Collaborative Research: Habitat Specialization and the Community Assembly of Amazonian Tree Lineages

合作研究：栖息地专业化和亚马逊树系的群落大会

• 批准号: 0743103
• 负责人: Christopher Baraloto
• 金额: $ 19.95万
• 依托单位: University of Florida
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-04-01 至 2012-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0743103&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Habitat; Specialization; Community

Tropical forests are extremely diverse. One can find more than 1000 species of trees within a few square miles in many areas. For comparison, the entire U.S. contains about 600 species. It is also common to find many closely-related species in close proximity, despite predictions that close relatives should share similar traits and therefore competitively exclude one another. One phenomenon that may explain this pattern is that species composition can change dramatically with habitat. This idea will be tested by studying five common and diverse tree lineages that occur in three distinct forest types, surveying all of their species across large areas of Peru and French Guiana. Floras of both countries are highly diverse yet share very few species; this allows a powerful, replicated test of habitat specialization. DNA will be used to construct phylogenies of these five lineages to test if close relatives are generally found in different environments. Finally, a reciprocal transplant experiment will help determine whether closely related tree species share traits that confer flood tolerance, nutrient use efficiency, and defenses against natural enemies, and how these traits benefit survival in each habitat. This project will determine the relationship between environmental heterogeneity, habitat specialization and species coexistence. The results will have importance to policy makers interested in conserving the forests with the highest biodiversity on Earth. The project will provide research opportunities for students within U.S. institutions and will also foster international exchange among the three countries by including Guianan and Peruvian students.

热带森林极其多样化。 在许多地区，方圆几平方英里内就可以发现 1000 多种树木。 相比之下，整个美国约有 600 个物种。尽管预测近亲应该具有相似的特征并因此竞争性地相互排斥，但发现许多密切相关的物种非常接近也是很常见的。可以解释这种模式的一个现象是物种组成会随着栖息地的变化而发生巨大变化。 这一想法将通过研究三种不同森林类型中出现的五种常见且多样化的树木谱系，并调查秘鲁和法属圭亚那大片地区的所有物种来检验。 两国植物区系高度多样化，但共有的物种却很少；这可以对栖息地专业化进行强大的、可重复的测试。 DNA将用于构建这五个谱系的系统发育，以测试近亲是否普遍存在于不同的环境中。 最后，相互移植实验将有助于确定密切相关的树种是否具有耐洪性、养分利用效率和对天敌的防御能力等特征，以及这些特征如何有利于每个栖息地的生存。该项目将确定环境异质性、栖息地专业化和物种共存之间的关系。研究结果对于有兴趣保护地球上生物多样性最高的森林的政策制定者具有重要意义。该项目将为美国机构内的学生提供研究机会，还将通过圭亚那和秘鲁学生的参与来促进这三个国家之间的国际交流。