NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: The invasive tradeoffs hypothesis: how does wetland plant removal affect microbial and nutrient linkages

2021 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：侵入性权衡假设：湿地植物的清除如何影响微生物和营养物的联系

• 批准号: 2109778
• 负责人: Rachel Wood
• 金额: $ 13.8万
• 依托单位: Buck, Rachel L
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2109778&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2021, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the Fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. This project addresses the problem of invasive wetland plants. These destructive, non-native plants have caused significant harm to wetlands by replacing native species and degrading habitat for birds, fish, insects, and people. However, invasive plants can also provide benefits, such as reducing erosion, taking up carbon, and removing pollutants. The goal of this project is to improve management of wetlands by comparing the costs and benefits of invasive plant removal. The work focuses on the Great Salt Lake wetlands of Utah, where the invasive reed Phragmites australis has invaded over 26,000 acres. Costly and disruptive techniques are used for its control, including herbicides, grazing, bulldozing, and burning. This research will use advanced biogeochemical, hydrological, and microbial techniques to provide a holistic assessment of the pros and cons of Phragmites removal. It will broaden participation for students underrepresented in science with hands-on research experiences. This project investigates the effect of environmental perturbations associated with Phragmites invasion and control measures on microbial gene expression and community function. The proposed work will identify how gene expression is related to environmental factors, including invasive species and human management. While the project focuses on Phragmites in wetlands, the invasive tradeoff hypothesis and the multi-scale methodology used to test it will provide a scalable framework for characterizing ecosystem interactions among the microbial community, plants, human management, and ecosystem function. Leveraging partnerships with Utah state agencies, a large-scale ecosystem manipulation will measure nutrient cycling, microbial gene expression, and hydrological function in unmitigated sites and sites with Phragmites removal; these data will allow predictive modeling of how these interactions influence or are overridden by local context and site history. The project will partner with the Fellow’s existing relationship with Native American university students, providing opportunities to conduct fieldwork and participate in data analysis, statistics, and writing. The Fellow will receive transformative training for a future career as a scientist and professor by expanding knowledge and skills in molecular techniques and analyses, translational ecology, and predictive modeling.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该行动资助 2021 财年 NSF 生物学博士后研究奖学金，研究基因组、环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。该奖学金支持研究员的研究和培训，为生命规则领域做出贡献。该项目以创新的方式解决了入侵湿地植物的问题，这些破坏性的非本地植物取代了本地物种，并导致鸟类、鱼类、昆虫和昆虫的栖息地退化。然而，入侵植物也可以带来好处，例如减少侵蚀、吸收碳和去除污染物。该项目的目标是通过比较入侵植物清除的成本和收益来改善湿地的管理。在犹他州的大盐湖湿地，入侵性芦苇已侵入超过 26,000 英亩的土地，人们使用了昂贵且破坏性的技术来控制它，包括除草剂、放牧、推土机和推土机。这项研究将利用先进的生物地球化学、水文和微生物技术对去除芦苇的利弊进行全面评估，该项目将通过实践研究经验扩大对科学的参与。与芦苇入侵相关的环境扰动以及对微生物基因表达和群落功能的控制措施将确定基因表达如何与环境因素相关，包括入侵物种和人类管理。湿地芦苇、入侵权衡假设和用于测试它的多尺度方法将为描述微生物群落、植物、人类管理和生态系统功能之间的生态系统相互作用提供一个可扩展的框架，利用与犹他州大型机构的合作关系。 -规模生态系统操作将测量未缓解地点和芦苇去除地点的养分循环、微生物基因表达和水文功能，这些数据将允许对这些相互作用如何影响或被当地环境覆盖进行预测建模；该项目将与该研究员与美国原住民大学生的现有关系合作，提供进行实地考察和参与数据分析、统计和写作的机会，该研究员将接受未来作为科学家和教授职业的变革性培训。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。