Landscape constraints on plant functional connectivity as a multi-scale process

作为多尺度过程的植物功能连接的景观限制

• 批准号: RGPIN-2018-05739
• 负责人: Wagner, Helene
• 金额: $ 3.42万
• 依托单位: University of Toronto
• 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=667933
• 关键词: Landscape; constraints; plant; functional; connectivity

In the face of changing global climate and land use, plants need to be able to move across fragmented landscapes to maintain genetic diversity and to shift their ranges. The movement of plants and their genes across a landscape (plant functional connectivity) happens largely through pollination and seed dispersal. Many plants rely on multiple animal vectors to transport pollen and seeds, and these vectors may respond to the landscape in different ways. Despite this inherent complexity, plant functional connectivity is often modeled as a single spatial process, which may fail to explain e.g. rare long-distance dispersal events. ******As each animal vector responds to the landscape in a species-specific and scale-dependent way, the consequences of landscape change for plant functional connectivity, and ultimately plant population viability, will depend on the degree to which different vectors show synchronized (potentially accelerating the loss of plant functional connectivity) or divergent responses (potentially buffering plant functional connectivity). The planned research aims to characterize plant functional connectivity as the joint effect of multiple dispersal processes at multiple spatial scales.******This research program will train four Ph.D. students and 21 undergraduate students (through Undergraduate Summer Research Assistantships, B.Sc. theses, Research Opportunity Program) in my spatial ecology and landscape genetics lab. Focusing on two study systems, one in Canada and one in Costa Rica, we will use a combination of ecological and molecular genetic approaches. Students will be trained to combine field experiments, observational studies and computer simulation experiments to assess the net effects of landscape change on plant functional connectivity through modifying the behavior of pollinators and seed dispersers. ******We will push the boundaries of landscape genetics beyond typical observational studies of single species by conducting a landscape-scale gene flow experiment and addressing trophic interactions. Beyond the five-year program, the demographic-genetic model developed and validated here will provide an ideal opportunity for testing eco-evolutionary theory in the context of interacting species in changing landscapes. Developing a framework for understanding how the effects of global change cascade through ecosystems by altering biotic interactions, such as animal-mediated pollination and seed dispersal, is important for managing and maintaining biodiversity in today's rapidly changing landscapes.

面对不断变化的全球气候和土地利用，植物需要能够在零散的景观中移动，以维持遗传多样性并改变其范围。植物及其基因在景观中的运动（植物功能连通性）主要是通过授粉和种子扩散发生的。许多植物依靠多个动物向量运输花粉和种子，这些媒介可能会以不同的方式对景观做出反应。尽管存在这种固有的复杂性，但植物功能连通性通常被建模为单个空间过程，这可能无法解释例如罕见的长距离传播事件。 ******当每个动物矢量以特定于物种和规模依赖性的方式对景观做出反应时，景观变化对植物功能连接的后果以及最终的植物种群可行性将取决于不同矢量在多维上表现出同步的程度（潜在地加速了植物功能连接的损失）或潜在的植物连接性（潜在的缓冲连接性）。计划的研究旨在将植物功能连通性表征为多个空间尺度上多个分散过程的联合效应。******该研究计划将培训四个博士学位。学生和21名本科生（通过我的空间生态学和景观遗传学实验室实验室，通过夏季研究助理，学士学位，研究机会计划）。专注于两个研究系统，一个在加拿大，一个在哥斯达黎加，我们将使用生态和分子遗传学方法的结合。将对学生进行培训，以结合现场实验，观察性研究和计算机模拟实验，以评估景观变化对植物功能连通性的净影响，通过修改传粉媒介和种子分散器的行为。 ******我们将通过进行景观规模的基因流实验并解决营养相互作用，将景观遗传学的边界超越单个物种的典型观察性研究。除了五年计划之外，这里开发和验证的人口遗传模型还将为在不断变化的景观中相互作用的物种相互作用的背景下为生态进化理论提供理想的机会。开发一个框架来了解全球变化通过改变生物相互作用（例如动物介导的授粉和种子分散）如何通过生态系统级联的影响对于管理和维持生物多样性在当今快速变化的景观中至关重要。