Body size is an important organismal trait for a wide variety of ecological reasons. In this study, the researcher proposes that studying the distribution of individual body sizes may provide information on the ecological processes that structure natural communities. Analysis of large databases will be combined with mechanistic models to determine the relationship between individual body size distributions and species body size distributions. This relationship - or relationships - may then suggest the particular processes that structure ecological communities. For example, similarities between individual and species body size distributions will be used to distinguish between competition for limited resources versus the assembly of functionally-similar species from a regional species pool as the major mechanism structuring a community.
The proposed research will generate both analytical tools and databases that can be broadly used to address diverse questions in community ecology. The researcher will also develop Web 2.0 tools to facilitate remote collaboration, on-line meetings, and the storage and manipulation of data on remotely accessible servers. These are tools that will also be of general use in the scientific community. One postdoctoral researcher and two graduate students will be trained through their participation in this research.
