International Research Fellowship Program: Herbivorous Nematodes and the Microbial Loop: Unraveling Below-ground Mechanisms Affecting Plant Production

国际研究奖学金计划：食草线虫和微生物循环：揭示影响植物生产的地下机制

• 批准号: 0758674
• 负责人: Jennifer Krumins
• 金额: $ 13.44万
• 依托单位: Krumins Jennifer A
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-02-01 至 2011-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0758674&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: International; Research; Fellowship; Program; Herbivorous

0758674KruminsThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support an eighteen-month research fellowship by Dr. Jennifer A. Krumins to work with Dr. Wim H. van der Putten at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology in Heteren, The Netherlands.Nutrient cycling in soil food webs is critical to plant production and plant community diversity because direct and indirect interactions between soil organisms (especially the microbial loop) potentially affect nutrient availability to plants. Most soil research studies nutrient cycling carried out by microbes in isolation from other organisms in soil food webs associated with plant roots. In nature, a mixture of positive and negative feedbacks between plants and soil organisms drive nutrient cycling and ultimately, plant production and community structure. For instance, root grazing by nematodes can negatively affect plants (a direct effect), but consumer waste associated with grazing may positively affect plants through nutrient enrichment (an indirect effect). The goal of this fellowship project, developed in collaboration with Dr. van der Putten, is to integrate these indirect (nutrient conversion) and direct (herbivorous animals) interactions in the soil community. In doing this, they will not only resolve important below-ground mechanisms that determine plant production, but will also contribute to an important growing body of theory describing the relative importance of positive versus negative interactions between plants and soil biota. The experiment proposed here will simultaneously answer the following important questions: 1.) Will root herbivory indirectly and positively affect microbial loop biomass and activity? 2.) Will enhanced microbial loop activity positively influence plant production? They will address these questions in greenhouse experiments using potted dune grasses. To test the direct effect of grazing, the PI will create an herbivorous nematode density gradient and measure microbial loop response in function and community composition and plant response in below and above ground biomass. Through collaboration with Dr. Peter C. de Ruiter and the host, the data acquired in these experiments will be used to develop mathematical models predicting plant responses to indirect, positive feedbacks.

0758674Kruminsthe International Research奖学金计划使美国的科学家和工程师能够在国外进行9到二十四个月的研究。 该计划的奖项为联合研究提供了机会，并使用独特或补充设施，专业知识和在国外的实验条件。该奖项将支持詹妮弗·A·克鲁明斯（Jennifer A.土壤生物（尤其是微生物环）之间可能影响植物的养分利用率。大多数土壤研究研究由微生物与其他生物体分离的土壤食物网中与植物根相关的养分循环。 在本质上，植物和土壤生物之间正面和负面反馈的混合物驱动了养分循环，最终是植物生产和社区结构。 例如，线虫放牧的根部放牧会对植物产生负面影响（直接效应），但是与放牧相关的消费者废物可能会通过养分富集对植物产生积极影响（一种间接的效果）。 该奖学金项目的目标是与范德·普滕（Van der Putten）博士合作开发的，是将这些间接（营养转化）和直接（草食动物）相互作用整合到土壤社区中。 在此过程中，他们不仅可以解决决定植物生产的重要地下机制，而且还将有助于一个重要的理论体系，描述了植物与土壤生物群之间正相互作用与负相互作用的相对重要性。 这里提出的实验会同时回答以下重要问题：1。）根源的草食生物会间接和积极地影响微生物环的生物量和活性吗？ 2.）增强微生物环的活性会积极影响植物的产生吗？ 他们将在温室实验中使用盆栽草丛解决这些问题。 为了测试放牧的直接效应，PI将产生草食线虫密度梯度，并在地下生物量下外测量功能和社区组成和植物反应中的微生物环反应。 通过与Peter C. de Ruiter博士和主机的合作，这些实验中获得的数据将用于开发数学模型，以预测植物对间接，积极反馈的反应。