Root Foraging, Competition, and Coexistence in Heterogeneous Soils

异质土壤中的根部觅食、竞争和共存

• 批准号: 0501148
• 负责人: Tara Rajaniemi
• 金额: $ 19.66万
• 依托单位: University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-10-01 至 2005-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0501148&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Root; Foraging; Competition; Coexistence; Heterogeneous

Rajaniemi0129493Competition can play a key role in structuring plant communities, and understanding the mechanisms of plant competitive interactions is therefore critical for successful management of natural and cultivated systems. Yet despite years of study, the nature of plant competitive interaction and their relationship to environmental conditions is incompletely understood and continues to be debated. Belowground competition and its relation to fine-scale heterogeneity in soil resources is a particularly little explored area, despite the ubiquity of soil heterogeneity in nature. This research will use experimental and modeling approaches to investigate root foraging traits and their relationship to plant competitive ability and plant community diversity in spatially heterogeneous soil. Greenhouse and field experiments will be used to measure the scale, precision, and rate of root foraging and their relationship to the competitive ability of herbaceous perennial species, including an important invasive weed. An especially novel focus of this research is the phenomenon of belowground size asymmetry and its role in plant competitive ability and community structure. Field experiments and simulation modeling will examine whether fine-scale heterogeneity affects competitive size symmetry and competitive hierarchies, and the consequences for plant species coexistence and the maintenance of plant community diversity. This research has the potential to redirect our understanding of root competition and its role in the structure of plant communities.

Rajaniemi0129493竞争可以在构建植物群落中发挥关键作用，因此了解植物竞争相互作用的机制对于成功管理自然和培养系统至关重要。尽管经过多年的研究，但植物竞争互动的性质及其与环境条件的关系尚未完全理解并继续进行辩论。地下竞争及其与土壤资源中的优质异质性的关系是一个特别少的探索区域，尽管自然界中土壤异质性无处不在。这项研究将采用实验和建模方法来研究根觅食特征及其与在空间异质土壤中建立竞争能力和植物社区多样性的关系。温室和田间实验将用于测量根觅食的规模，精度和速率及其与草本多年生植物的竞争能力的关系，包括重要的侵入性杂草。这项研究的一个特别新颖的重点是地下大小不对称的现象及其在植物竞争能力和社区结构中的作用。现场实验和仿真建模将检查高尺度异质性是否影响竞争性大小对称性和竞争性层次结构，以及对植物物种共存的后果以及维持植物群落多样性的影响。这项研究有可能重定向我们对根竞争及其在植物群结构中的作用的理解。