Coordination Funds

本研究单元旨在了解物种相互作用网络的动态，以揭示高度多样性的热带低地雨林生态系统中的网络分解和重组规则。我们将研究（1）农业土地利用（牧场和可可种植园）的影响，以表征网络对森林砍伐的抵抗力，（2）自然森林从农业恢复的动态沿着时序，（3）重新组装的网络对生态系统过程抗干扰的恢复力的贡献。我们将比较捕食者-猎物、植物-传粉者和植物-种子传播者网络的轨迹，以及哺乳动物、蜣螂和种子之间以及枯木、蚂蚁、白蚁和甲虫之间的分解网络。因此，我们的项目研究了所有主要的生态系统过程介导的种间相互作用的网络：捕食，授粉，初级和二级种子传播，草食动物，分解，和树苗招聘。这项研究位于厄瓜多尔西北部的乔科低地森林，这是一个森林砍伐率特别高的地区。我们将在厄瓜多尔私人保护基金会Fundación Jocotoco拥有的森林保护区内和周围开展工作。我们的62个研究地块包括从以前用作牧场或种植园的不同时间跨度恢复的森林（16个农业用途，30个恢复森林和16个原始森林）。所有子项目将调查时间序列，以评估和比较相互作用网络的重组和生态系统过程的轨迹。为了研究这种新组成的网络如何提供更高的处理速率和时间稳定性，我们将沿着时间序列进行沿着扰动招募实验。我们将量化预计对网络重组和对扰动的弹性很重要的功能特征的影响：对环境条件的反应特征，以及作为网络链接决定因素的相互作用特征。分析这些特征在不同生态过程中的相对贡献，使我们能够分析和重组森林恢复的规则。森林恢复网络的复杂性的变化预计会引发生态系统过程的速率和稳定性的变化。总的来说，我们的研究单位将揭示如何，在何种程度上，以及如何快速森林生态系统可以恢复后砍伐森林，包括不同的物种群落，复杂的相互作用网络，以及相关的生态系统过程的特点，这样的森林生态系统。

This research unit aims at understanding the dynamics of species interaction network in order to uncover rules of network dis- and reassembly in a highly diverse tropical lowland rainforest ecosystem. We will study (1) the impacts of agricultural land use (pastures and cacao plantations) to characterize the resistance of networks against deforestation, (2) the dynamics of natural forest recovery from agriculture along a chronosequence, and (3) the contribution of re-assembled networks to the resilience of ecosystem processes against perturbation. We will compare the trajectories of predator–prey, plant–pollinator, and plant–seed disperser networks, as well as decomposition networks between mammals, dung beetles and seeds, and between dead wood, ants, termites, and beetles. Our project thus studies networks of all major ecosystem processes mediated by interspecific interactions: predation, pollination, primary and secondary seed dispersal, herbivory, decomposition, and tree seedling recruitment. The study is located in the Choco lowland forest of North-West Ecuador, an area that faces particularly high deforestation rates. We will work within and around forest reserves owned by Fundación Jocotoco, a private Ecuadorian conservation foundation. Our 62 study plots include forests recovering for different time spans from a former use as pasture or plantation (16 under agricultural use, 30 recovering forests and 16 primary forests). All subprojects will investigate a chronosequence to assess and compare the reassembly of interaction networks and trajectories of ecosystem processes. To study how such newly composed networks offer higher process rates and temporal stability, we will perform a perturbation-recruitment experiment along the chronosequence. We will quantify the effects of functional traits that are predicted to be important for network reassembly and resilience to perturbations: response traits to environmental conditions, and interaction traits as determinants of network links. Analysing the relative contribution of these traits across distinct ecological processes allows us to distil dis- and reassembly rules of forest recovery. Changes in the complexity of networks with forest recovery is predicted to trigger variation in the rates and stability of ecosystem processes. Overall, our research unit will unravel how, to what extent, and how fast a forest ecosystem can re-establish after deforestation, including the diverse species communities, complex interaction networks, and relevant ecosystem processes that characterize such forest ecosystems.