Collaborative Research: RAPID: Does a Range Shifting Species Alter Ecosystem Function?

以植物为食的生物在通过生态系统转移能量和营养物质方面发挥着重要作用，这是生态系统为社会提供的许多服务的基础，如渔业，清洁饮用水和碳储存。然而，生态系统中生物的特性和丰度正在发生变化，因为温暖的气候物种进入了以前较冷的地区，这些地区受到气候变化的影响不成比例。了解这些物种移动如何改变生态系统过程是预测和管理气候变化对生态系统及其服务影响的重要一步。 本研究调查了一种新的水生昆虫物种进入高海拔湿地的建立和随后的人口激增如何影响所有生态系统的核心过程的时间和幅度，即植物材料的消耗，支持植物和动物生长的营养物质的循环，捕食者的猎物的可用性，以及淡水栖息地和周围陆地环境之间的联系。除了科学进步之外，这项研究还通过儿童科学营促进了幼儿教育，在实地考察站的科学图尔斯参观期间为公众宣传提供了机会，并通过让来自历史上代表性不足的群体的本科生参与基于实地的生态研究来培养下一代科学家。这项研究测试了一个新的假设，即一个范围的主导地位-具有不同于常住物种的生活史特征的移动物种将改变生态系统进程的物候和规模，改变食物网能量转移，并导致生态系统状态的变化。具体而言，本研究调查的生态系统的影响，大量增加的丰富的最近的范围转移caddisfly（Nemotaulius caddislis）与新的生活史特征的幼虫发育发生在秋季和冬季，而不是夏季一样的居民物种。本研究结合野外生物量测量、养分循环和碎屑处理分析，对移程和定居石蛾种群规模和向蝾螈捕食者种群的能量转移进行定量分析，并对移程石蛾和定居石蛾之间依赖密度的碎屑资源竞争进行实验研究; 3）利用已建立的模型和关于石蛾和蝾螈丰度的30年数据集来估计与范围转移和居民石蛾相关的过去、当代和未来的生态系统过程结果，包括碎屑分解、营养释放，以及对陆地生态系统的补贴。这种调查相互关联的生态系统分区的综合方法产生了强有力的机械理解与一般应用。此外，通过将关键的顶级捕食者纳入研究，我们将对自上而下的控制如何影响范围转移的生态系统结果产生新的理解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Organisms that feed on plants play important roles in moving energy and nutrients though ecosystems, which underlies many services that ecosystems provide to societies such as fisheries, clean drinking water, and carbon storage. However, the identity and abundance of organisms in ecosystems is changing as warm-climate species move into previously cooler regions that are disproportionately impacted by climate change. Understanding how these species movements alter ecosystem processes is an important step in anticipating and managing the impacts of climate change on ecosystems and their services. This research investigates how the establishment and subsequent population boom of a novel aquatic insect species into high elevation wetlands influences the timing and magnitude of processes central to all ecosystems, namely the consumption of plant material, the cycling of nutrients that support plant and animal growth, the availability of prey for predators, and the connections between freshwater habitats and the surrounding terrestrial environment. In addition to scientific advancement, this research advances early childhood education via childrens’ science camps, provides opportunities for public outreach during science tours at a field station, and trains the next generation of scientists by engaging undergraduate students from historically underrepresented groups in field-based ecological research.This research tests the novel hypothesis that the dominance of a range-shifting species with life history characteristics that differ from resident species will shift the phenology and magnitude of ecosystem processes, altering food-web energy transfer, and resulting in ecosystem state-shifts. Specifically, this research investigates the ecosystem impact of a large increase in the abundance of a recent range-shifting caddisfly (Nemotaulius hostilis) with novel life history trait of larval development occurring in the fall and winter, rather than summer like resident species. The research combines field measurements of organism biomass with assays of nutrient cycling and detritus processing to 1) quantify range-shifting and resident caddisfly population size and energy transfer to salamander predator populations; 2) experimentally test density-dependent competition for detritus resources between range-shifting and resident caddisflies; 3) leverage established models and a 30-year dataset on caddisfly and salamander abundance to estimate the past, contemporary, and future ecosystem-process-outcomes associated with range-shifting and resident caddisflies including detritus decomposition, nutrient release, and subsidies to the terrestrial ecosystem. This combined approach investigating interlinked ecosystem compartments generates a strong mechanistic understanding with general application. Moreover, by integrating the keystone top-predator into the research, we will develop new understanding of how top-down control influences the ecosystem outcomes of range shifts.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.