DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Disentangling the influence of functional similarity on patterns of species abundance in tree communities

论文研究：阐明功能相似性对树木群落物种丰度模式的影响

• 批准号: 1501341
• 负责人: Nathan Swenson
• 金额: $ 1.98万
• 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: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-07-01 至 2017-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1501341&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Disentangling; influence; functional

Tropical forests harbor a remarkable level of biodiversity characterized by an exceptional number of rare species and few dominant species. Human and natural disturbances are increasingly threatening the condition of these forests and with it, their benefits to human well-being. Disentangling the causes of species relative abundance constitutes a critical step in order to protect, maintain and predict the fate of biodiversity. By studying within-species trait variation and individual growth of 650 individual trees from six species broadly distributed throughout Puerto Rico, this project will determine how functional traits influence tree species diversity. The resulting insights from this research will help to foster decisions devoted to preventing biodiversity loss in tropical forests. Further, this project will support training for science students as well as outreach efforts via public talks encouraging young people to pursue career in tropical ecology. Identifying the ecological forces that underlie species relative abundances has been a lingering challenging in ecology. One potential explanation for this pattern is based on the idea that species have differential abilities to exploit resources heterogeneously distributed in the space and time. This ability is expected to be strongly associated with different attributes that affect the performance of individuals and ultimately their distribution and abundance. This study focuses on understanding how organismal traits influence patterns of species relative abundance. The relationship between organismal function and performance will be evaluated using in a spatially explicit context. Methods will include measuring the growth and traits of individual trees for six species distributed along an altitudinal gradient in Puerto Rico. The proposed research will expand our knowledge of the ecological mechanisms underlying patterns of species relative abundance by considering not only species identities but also trait information. Results from this project will have direct implications for natural resource management.

热带森林藏有一个显着的生物多样性，其特征是稀有物种数量众多，几乎没有占主导地位。人类和自然的干扰日益威胁到这些森林的状况，随之而来的是它们对人类福祉的好处。解散物种相对丰度的原因是保护，维持和预测生物多样性命运的关键步骤。通过研究从六个物种中广泛分布在波多黎各的六种物种的种类内部特征变化和个体生长，该项目将决定功能性状如何影响树种物种的多样性。这项研究产生的见解将有助于促进致力于防止热带森林生物多样性丧失的决策。此外，该项目将支持科学学生的培训，以及通过公开谈判的宣传工作，鼓励年轻人从事热带生态学的职业。识别物种相对丰度的生态力量在生态学上具有挥之不去的挑战。对这种模式的一种潜在解释是基于这样的观念：物种具有不同的能力来利用在空间和时间中分布异质的资源。预计这种能力将与影响个人表现及其分布和丰度的不同属性密切相关。这项研究重点是了解有机物特征如何影响物种相对丰度的模式。在空间上明确的环境中，将评估生物功能与性能之间的关系。方法将包括测量沿波多黎各的高空梯度分布的六种树木的生长和特征。拟议的研究将扩大我们对物种相对丰度的生态机制相对丰度的知识，不仅要考虑物种身份，而且考虑性状信息。该项目的结果将对自然资源管理产生直接影响。