Collaborative Research: Identifying Ecosystem Controls on Soil Biodiversity: A U.S. and U.K. Project

合作研究：确定生态系统对土壤生物多样性的控制：美国和英国项目

• 批准号: 9806439
• 负责人: Thomas Powers
• 金额: $ 21.59万
• 依托单位: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1998
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1998-09-15 至 2002-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9806439&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Identifying; Ecosystem; Controls

Soils are the critical and dynamic center for the majority of ecosystem processes in both natural and managed terrestrial ecosystems. Although soil communities generally are thought to regulate many of these processes (e.g. decomposition, nutrient cycling), there are suprisingly little data on the factors that affect soil community structure and function, or the relation of soil biodiversity to ecosystem function. Central questions of this project are: (A) How do plants influence belowground biodiversity? and (B) What are the consequences of soil biodiversity to ecosystem processes? Specific hypotheses and manipulative field experiments will be used to test controls on soil community structure and diversity. The controls to be examined in the experiments to test controls on soil community structure and diversity. The controls to be examined in the experiments include plant species diversity, plant functional diversity (C3 vs. C4 species), resource quality, net primary productivity, and soil abiotic characteristics. Field experiments will test the effects of soil biodiversity on the decomposition of homogeneous and heterogeneous substrates. Main experiments will be at the Konza Prairie Long-Term Ecological Research (KNZ LTER) site, a site with substantial background information on ecosystem properties, soil processes and soil invertebrates. Analysis of targeted soil invertebrate communities known to be important in ecosystem function in grasslands will be examined at a fine taxonomic resolution throughout the experiment. A one time sampling at the Cedar Creek Natural History Area LTER site will also provide an additional test of the hypothesis that soil nematode diversity tracks plant biodiversity. The studies will form the basis for a collaborative and coordinated effort with a grasslands site in the UK (parallel proposal funded by UK-NERC). The partnership between ecosystem scientist and invertebrate taxonomists in the comparative US-UK field experiments will provide a unique contrib ution determining the relative importance of factors affecting belowground biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Simulation modeling at the USA KNZ LTER site will be used to synthesize, interpret and explore the nature of controls and consequences of soil biodiversity, and then to compare with parameters of the UK site.

土壤是自然和管理陆地生态系统中大多数生态系统过程的关键和动态中心。 虽然土壤群落通常被认为调节许多这些过程（例如分解、养分循环），但关于影响土壤群落结构和功能的因素或土壤生物多样性与生态系统功能的关系的数据却少得惊人。 该项目的核心问题是：（A）植物如何影响地下生物多样性？ (B) 土壤生物多样性对生态系统过程有何影响？ 具体假设和操作性田间实验将用于测试对土壤群落结构和多样性的控制。 实验中要检查的控制，以测试对土壤群落结构和多样性的控制。 实验中要检查的对照包括植物物种多样性、植物功能多样性（C3 与 C4 物种）、资源质量、净初级生产力和土壤非生物特征。现场实验将测试土壤生物多样性对同质和异质基质分解的影响。 主要实验将在康扎草原长期生态研究（KNZ LTER）站点进行，该站点拥有有关生态系统特性、土壤过程和土壤无脊椎动物的大量背景信息。 在整个实验过程中，将以精细的分类分辨率对已知对草原生态系统功能重要的目标土壤无脊椎动物群落进行分析。 在雪松溪自然历史区 LTER 站点进行的一次性采样也将为土壤线虫多样性追踪植物生物多样性的假设提供额外的检验。 这些研究将构成与英国草原地点合作和协调努力的基础（并行提案由 UK-NERC 资助）。 生态系统科学家和无脊椎动物分类学家在美国和英国的实地比较实验中的合作将为确定影响地下生物多样性和生态系统功能的因素的相对重要性提供独特的贡献。 美国 KNZ LTER 站点的模拟模型将用于综合、解释和探索土壤生物多样性的控制性质和后果，然后与英国站点的参数进行比较。