Functional Diversity Enhances Detection of Ecosystem Stability And
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Purdue University Purdue e-Pubs Open Access Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 12-2016 Functional diversity enhances detection of ecosystem stability and resolution of predator-prey interactions within a multitrophic community Ashley Lorraine Kissick Purdue University Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations Part of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, and the Entomology Commons Recommended Citation Kissick, Ashley Lorraine, "Functional diversity enhances detection of ecosystem stability and resolution of predator-prey interactions within a multitrophic community" (2016). Open Access Dissertations. 960. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/960 This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. FUNCTIONAL DIVERSITY ENHANCES DETECTION OF ECOSYSTEM STABILITY AND RESOLUTION OF PREDATOR-PREY INTERACTIONS WITHIN A MULTITROPHIC COMMUNITY A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University by Ashley Lorraine Kissick In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2016 Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana ii “In the loving memory of my father, Bert A. Kissick, who fostered my childhood interest in nature and encouraged my pursuit of a career in science.” iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Words cannot convey how much I appreciate all who helped me accomplish this research project. I would first like to take this opportunity to thank my major professor, Dr. Jeffrey D. Holland, for allowing me the opportunity to become a student in his lab and to work on this research topic. Jeff has been a valuable mentor to me, and I will always be appreciative of the support and guidance he offered throughout my graduate studies. Being a student of his provided a great fortune of learning about the fascinating world of insects, quantitative skills in ecology, and R, among other topics in ecology. I am particularly thankful for his sense of humor and the fun atmosphere that he fostered in the lab. Just some of the many things I will fondly remember include playing board games at the bridge house, sampling unusual foods (e.g., gasoline-tasting pickles, triple salt licorice “candy”, and soap flavored gum (the only food that was surprisingly good)), and pranks with coffee creamers. My committee members, Dr. Barny Dunning, Dr. Christian Krupke, and Dr. Ian Kaplan, were also invaluable throughout the entire research process. I am very appreciative towards all of them, particularly with respect to the direction they provided for my research. They were very encouraging of me and willing to offer constructive criticism to improve this project as well as professional guidance. In particular, I am thankful to Dr. Dunning for sharing his vast knowledge of birds, Dr. Krupke for helping iv to keep me grounded with realistic research goals, and Dr. Kaplan for his significant contributions on insect ecology topics. My sincere thanks are also given to Dr. Linda Lee for her support throughout my entire Purdue journey. She as well as the students in the ESE program greatly enriched my Purdue experience, and I will always be very appreciative of her guidance and mentorship. I am also thankful for her and the ESE program for selecting me to receive the funding that supported this research, including the doctoral USDA National Needs Fellowship and the research assistantship offered through the Graduate School. Thanks are also due to Dr. Joseph Anderson for his support via the agronomy departmental teaching assistantships. Being a teaching assistant for the genetics class was challenging, but I enjoyed helping the students and was able to learn so much from other fantastic professors. Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Steve Yaninek for his support in the form of departmental travel funds so I could present my research at two national conferences. Many thanks are also given to the Holland lab and others in the Entomology Department and outside Purdue University for help with this research project. Vít Syrovátka gave insight on how to best calculate the custom dissimilarity matrix for the cerambycids. John Shukle, Jeffrey Leung, Lesley Osborn, Shulin Yang, and Carolyn Foley devoted several summers to travel across the entire state of Indiana in order to collect all the specimens used in my study. They also spent countless hours curating and identifying the cerambycids. Thomas Mager began the process of curating and identifying the predator beetles. John Shukle also computed the plethora of landscape metrics. Furthermore, Dr. Jennifer Zaspel allowed me to use her Leica microscope for taking images of the beetles, and Garreth Powell kindly assisted with proper microscope v settings. Dr. Insu Koh, Dr. Kapil Raje, Dr. Hossam Abdel Moneim, and Julie Speelman were very helpful to me when I first joined the Holland lab, and I am grateful for their friendship. Both Insu and Hossam took mercy on me while I was learning R by teaching me some of their crafty coding tricks. Kapil spent much time developing a trait table for the cerambycids, and I was later able to use a good chunk of it for this research study. Julie was always there to offer a helpful hand whenever I needed one, whether it was with my research or how to handle a tricky situation while being a teaching assistant. Some memorable experiences that all of us shared together include watching Insu transform into an insect killing machine, constructing the Saperda puncticollis beetle cake (which blew the competition away at the Bug Bowl cake contest), building secret extension entomology projects to reveal later (none of which, however, were really a secret), making “biscuitty-goodness” coffee, having fun times while trying to locate beetle traps in the woods during a downpour with no map, compass, or GPS signal, and last but not least, laughing about “stuff” (sorry, Jeff, but please know that Hossam ruined that word for me, too). Also, thanks are due to Dr. Esteban Fernández-Juricic who allowed me to work in his lab and use the spectroradiometry equipment to collect reflectance measurements of the beetles. This process was incredibly tedious because the equipment was not designed to measure the reflectance of something as small as the beetles. However, his lab’s technician, Patrice Baumhardt, tirelessly stuck by me to help determine the best way to go about it, and I appreciate the friendship we gained in the process. She and her husband, Brandon, also went with me to the field not once but twice to get irradiance measurements, which was no easy task. Obtaining proper measurements relied heavily vi on collecting the data under fair morning weather conditions, but one summer we were faced with daily rain, morning teaching obligations, and limited field vehicle availability. Both Dr. Fernández-Juricic and Patrice also helped tremendously by reviewing manuscripts and sharing their knowledge and insight on bird vision, a critical component of this study. Thank-you very much, Esteban and Patrice, for your gracious help! Last, but definitely not least, I would like to thank all my friends and family, both in Indiana and Tennessee, who supported me throughout this entire process. It all started with my godfather, Dr. Roy Ferguson, who encouraged me to pursue the doctoral degree. During return trips to Tennessee he always had important advice for me and ended our conversations by stating: “Go forth and do academic stuff!” Obviously the word “stuff” was not ruined for him, but regardless I have been very appreciative of this encouragement and the positive impact that he has had on my life. Dr. Paul Threadgill also gave valuable advice about how to succeed in graduate school. My godmother, Suzanne Ferguson, (aka, “Ye Old Wise One”) was always there for me as a mentor. Topics ranged from how to rescue various cooking disasters to strategies on managing difficult adversity I faced during the time period I was working on this research project. No worries, Mom, I have not forgotten you! This process would have been much more tedious if it wasn’t for the support of my mom, Kathy Kalisek. She was always a faithful listener and supporter of me, no matter what. Over the years my mom learned quite a bit about functional diversity through phone conversations and enjoyed every minute of it. (Of course she did, how could she not?!) However, she is ready for me to change research projects so she can learn about something else. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................. x LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... xiii ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... xx CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Functional diversity ........................................................................................ 3 1.3 Functional insurance and ecological stability mechanisms ............................ 4 1.4 Landscape scale response ............................................................................... 6 1.5 Avian vision ...................................................................................................