Biological timing across multiple ecological scales and systems
Open Access
- Author:
- Pak, Damie
- Graduate Program:
- Biology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- September 29, 2020
- Committee Members:
- Ottar N Bjornstad, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
James Harold Marden, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
David Biddinger, Committee Member
Jesse R Lasky, Committee Member
Jessica Maral Conway, Outside Member
Timothy J Jegla, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- phenology
insectpests
mathematicalmodeling
ecology - Abstract:
- Phenology, the timing of biological events, is crucial for understanding many of the ecological processes that occur at multiple organismal scales. At the individual-level, organisms respond to abiotic and biotic cues to appropriately time life-cycle events to the seasonal environment. The aggregated individual responses then make up the population’s phenology which is represented through peaks and variance in the time series. Finally, a community of coexisting species provides insights into how abiotic and biotic interactions influence phenology and possibly offer a mechanism of coexistence. By investigating the phenological mechanisms linking these scales across multiple ecological systems, one can then find commonalities useful for the prediction of the ecological consequences of climate change. As many human industries rely on monitoring phenology for decision making (ex: fish harvesting, pest, management, etc.), managers must adapt their policies to reflect ecological changes. In this dissertation, I explore different aspects of phenology in a guild of tortricid moth pests, the Pennsylvanian tick community, and the plant species in hyper-diverse neotropical rainforests. With the tortricid moth pests, I show how climate variability influences individual vital rates and used this information to formulate phenological models. These models can be valuable for understanding how phenology can shift under different climate scenarios. Finally, long-term time series of the tick and plant communities can be useful for exploring how seasonal activities between coexisting species is influenced by biotic interactions. I further demonstrate that these communities can shift over in time. In conclusion, the ubiquity of biological timing across ecological scales and diverse species provide a special opportunity to understand the common phenological mechanisms between different systems and further study of phenology will help foster a broad framework for ecological theory and management strategies in the face of climate change.