NSF Org:	DEB Division Of Environmental Biology
Recipient:	WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
Initial Amendment Date:	July 2, 1999
Latest Amendment Date:	April 4, 2001
Award Number:	9974159
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	Scott L. Collins DEB  Division Of Environmental Biology BIO  Directorate for Biological Sciences
Start Date:	August 1, 1999
End Date:	July 31, 2002 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$200,000.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$210,000.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 1999 = $200,000.00 FY 2000 = $5,000.00 FY 2001 = $5,000.00
History of Investigator:	David Hooper (Principal Investigator) hooper@biol.wwu.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	Western Washington University 516 HIGH ST BELLINGHAM WA  US  98225-5996 (360)650-2884
Sponsor Congressional District:	02
Primary Place of Performance:	Western Washington University 516 HIGH ST BELLINGHAM WA  US  98225-5996
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:	02
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	U3ZFA57417D4
Parent UEI:	U3ZFA57417D4
NSF Program(s):	POP & COMMUNITY ECOL PROG
Primary Program Source:	app-0100  01000102DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT app-0199
Program Reference Code(s):	9169, 9178, 9251, EGCH, SMET
Program Element Code(s):	118200
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.074

ABSTRACT

9974159
Hooper
Ecologists have hypothesized for decades that more diverse communities are more difficult for species to invade because greater species richness should leave less available resources for a potential invader to exploit. This research seeks to address three fundamental questions (1) Does diversity influence invasibility of communities? (2) Do functional attributes of invaders related to resource acquisition influence the success of their invasion? (3) Is there a greater probability of invasion success when the invader differs from community members in functional attributes related to resource capture? The experimental design allows separation of effects due to differences in plant composition from effects due to differences in functional group richness. Unlike previous studies that have inferred answers to these questions by surveying communities which have already been invaded, this project will directly test the patterns of invasion into communities that differ in both composition and richness of plant functional groups. It will study the role of competition as a mechanism involved in invasion outcome. The research will use already-established experimental communities in California serpentine grassland. These experimental communities allow control of several factors, including disturbance regime, soil fertility, and community history, which confound attempts to study these questions in already invaded ecosystems. By directly seeding in species that are not already a part of those experimental communities, but that occur in the local area, it also will be possible to control for the rate of propagule arrival. This control is critical for determining what limits the success of an invasion once propagules have arrived. Overall, this set of experiments will provide a direct test of hypotheses concerning community invasibility and its underlying mechanisms.

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