other continents have been intentionally or accidentally brought to the U.S. for centuries. Many of them have become established, creating ecosystems made of species that have never before interacted with each other. Horticultural preferences have transformed the native plant communities that once supported life in residential landscapes into a collection of introduced plants that have no history with native organisms. If introduced plants are the ecological equivalents of the native plants they replace, ecosystem function in managed landscapes will remain as high as in natural areas. But if introduced plants do not support life as well as native plants, the diversity of animals where humans work, live and farm (well over 50% of the U.S. land area) will be reduced. This would be unsustainable because biodiversity drives ecosystem function, and functional ecosystems produce the natural services that sustain human populations. This project addresses the ability of plants to support food webs by comparing food webs in residential landscapes comprised of native plants with food webs in landscapes built from introduced plants. The research focuses on birds and their insect prey because both are excellent indicators of food web stability and diversity, and thus of overall biodiversity. Using Carolina chickadees, the study will measure how landscapes created from Asian plants alter: 1) insect communities; 2) the diets of nesting chickadees; and 3) the breeding success of chickadees in residential landscapes.This study integrates outreach with science by conducting research on properties enrolled in Neighborhood Nestwatch, a citizen science program. Results will be published in the primary and popular literature to target landowners and policy-makers at all levels of environmental expertise. The public lacks an understanding of how plants and the insects that eat them enable more charismatic vertebrates, such as birds, to exist in urban environments. This study will help provide such understanding, which is key to sustainability because it is the public who will determine what urban ecosystems will look like in the future. In the process of this research, students will be trained in ecology and equipped with the skills needed to tackle major environmental challenges in the future.