Collaborative Research: LTREB Renewal: Impacts of insect herbivory on the pace and pattern of primary successional change at Mount St. Helens

合作研究：LTREB 更新：昆虫食草对圣海伦斯山初级演替变化的速度和模式的影响

• 批准号: 1257306
• 负责人: William Fagan
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland, College Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-02-15 至 2018-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1257306&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; LTREB; Renewal; Impacts

This long-term project tests the hypothesis that insect herbivory is a major factor influencing recovery of natural communities following catastrophic disturbance, a process known as primary succession. Since Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, field surveys and experiments have been used to quantify the impacts of herbivores on two key community members - lupins, which facilitate soil development, and willows, which provide the main source of three dimensional vegetation structure required by many animals. Over the next five years, these approaches will be continued in order to determine how effects of herbivores on host plants are linked to community development, if these effects attenuate as communities become more complex, and the factors that cause herbivore effects to vary across space. Results from this study have revealed previously unrecognized mechanisms that influence the recovery of natural communities from catastrophic disturbances such as volcanic eruptions. The project provides long-term data essential to management and restoration efforts. The project also enhances science education through student involvement and work with the National Volcanic Monument and its non-profit partner, the Mount St. Helens Institute. The researchers will assist the Mount St. Helens Institute in developing resources that enable high school science classes to participate in research at the site.

这个长期项目测试了这样的假设：昆虫食草是影响灾难性干扰后自然群落恢复的主要因素，这一过程称为初级演替。自 1980 年圣海伦斯火山喷发以来，人们通过实地调查和实验来量化食草动物对两种主要群落成员的影响：羽扇豆（促进土壤发育）和柳树（提供火山喷发所需的三维植被结构的主要来源）。许多动物。在接下来的五年中，这些方法将继续下去，以确定食草动物对寄主植物的影响如何与群落发展联系起来，这些影响是否随着群落变得更加复杂而减弱，以及导致食草动物影响随空间变化的因素。这项研究的结果揭示了以前未被认识的影响自然群落从火山爆发等灾难性干扰中恢复的机制。该项目提供了对管理和恢复工作至关重要的长期数据。 该项目还通过学生参与以及与国家火山纪念碑及其非营利合作伙伴圣海伦斯山研究所的合作来加强科学教育。研究人员将协助圣海伦斯山研究所开发资源，使高中科学课程能够参与现场研究。