The landscape of interaction: scaling up from local plant-plant and plant-soil relationships

相互作用的景观：从当地植物与植物以及植物与土壤的关系扩大

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-03937
• 负责人: Lamb, Eric
• 金额: $ 1.75万
• 依托单位: University of Saskatchewan
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2014-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=566186
• 关键词: landscape; interaction; scaling; up; local

My research program investigates how plant community diversity and composition are structured by interactions among plants and between plant and soil communities. My short-term (5 year) objectives for this proposal are to scale up from local-scale (millimetre-metre) plant competition and multitrophic plant-microbial interactions to landscape-scale (metre to kilometre) patterns of plant and soil microbial community composition. I will utilize a spatially explicit multi-year field study of plant competition and plant and soil microbial community composition to characterize the among plants and the cross-trophic level landscape of plant soil feedback. Through this program, I will test 1) the relative importance of competition as a mechanism structuring both local-scale and landscape-level patterns of plant community diversity and composition, 2) whether well understood rhizosphere plant-microbe linkagesare an important mechanism structuring landscape-scale plant and microbial community diversity and composition, and 3) how fine-scale soil nutrient heterogeneity influences plant-soil interactions under field conditions. My research program will support three graduate students, a MSc. student focused on plant competition, a PhD. student focused on plant-soil linkages, and a MSc. student focused on experimentally linking plant competition, root foraging dynamics, and plant-soil microbe interactions. This research program will bridge the gaps between well studied and fundamentally local plant – plant and plant-soil interactions occurring at scales of millimeters to centimeters and landscape level patterns of plant and soil community structure. There is substantial evidence for variation in the strength and importance of competition and plant-soil relationships along environmental gradients, yet few studies have examined these patterns from a landscape perspective. Scaling up to landscape level patterns and processes is challenging because the relative importance of multiple interacting ecological mechanisms need to be assessed, but new analytical tools make this possible. This research program will be the first to bridge these scales, developing clear links between the fine-scale of plant-plant and plant-soil interactions, meso-scale patterns relevant to many pressing issues in ecology, conservation biology, and community assembly, to broad-scale community structure. In this research program, I will work across scales by characterizing a conceptual topography, the “landscape of interaction”, where variation in the strength and importance of local-scale ecological processes are mapped across a grassland landscape. This conceptual tool is key to understanding larger scale patterns in plant and soil communities. Using a spatially explicit sampling design to characterizing patterns of competition between individual plants will allow me to make cross-scale tests of the importance of competition as a mechanism structuring local-scale and landscape level patterns of plant community diversity and composition. Similarly by characterizing the linkages between plant root, soil eubacteria, archaea, and fungal communities across scales, will allow me to test the role of these multitrophic relationships in structuring plant and soil community diversity and composition. Finally, by characterizing rooting patterns in relation to fine-scale soil nutrient heterogeneity and microbial community structure, I will be among the first to investigate the factors that influence plant root foraging patterns under field conditions.

我的研究计划调查了植物社区的多样性和成分是如何通过植物之间以及植物与土壤社区之间的相互作用来结构的。我对该提案的短期（5年）目标是从局部规模（Milimetre-Metre）植物竞争和多养植物 - 微生物相互作用到景观尺度（仪表到公里）植物和土壤微生物群落组成的模式。我将利用对植物竞争，植物和土壤微生物群落组成的空间上明确的多年野外研究，以表征植物之间的特征以及植物土壤反馈的跨营养水平景观。通过该计划，我将测试1）竞争的相对重要性是构建植物群落多样性和组成的局部规模和景观水平的模式，2）我的研究计划将支持三名研究生，A MSC。专注于植物竞赛的学生，博士。专注于植物土壤连接和MSC的学生。专注于实验将植物竞争，根觅食动态和植物土壤微生物相互作用联系起来的学生。该研究计划将弥合研究良好的局部植物和本地植物之间的差距 - 植物和植物土壤相互作用发生在毫米的尺度上，以厘米和植物和土壤社区结构的景观水平和景观水平模式。有大量证据表明，竞争和植物土质关系沿环境梯度的强度和重要性变化，但很少有研究从景观的角度检查了这些模式。扩展到景观水平的模式和过程是具有挑战性的，因为需要评估多种相互作用的生态机制的相对重要性，但是新的分析工具使得这是可能的。该研究计划将是第一个桥接这些量表的计划，在植物植物和植物土壤相互作用的精细尺度之间建立明显的联系，与许多生态学，保护生物学和社区集会中许多紧迫问题相关的中等规模模式，与广泛的社区结构。在该研究计划中，我将通过表征概念形态，即“互动景观”来跨鳞片工作，在该概念地形“相互作用”中，局部规模的生态过程的强度和重要性的变化在横跨景观中映射到了局部规模的生态过程。这种概念工具是了解植物和土壤社区中大规模模式的关键。使用空间显式采样设计来表征各个植物之间竞争模式，这将使我能够对竞争的重要性进行跨尺度测试，作为构建植物社区多样性和组成的局部规模和景观水平模式的机制。同样，通过表征跨尺度的植物根，土壤酸，古细菌，古细菌和真菌群落之间的联系，将使我能够测试这些多营养关系在结构植物和土壤社区多样性和组成中的作用。最后，通过表征与优质土壤养分异质性和微生物群落结构有关的生根模式，我将成为第一个研究影响植物条件下植物根觅食模式的因素之一。