Collaborative Research: BEE: Ecological and coevolutionary feedbacks in multi-mutualist communities

互惠互利是物种之间的有益互动，在自然群落和农业系统中很重要，因为它们产生了物种持续生存所需的关键资源和服务。例如，授粉互惠对许多农作物的果实生产是必不可少的，而传粉者依赖于他们从那些花中获得的食物。一般说来，互惠关系通常涉及许多物种在复杂的群落中相互作用，但我们对支配它们的因素知之甚少。因此，随着全球变化继续改变地球上的生态系统，迫切需要了解形成互惠关系的物种如何随着环境和彼此的变化而变化。例如，使用互助者制造的资源的竞争性物种的存在可能会改变互助者相互反应的方式。这项研究将研究互惠物种的大群体如何在不同的环境中相互反应，以及其他竞争物种如何影响这些变化。该项目使用了一个基于酿酒酵母的实验系统，以了解在涉及许多物种的复杂互惠关系中，物种如何相互变化。除了测试互惠互利如何在物种丰富的社区中发生变化外，还将开发一款引人入胜的视频游戏，向高中生传授互惠互利的经济价值以及它们如何随着时间的推移而变化。该项目将使用一种基于实验室的营养互惠，由萌芽酵母菌株组成，它们相互交换营养资源，从而模拟互惠互利的物种。使用这个系统，研究人员将操纵群落中互惠物种的数量和环境可用资源的数量，以解决以下目标：1)评估复杂的互惠群落中互惠特征的变化(即，共同进化)如何在有和没有从当地环境中额外获得的贸易资源的情况下发生变化；2)测试共同进化如何影响在物种丰富的互惠群落中建立新的互助者；3)测试一个竞争物种如何改变互助者的共同进化，以及共同进化如何影响对这些竞争者的互惠进化阻力。这项拟议研究的结果将确定在互惠关系中影响共同进化的生态环境，允许建立非居民物种的进化环境，以及共同进化如何影响互惠物种和竞争物种的生态持久性。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Mutualisms are beneficial interactions between species that are important in natural communities and agricultural systems because they generate critical resources and services needed for species to persist. For example, pollination mutualisms are essential for fruit production in many crop plants, and pollinators are dependent on the food they obtain from those flowers. Mutualisms, in general, usually involve many species interacting with one another in complex communities, yet we know relatively little about the factors that govern them. Thus, as global change continues to alter ecosystems on Earth, there is a strong need to understand how species that form mutualisms change in response to the environment and to one another. For instance, the presence of competitive species that use the resources made by mutualists could alter the way in which the mutualists change in response to one another. This research will examine how large groups of mutualist species change in response to each other across different environments and how other competitive species can influence these changes. The project uses an experimental system based on brewer’s yeast to understand how species change in response to one another in complex mutualisms involving many species. In addition to testing how mutualisms change in species rich communities, an engaging video game will be developed to teach high school students about the economic value of mutualisms and how they change over time.The project will use a laboratory-based nutritional mutualism composed of strains of budding yeast that exchange nutrient resources with each other, thus simulating mutualistic species. Using this system, the researchers will manipulate the number of mutualist species in the communities and the amount of environmentally-available resources to address the following goals: 1) Evaluate how reciprocal trait changes (i.e., coevolution) vary in complex mutualist communities with and without traded resources additionally available from the local environment, 2) Test how coevolution influences the establishment of new mutualists in species-rich mutualist communities, 3) Test how a competitive species alters the coevolution of mutualists and how coevolution impacts mutualism resistance to these competitors. Results from the proposed study will identify the ecological contexts that affect coevolution in mutualisms, the evolutionary contexts that allows establishment of nonresident species, and how coevolution impacts ecological persistence of mutualists and competitive species.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.