Collaborative Research: Landscape connectivity and the movement ecology of plant and animal communities

合作研究：景观连通性和动植物群落的运动生态学

• 批准号: 1050929
• 负责人: Alice Harmon
• 金额: $ 13.02万
• 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: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-05-01 至 2014-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1050929&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Landscape; connectivity; movement

Movement is a fundamental property of nearly all life on earth. The need to move is driven by a variety of requirements, including escape from harsh weather, establishment of populations in new places, and procurement of food and mates. Understanding and predicting the extent of movement is critical for knowing why and how organisms occur where they do. It is also essential for forecasting impacts of habitat alteration and climate change on biodiversity. But movement is difficult to measure, even for one species of plant or animal and particularly at the large areas over which organisms regularly move and biodiversity conservation occurs. This study uses novel techniques to do what has so far been nearly impossible ? to measure movement over long distances for a diverse group of plant and animal species. First, it uses a novel technique, ?tagging? entire communities with enriched nitrogen, which can be used to track the movement of any organism in the community exposed to that source nitrogen. Second, dispersal will be quantified in a unique, large-scale, well-replicated, landscape experiment ? one that is unprecedented in its size and longevity for testing effects of corridors? thin strips of habitat that connect otherwise isolated habitat patches.This study is important for effective conservation because it will measure the extent to which habitat fragmentation reduces the ability of plant and animal species to move through a landscape, and the extent to which wildlife corridors help organisms move across fragmented landscapes. Corridors are considered to be one of the most important tools available to help solve the many problems caused by habitat loss and fragmentation. Corridors may provide superhighways for plants and animals, and are expected to see increased traffic as climate changes, allowing organisms to shift their ranges as needed. This project will train undergraduate students through research and through the continuation of an award-winning collaborative program focused on mentoring an especially diverse set of students; support a K-12 program that provides environmental education to underprivileged youth; maintain scientific infrastructure (the world?s largest experiment on habitat corridors); and provide a long-term database on how organisms respond to corridors.

运动几乎是地球上所有生命的基本特性。 搬家的需求是由各种要求驱动的，包括摆脱恶劣的天气，在新地方建立人口以及食品和伴侣的采购。 理解和预测运动的程度对于知道为什么和如何在其上发生生物发生的方式至关重要。 这对于预测栖息地改变和气候变化对生物多样性的影响也至关重要。 但是，即使对于一种动植物，也很难衡量运动，尤其是在有机体经常移动和生物多样性保护的大区域。 这项研究使用新颖的技术来完成迄今为止几乎不可能的事情？测量各种动植物种类的长距离运动。首先，它使用一种新技术？标记？整个具有丰富氮的社区，可用于跟踪暴露于该来源氮的社区中任何生物的运动。其次，分散将通过独特的大规模，良好的景观实验进行量化吗？它的大小和寿命是史无前例的，以实现走廊的测试效果？这项研究对于有效的保护很重要，因为它将衡量栖息地碎裂的程度降低动植物穿过景观的能力，以及野生动植物走廊帮助生物在碎裂的景观中移动的程度，这对有效的保护很重要，这对于有效的保护很重要，因为它可以衡量栖息地的薄细条，因为这对有效的保护很重要。 走廊被认为是可用的最重要工具之一，可帮助解决栖息地丧失和分散造成的许多问题。 走廊可以为动植物提供高速公路，并有望看到随着气候变化的影响，交通会增加，从而使生物可以根据需要移动其范围。 该项目将通过研究和继续屡获殊荣的合作计划来培训本科生，该计划致力于指导一组特别多样化的学生；支持一个为贫困青年提供环境教育的K-12计划；维持科学基础设施（世界上最大的栖息地走廊实验）；并提供有关生物如何对走廊反应的长期数据库。