Collaborative Research: Community ecology of partial consumption: Integrating plant demography into herbivore competition

合作研究：部分消费的群落生态学：将植物人口学纳入食草动物竞争

• 批准号: 1257882
• 负责人: Charlotte Lee
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: Duke University
• 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: 2013-08-15 至 2017-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1257882&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Community; ecology; partial

Ecologists are well-equipped with theory for competition between species that consume and deplete shared resources. Resource depletion, i.e., consuming resources quickly enough to limit the resources available to other consumers, is a well-established pathway by which different consumer species interact. Unfortunately, approaches based on resource depletion apply to only a subset, and perhaps a minority, of consumer-resource interactions in nature. Many consumer species consume resource organisms only partially, and do not appear substantially to reduce available resources. This includes many herbivores, which leave much green plant material unconsumed; non-fatal parasites, parasitoids, and pathogens, whose hosts can continue to forage, mate, and otherwise go about life while infected; and mutualists such as pollinators, defenders, and cleaners, which collect rewards provided by hosts in return for these services. A key feature of such species interactions is that resource organisms respond to partial consumption via changes in their survival, growth, and reproduction. The effects of these demographic responses on resource competition have been little studied. Building on previous promising theoretical results showing that resource demographic responses can critically affect the outcome of competition, this project will develop mathematical theory to accomplish three goals. First, general theory will establish the different possible roles of the demography of partial consumption in biological settings, ranging from competition between herbivores to competition for access to mutualistic partners. Second, models will integrate plant demographic responses to herbivore attack with other known pathways of interaction between the different herbivores of a shared plant host. Third, applications such as biological control of resource populations will be investigated quantitatively.The theory developed in this project will have broad application within and potentially beyond the ecological sciences. Further, the project will support the quantitative training and mentoring of a postdoctoral researcher in the construction and analysis of mathematical models to address ecological questions, as well as training in presenting results to non-mathematical audiences. Attempts will be made to recruit applicants from groups underrepresented in STEM fields. Postdoctoral involvement will also broaden dissemination of research results through increased publication and presentation.

生态学家对消费和耗尽共享资源的物种之间的竞争理论都有良好的理论。资源耗尽，即足够快地消耗资源以限制其他消费者可用的资源，是一种良好的途径，不同的消费者物种相互作用。 不幸的是，基于资源耗竭的方法仅适用于自然界消费者资源相互作用的子集，也许是少数。许多消费者物种仅部分食用资源生物，并且没有显着减少可用资源。这包括许多食草动物，它们留下了很多绿色植物的材料。非致命的寄生虫，寄生虫和病原体，其宿主可以在感染时继续觅食，伴侣和其他生活；以及诸如传粉者，辩护者和清洁工等共同主义者，收集主机提供的奖励以换取这些服务。 这种物种相互作用的一个关键特征是资源生物通过其生存，生长和繁殖而改变了部分消费。这些人口反应对资源竞争的影响很少。 基于以前有希望的理论结果，表明资源人口反应可以严重影响竞争的结果，该项目将发展数学理论以实现三个目标。首先，一般理论将确定在生物环境中部分消费的人口统计学的不同作用，从草食动物之间的竞争到获得共同伴侣的竞争。其次，模型将将植物人口统计学对食草动物攻击的反应与共享植物宿主不同草食动物之间的其他已知相互作用途径相结合。 第三，将对资源人群的生物控制等应用进行数量研究。该项目中开发的理论将在内部以及可能超出生态科学之外的广泛应用。 此外，该项目将支持博士后研究人员在数学模型的构建和分析中的定量培训和指导，以解决生态问题，并向非数学受众介绍结果的培训。 将尝试从STEM领域中代表性不足的群体招募申请人。 博士后参与还将通过增加的发表和呈现来扩大研究结果的传播。