项目编号: | 1457460
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项目名称: | RUI: Plant-Herbivore Dynamics in an Herbivore-Protection Mutualism |
作者: | Manuel Morales
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承担单位: | Williams College
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批准年: | 2014
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开始日期: | 2015-05-01
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结束日期: | 2018-04-30
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资助金额: | USD244117
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资助来源: | US-NSF
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项目类别: | Standard Grant
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国家: | US
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语种: | 英语
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特色学科分类: | Biological Sciences - Environmental Biology
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英文关键词: | herbivore
; ant-protected herbivore
; herbivore-protection
; herbivore species diversity
; mutualistic herbivore
; protected herbivore
; herbivore population dynamics
; host-plant
; herbivore-plant dynamics
; herbivore effect
; herbivore performance
; plant
; mutualism
; herbivore-protection mutualism
; future host plant selection
; perennial host-plant
; host plant
; host-plant selection
; ant
; plant resistance
; many mutualism
; ant mutualism
; plant response
; ant-protection mutualism
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英文摘要: | Many mutualisms involve the exchange of a resource reward by one partner for some service by the other. Such interactions can influence the structure of ecological communities as well as the functioning of ecosystems. For example, in ant-protection mutualisms, ants protect plants or herbivores in exchange for a nectar reward. Ant mutualisms are hypothesized to have large effects on plant and herbivore species diversity and abundance. This project combines modeling and field work to explore the long-term consequences of a mutualism involving ant-protected herbivores. Understanding the feedbacks among plants, mutualistic herbivores and ants across multiple growing seasons will advance ecology by highlighting the potentially destabilizing effects of mutualisms on terrestrial ecosystems. This project brings together two researchers at a primarily undergraduate institution with a strong record of undergraduate training and incorporation of underrepresented groups in science. The proposed work will employ honors undergraduate research as its primary vehicle for outreach and training, including integrative empirical and theoretical approaches.
By definition, the short-term effect of mutualism is to increase population densities. In herbivore-protection mutualisms, this increase in population density may lead to over-exploitation of host plants in the long-term with corresponding negative consequences for protected herbivores. Preliminary results show that herbivory by the ant-protected herbivore, Publilia concava, reduces the attractiveness of its perennial host-plant, tall goldenrod, to subsequent generations. Using a two-way factorial design experiment (presence/absence of herbivores and presence/absence of ants) in two tall goldenrod field sites, this project will experimentally evaluate the consequences of the delayed herbivore effect on host-plants for host-plant selection and performance of Publilia concava. Repeated censuses of plants, herbivores, and ants over two years will document if herbivory mediates plant responses that influence herbivore performance and future host plant selection. These data will also be used to test a generalized spatial model of herbivore-protection mutualisms linking host choice behavior, induced plant resistance, and herbivore population dynamics. Results from the proposal will increase understanding of the potentially destabilizing effects of mutualism and the effect of host-choice behavior by herbivores on herbivore-plant dynamics following delayed effects of herbivory. |
资源类型: | 项目
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标识符: | http://119.78.100.158/handle/2HF3EXSE/94795
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Appears in Collections: | 影响、适应和脆弱性 气候减缓与适应
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Recommended Citation: |
Manuel Morales. RUI: Plant-Herbivore Dynamics in an Herbivore-Protection Mutualism. 2014-01-01.
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