Collaborative Proposal: Latitudinal variation in top-down and bottom-up control of salt marsh herbivores

合作提案：盐沼食草动物自上而下和自下而上控制的纬度变化

基本信息

批准号：
0638796
负责人：
Steven Pennings
金额：
$ 26.77万
依托单位：
University of Houston
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Continuing Grant
财政年份：
2007
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2007-02-01 至 2011-01-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0638796&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Collaborative Proposal Latitudinal variation top

项目摘要

Interest in latitudinal patterns of biodiversity and species interactions is centuries old. Studies of latitudinal variation in individual interactions suggest that plant defenses, herbivory and predation are all more intense at lower latitudes. However, because these processes interact and are spatially correlated, understanding latitudinal patterns of biodiversity and food-web structure will require a more sophisticated experimental approach than exists to date. Atlantic coastal salt marshes are ideal systems for examining interactions between multiple trophic processes that vary across latitude. Three major food-web factors change in parallel in salt marsh plant systems across latitude: plant quality, habitat structure, and the presence of top predators. The PIs will experimentally examine how spatial variation in these factors leads to different controls on herbivore abundance and food web structure across latitude. Ecologists have a long-standing interest in geographic patterns, but this project will be the first to experimentally investigate spatial variation in top-down and bottom-up forces across a latitudinal gradient. The results will increase our understanding of food-web structure, omnivory, spatial variation in interactions, and general salt marsh ecology. The project will use utilize existing networks of research reserves (National Estuarine Research Reserves, Long Term Ecological Research Site), train a postdoc, two graduate students and two undergraduates, and include outreach to K-12 educators.

对生物多样性和物种相互作用的纬度模式的兴趣是几个世纪以来的。对个别相互作用的纬度变异的研究表明，在较低的纬度下，植物防御，食草和捕食都更加激烈。但是，由于这些过程相互作用并在空间上相关，因此了解生物多样性和食品WEB结构的纬度模式将需要比迄今为止的更复杂的实验方法。大西洋沿海盐沼泽是检查多个营养过程之间相互作用的理想系统，这些过程在各个纬度之间有所不同。盐沼植物系统跨纬度的三个主要食品 - 网络因素在平行的情况下发生了变化：植物质量，栖息地结构和顶级捕食者的存在。 PI将通过实验研究这些因素的空间变化如何导致对纬度的食草动物丰度和食物网络结构的不同控制。生态学家对地理模式具有长期的兴趣，但是该项目将是第一个在纬度梯度上实验研究自上而下和自下而上力的空间变化的项目。结果将增加我们对食物 - 网络结构，杂食，相互作用的空间变化以及一般盐沼泽生态学的理解。该项目将利用现有的研究储备网络（国家河口研究储备，长期生态研究站点），培训A后DOC，两名研究生和两名本科生，并包括向K-12教育者推广。