Invasive earthworm effects on plant functional traits and diversity

入侵蚯蚓对植物功能性状和多样性的影响

• 批准号: 421786068
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Nico Eisenhauer
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Deutsches Zentrum für integrative Biodiversitätsforschung (iDiv)
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2018-12-31 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/421786068?language=en
• 关键词: Invasive; earthworm; effects; plant; functional

Invasions of natural communities by nonindigenous species are a threat to native biodiversity and are currently rated as one of the most important global-scale environmental problems. Invasive species can radically transform native ecosystems when they introduce novel traits that are dissimilar from those of the native community. Among belowground invaders, invasive earthworms are receiving increasing attention because of their role as ecosystem engineers in terrestrial ecosystems and their functional dissimilarity to the native soil fauna at various locations around the world. The invasion of exotic earthworms often causes non-random changes in diversity above- and belowground, suggesting that earthworm invasion may alter how trait-mediated mechanisms impact ecosystem functioning.This project aims to elucidate how invasive exotic earthworms affect intraspecific plant functional trait variation and plant community composition using earthworm-free regions of northern North America as a model system. In order to derive a comprehensive framework regarding the mechanisms by which earthworm invasions could modify plant community composition, we will assess the plant functional traits and the taxonomic and functional composition of plant communities in different forests with active earthworm invasion fronts. We will also disentangle the underlying mechanisms to these modifications with laboratory experiments. Empirical work will be complemented by a meta-analysis of published literature on invasive earthworm effects on plant communities. Thus, the proposed work integrates different ecological scales (plant species-specific physiological and morphological traits to populations to plant communities) by using a novel, synthetic combination of field observations, laboratory experiments, and meta-analyses. First, a comprehensive field study will explore the effects of invasive earthworm communities on the functional diversity of plant communities based on realized plant traits in invaded and non-invaded areas of deciduous forests (WP1). Second, a laboratory study will allow us to differentiate the effects of different ecological groups of earthworms on plant community composition, and to disentangle the underlying mechanisms via the study of their effects on plant-plant and plant-herbivore interactions (WP2). Third, a meta-analysis will integrate the information from existing literature and WPs 1 and 2 to investigate the role of earthworms as environmental filters selecting for specific plant traits based on observed changes in plant community composition (WP3). This meta-analysis will compare the effects of different ecological groups and communities of (invasive) earthworms on plant traits, plant community diversity, and plant community composition/homogenization. The functional trait-based approach will allow us to develop a general conceptual framework of plant responses to exotic earthworms.

非土著物种对自然社区的入侵是对本地生物多样性的威胁，目前被评为最重要的全球环境问题之一。当入侵物种引入与本土社区不同的新型特征时，它们可以从根本上改变天然的生态系统。在地下入侵者中，由于其在陆地生态系统中作为生态系统工程师的作用及其与世界各地各个地方的本地土壤动物群的功能差异，因此侵入性earth受到了越来越多的关注。外来earth的侵袭通常会导致地下和地下多样性的非随机变化，这表明earth的入侵可能会改变性状介导的机制如何影响生态系统的功能。该项目旨在阐明侵入性的外来eartotic earto虫如何影响种植体的植物内部功能性特征变异和工厂，并使用北美北部的无eart虫区域作为模型系统的社区组成。为了获得有关earth侵入可以修改植物群落组成的机制的全面框架，我们将评估植物的功能性状以及具有活跃的earth侵袭前沿的不同森林中植物群落的分类学和功能组成。我们还将通过实验室实验将基本机制解散为这些修饰。关于侵入性earth对植物群落的影响的文献的荟萃分析将补充经验工作。因此，提出的工作通过使用新颖的，现场观测，实验室实验和荟萃分析的合成组合，将不同的生态量表（植物物种特异性的生理和形态特征与种群与植物群落）相结合。首先，一项全面的现场研究将探讨侵入性earth社区对基于落叶森林的被入侵和无侵蚀地区的植物特征（WP1）中实现的植物特征的植物群落功能多样性的影响（WP1）。其次，一项实验室研究将使我们能够区分不同生态worm的生态群对植物群落组成的影响，并通过研究其对植物植物和植物植物植物相互作用的影响（WP2）来消除基本机制。第三，荟萃分析将整合现有文献和WPS 1和2的信息，以研究earth的作用，因为环境过滤器根据观察到的植物群落组成的变化（WP3）选择特定的植物特征。该荟萃分析将比较（侵入性）earth的不同生态群体和社区对植物特征，植物群落多样性以及植物群落组成/同质化的影响。基于功能性状的方法将使我们能够开发出植物对外来earth的反应的一般概念框架。