| NSF Org: |
DEB Division Of Environmental Biology |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | April 30, 2001 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | April 30, 2001 |
| Award Number: | 0107456 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Susan Mopper
DEB Division Of Environmental Biology BIO Directorate for Biological Sciences |
| Start Date: | May 1, 2001 |
| End Date: | April 30, 2002 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $6,005.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $6,005.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
2147 TAMU COLLEGE STATION TX US 77843-0001 (979)862-6777 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
2147 TAMU COLLEGE STATION TX US 77843-0001 |
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Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| NSF Program(s): | POP & COMMUNITY ECOL PROG |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.074 |
ABSTRACT
Evaluation of a hypothetical model of local community assembly in a temporally dynamic, species rich neotropical river
DEB 0107456; PI: Kirk O. Winemiller, Co-PI: D. Albrey Arrington
Abstract
Results from this study will further our understanding of biological community structure and formation. Natural communities are affected by characteristics of the environment and interactions among constituent organisms. Understanding the relative importance of these factors and their interactions is highly relevant to the preservation of healthy communities and restoration of damaged communities.
Our study investigates the temporal and spatial dynamics of community assembly in a tropical floodplain river with very high biodiversity. Our previous work has demonstrated consistent patterns in local fish and invertebrate communities that depend on physical habitat complexity and seasonal dynamics. In this study, we will conduct field experiments that manipulate habitat patches with variable physical complexity to evaluate the relative importance of physical and biological factors for species colonization. Our experimental design also will allow us to determine the relative importance of stochastic and deterministic processes in the formation of local communities. In other words, we hope to determine whether or not local biological communities are simply collections of individuals and species that happened to find an available habitat patch, or if community membership results from species interactions such as competition and predation. Based on previous descriptive research, we hypothesize that nonrandom processes result in highly patterned fish and invertebrate communities during the low-water period, and that colonization of local habitats becomes more random during the annual flood period.
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