Collaborative Research: RUI: Structured Population Dynamics Subject to Stoichiometric Constraints

合作研究：RUI：受化学计量约束的结构化人口动态

• 批准号: 2322102
• 负责人: Angela Peace
• 金额: $ 24.98万
• 依托单位: Texas Tech University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-08-15 至 2026-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2322102&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; RUI; Structured; Population

As human activities continue to alter environmental balances and nutrient cycles, it is becoming vital to understand how these changes can impact the environment. Ecological processes depend on the flow and balance of essential elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. These essential elements can affect juvenile consumers differently than adult consumers. Such age/stage-specific effects affect population dynamics, suggesting age/stage-structured mathematical models are needed to accurately capture and understand population dynamics. The development of age/stage-structured population models over the decades has significantly contributed to understanding energy flow and population dynamics of ecological systems. However, current models fail when fertility and maturation play important roles in nutrient recycling and ecosystem function. Here, investigators will design and conduct laboratory experiments in conjunction with developing mathematical models that incorporate age/stage-specific nutritional constraints on growth, time to maturation, and reproduction. This will result in the development of new theoretical applications in ecology that investigate how varying nutrient levels help shape ecological communities. The project is a collaboration between Texas Tech University, Haverford College, and California State University Northridge, and offers valuable educational, training, and outreach opportunities. Specifically, undergraduate and graduate students will receive interdisciplinary training and mentorship in the fields of mathematics and ecology to gain the ability to ask, answer, and achieve broad understandings of scientific problems, that is necessary to communicate effectively across disciplines. Investigators and students will be involved in K-12 outreach initiatives. This project seeks to understand the interactive effects of stoichiometric constraints and population dynamics, particularly, how organismal stage structures and ecosystem function influence each other. To this end, the investigators will develop and analyze a series of empirically testable and robust mathematical models of population dynamics structured under the framework of Ecological Stoichiometry. The theory of Ecological Stoichiometry emphasizes the balance of essential elements throughout ecological interactions. Compartmental systems of ordinary differential equations and delayed integro-differential equations will be developed to address complex questions about stage-specific nutritional constraints, and their consequences on maturation and reproductive output. Dynamical systems theory and tools will be used to interpret and analyze the models including analytical, numerical, as well as bifurcation analysis. The synthesis of the models and experiments will integrate the field of structured population mathematical modeling with the theory of Ecological Stoichiometry. The resulting theoretical frameworks and their findings will help shed light on the interplay between elemental constraints and stage-structures within ecological systems and broaden the types of ecological questions that models can answer.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

随着人类活动不断改变环境平衡和营养循环，了解这些变化如何影响环境变得至关重要。生态过程取决于碳、氮和磷等基本元素的流动和平衡。这些基本要素对青少年消费者的影响与对成年消费者的影响不同。这种年龄/阶段特定的效应会影响人口动态，这表明需要年龄/阶段结构的数学模型来准确捕获和理解人口动态。几十年来，年龄/阶段结构的人口模型的发展极大地促进了理解生态系统的能量流和人口动态。然而，当生育力和成熟度在养分循环和生态系统功能中发挥重要作用时，当前的模型就会失败。 在这里，研究人员将设计和进行实验室实验，同时开发数学模型，其中纳入了对生长、成熟时间和繁殖的特定年龄/阶段的营养限制。这将导致生态学新理论应用的发展，研究不同的营养水平如何帮助塑造生态群落。该项目是德克萨斯理工大学、哈弗福德学院和加州州立大学北岭分校之间的合作项目，提供宝贵的教育、培训和推广机会。具体来说，本科生和研究生将接受数学和生态学领域的跨学科培训和指导，以获得提出、回答和广泛理解科学问题的能力，这是跨学科有效沟通所必需的。研究人员和学生将参与 K-12 外展活动。该项目旨在了解化学计量约束和种群动态的相互作用，特别是有机阶段结构和生态系统功能如何相互影响。为此，研究人员将开发和分析一系列在生态化学计量框架下构建的可实证检验且稳健的种群动态数学模型。生态化学计量理论强调整个生态相互作用中基本元素的平衡。 将开发常微分方程和延迟积分微分方程的区室系统，以解决有关特定阶段营养限制及其对成熟和生殖输出的影响的复杂问题。动力系统理论和工具将用于解释和分析模型，包括解析分析、数值分析以及分岔分析。 模型和实验的综合将结构化种群数学模型领域与生态化学计量理论相结合。由此产生的理论框架及其研究结果将有助于阐明生态系统内元素约束和阶段结构之间的相互作用，并扩大模型可以回答的生态问题类型。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并被认为值得通过以下方式获得支持：使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估。