Two graduate students (MS and PhD) and one postdoctoral researcher are sought by the Gardiner Laboratory at the Ohio State University. These positions are part of an NSF CAREER funded project examining how vacant land plant community composition and surrounding landscape heterogeneity influence arthropod predator biodiversity-resource capture relationships. The starting semester for graduate students is F 2014 and W 2013 for the postdoctoral researcher. A brief project summary is below. For more information interested individuals should contact Dr. Mary Gardiner at [email protected]. For full consideration, applications for graduate students should be submitted to OSU by early December 2013.
Project Summary: Global biodiversity decline has fueled rapid growth in biodiversity-ecosystem function (BEF) research. On average, a positive association among species richness and productivity has emerged. However, studies examining predators indicate larger variation in richness-resource capture relationships. Without greater knowledge of the mechanisms driving predator BEF relationships, conservation of predators and their functions is difficult to achieve. This project will establish a large-scale field experiment within the urban landscape of Cleveland, OH to examine how patch composition and landscape configuration influence predator resource partitioning and resource capture. Objectives include 1) documenting how patch and landscape heterogeneity affect the dietary niche overlap of generalist arthropod predators, 2) testing whether changes in heterogeneity affect resource capture via random gain or loss in richness, non-random gain or loss of highly effective predatory species, and/or altering the per- capita contributions of species, and 3) tracking the dispersal of predators to determine if heterogeneity affects the ability of a patch to serve as a source of biocontrol services. Research will take place within a network of 64 vacant lot sites assigned to one of eight plant community treatments. Decisions regarding vacant land management will shape the ecological and social quality of inner-city neighborhoods for decades to come. Therefore, understanding how the composition of these habitats and their landscape context influence BEF relationships is a critical task.
