The ecology of plant interactions: Integrating plant behavior, traits, and community assembly

植物相互作用的生态学：整合植物行为、性状和群落组装

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-04494
• 负责人: Cahill, James
• 金额: $ 5.76万
• 依托单位: University of Alberta
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2018-01-01 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=646668
• 关键词: ecology; plant; interactions; Integrating; behavior

Limited resource availability impacts species coexistence, foraging decisions, and the outcome of other ecological processes (e.g. plant-microbe interactions, herbivory, pollination). Ecological and evolutionary biologists have long viewed competition to be a critically important process affecting individuals, populations, and communities. Consequently, competition sits as a central mechanism of many fundamental theories (e.g. natural selection, competitive exclusion, limiting similarity etc.). However, the mechanistic understanding of the competitive process among plants, along with an empirically-driven understanding of competitions consequences for communities, is surprisingly limited. My past and future research program is centered on using an empirical approach to understanding the ecological and evolutionary causes and consequences of plant interactions, with an emphasis on belowground processes. In this proposal, I focus on three areas: (i) plant competition and community assembly, (ii) plant foraging and behavioural ecology, and (iii) multiple ecological stressors. This work builds upon several recent discoveries, and continues to rely upon my experimental approach to understanding ecological processes. More specifically, over the next five years, I will address four short-term objectives: 1. Test the prediction that the impact of competition impact on community structure and assembly is dependent upon the degree of competitive size-asymmetry (CSA) occurring within the community. 2. Disentangle the relationships among traits, relatedness, and competition. Test whether the framework of competitive tolerance, resistance, and suppression improves general understanding.3. Link patterns in plant behavioral responses to soil nutrients and neighboring roots to observed patterns of habitat occupancy by roots. Develop a non-destructive and image-based methodology to allow for repeated measures of root distributions.4. Integrate the consequences of behavioral shifts in root distributions with plant competition theory potential responses to multiple stressors. Central to this research will be the extensive training of HQP at the undergraduate, MSc & PhD, and PDF levels. The success of my research program is highly dependent upon effective mentorship, helping encourage individuals as they develop as scientists. As evidenced from the publication record and current positions of my previous lab members, I have previously been successful in my training efforts. In intend to carry forward with the HQP training plan I have developed over the last 14 years, while also adapting to changes in scientific culture.Though the research presented in the proposal is drawn from broad conceptual theory, its relevance to issues of concern in Canada and elsewhere is not abstract. My work on plant foraging behaviour, and understanding the factors which influence how plant explore the soil has direct implications for agriculture and crop breeding. Though those aspects will not be funded through the DG program, I anticipate collaborative projects (e.g. CRD) to emerge over the next five years. Similarly, biodiversity conservation is of great national and international interest, and it is routinely being challenged through the introduction of novel species and altered resources. In turn, these have the potential to impact the competitive dynamics of natural systems. Unfortunately, the mechanistic linkages between anthropogenic changes and species loss are less well understood than needed; effective and affordable mitigation and restoration is dependent upon core ecological understanding. Thus, I also anticipate potential for collaborative studies to emerge from the competition-based research outlined here.

有限的资源可用性会影响物种共存，觅食决策和其他生态过程的结果（例如植物 - 微生物相互作用，草食性，授粉）。生态和进化生物学家长期以来一直认为竞争是影响个人，人口和社区的至关重要的过程。 因此，竞争是许多基本理论的中心机制（例如自然选择，竞争排斥，限制相似性等）。但是，令人惊讶的是，对植物之间竞争过程的机械理解以及对竞争对社区的竞争后果的理解非常有限。我的过去和未来研究计划的重点是使用经验方法来理解植物相互作用的生态和进化原因和后果，并着重于下面的过程。在此提案中，我关注三个领域：（i）植物竞争和社区集会，（ii）植物觅食和行为生态学以及（iii）多种生态压力源。这项工作是建立在最近发现的基础上，并继续依靠我的实验方法来理解生态过程。 更具体地说，在接下来的五年中，我将解决四个短期目标：1。测试竞争对社区结构和组装的影响的预测取决于社区内发生的竞争性尺寸 - 空间对称程度（CSA）。 2。解开特质，相关性和竞争之间的关系。测试竞争性宽容，抵抗和抑制的框架是否可以提高一般的理解3。将植物行为反应中的模式与土壤养分和相邻的根部与观察到的栖息地占用模式联系起来。开发一种非破坏性和基于图像的方法，以允许重复的根分布度量。4。将根分布中行为转移的后果与植物竞争理论对多种压力源的潜在反应相结合。这项研究的核心将是对本科，MSC和PHD和PDF水平的HQP的广泛培训。 我的研究计划的成功在很大程度上取决于有效的指导，从而鼓励个人作为科学家发展。 从我以前的实验室成员的出版记录和当前职位中可以看出，我以前在培训工作中取得了成功。 为了推进我过去14年来我制定的HQP培训计划，同时也适应了科学文化的变化。尽管该提案中提出的研究来自广泛的概念理论，它与加拿大和其他地方的关注问题的相关性并不抽象。 我在植物觅食行为上的工作以及了解影响植物探索土壤的因素对农业和农作物育种具有直接影响。 尽管这些方面不会通过DG计划来资助，但我预计协作项目（例如CRD）将在未来五年内出现。 同样，生物多样性保护具有很大的国家和国际利益，并且通过引入新颖的物种和改变的资源，通常会受到挑战。 反过来，这些可能会影响自然系统的竞争动态。 不幸的是，人为变化和物种损失之间的机械联系比所需的理解还不太理解。有效且负担得起的缓解和恢复取决于核心生态理解。 因此，我还期望合作研究从此处概述的基于竞争的研究中出现。