A large-scale, experimental test of how habitat fragmentation affects trophic structure, species niches, and extinction risk
Fundamental properties of populations and communities are affected by habitat loss and fragmentation--pervasive threats to many ecosystems. Because effects of landscape alteration are complex and intertwined, a central goal of landscape ecology is to tease apart the mechanisms through which populations and communities are altered by changes of habitat patches. Manipulative experiments provide a means to this end. The fellow will assess impacts of fragmentation on a diverse community of beetles in a large-scale experiment, the Wog Wog Habitat Fragmentation Experiment in Australia. Specifically the project focuses on determining: 1) How fragmentation affects trophic structure and 2) the niche space of beetle species; 3) Whether a given beetle species? niche space predicts its extinction risk in fragments. The fellow will use beetle carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios (ä13C and ä15N) to address these questions. In addition to providing a mechanistic understanding of how fragmentation affects a diverse arthropod community, these results will serve conservation biology by predicting which species are most at risk by fragmentation.
This fellow will be trained in quantitative skills, stable isotope analysis, teaching, and mentoring. The fellow is committed to education and providing research opportunities to undergraduate students, especially those from underrepresented groups, and to being a role model in the classroom, laboratory, and field. The teaching components of this project will include developing course material in collaboration with Science Teaching Fellows in University of Colorado's Science Education Initiative (a STEM initiative) and developing K-12 material in collaboration with undergraduates.
