BII: Evolving Meta-Ecosystems in the Arctic

BII：北极不断发展的元生态系统

• 批准号: 2320675
• 负责人: Linda Deegan
• 金额: $ 1499.95万
• 依托单位: Woodwell Climate Research Center, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-04-01 至 2030-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2320675&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: BII; Evolving; Meta; Ecosystems; Arctic

The Evolving MetaEcosystems (EvoME) Institute will study the effects of global climate change on Arctic ecosystems. Ecosystems are complex communities of species that have evolved with each other and their shared environment over long periods of time. Understanding how these systems change over time is a Grand Challenge in Biology that is made urgent and policy-relevant by rapid climate change. This is particularly true in the Arctic, which is warming at least three times faster than the global average. Arctic ecosystems are uniquely suited to their extreme environment, and they provide food and livelihoods for human communities. It is critical to know whether species and ecosystems can evolve to match the pace of change, or whether they might fall apart or muddle along in a reduced state. EvoME will bring together experts from across biological disciplines to generate new insights at every scale, from genes to landscapes. It will document natural responses of multiple species in rivers and streamside tundra environments and conduct large-scale experiments on the flow of energy and genes between ecosystems. EvoME will foster a new generation of biologists trained to think and work across disciplines, with special attention to increasing inclusion and retention of researchers from underrepresented backgrounds, by a cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional course, a research fund for students, and a Fellows program. Finally, it will bring journalists into the research process to create—and help researchers create—innovative media and stories through blogs, social media, and radio stories that bring EvoME’s integrated understanding to public audiences, including rural and Alaska Native communities.The EvoME Institute integrates across biological disciplines and scales of organization to understand how adaptive evolution maintains and shapes ecosystems linked by the flow of evolving organisms and energy (the meta-ecosystem) in response to climate change. New evidence that evolution can occur rapidly necessitates a major reappraisal of the longstanding paradigm that ecosystem and meta-ecosystem resilience can be understood without evolution. EvoME advances eco-evolutionary theory and understanding by integrating from genes to meta-ecosystems to understand how each biological level interacts with the others. In doing so, this institute addresses fundamental questions in genomics, molecular genetics, evolution, physiology, behavior, population and community ecology, and ecosystem biology in the most rapidly warming place on Earth. EvoME will evaluate the current adaptive capacity of key species that integrate Arctic ecosystems along a latitudinal gradient in northern Alaska, including leveraging insights from populations living in hot springs in the Arctic. EvoME will conduct metaecosystem experiments that manipulate energy (litter and insect migration inclusion/exclusion) and gene (transplant and common garden) flow in river/riparian systems. It will combine this information with powerful whole-genome assessments and models to disentangle the processes through which food web responses interact with evolution and alter underlying trait and ecosystem responses. EvoME also will develop novel bio-monitoring equipment, computational algorithms, and new modeling techniques to develop flexible and adaptable forecasting tools. In these ways, EvoME will contribute to a broader, mechanistic, and predictive understanding of the joint ecological and evolutionary responses of Earth’s meta-ecosystems to climate change.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.

不断发展的元元系统（EVOME）研究所将研究全球气候变化对北极生态系统的影响。生态系统是复杂的物种社区，它们彼此发展，并在长时间内共享环境。了解这些系统会随着时间的流逝而变化是生物学中的一个巨大挑战，这种挑战是由于快速的气候变化而紧急且与政策相关的挑战。在北极尤其如此，它的变暖至少比全球平均水平快三倍。北极生态系统非常适合其极端环境，它们为人类社区提供食物和生计。重要的是要知道物种和生态系统是否可以与变化的速度相匹配，或者它们是否会以降低的状态崩​​溃或混乱。 Evome将汇集各个生物学学科的专家，以在从基因到景观的各个规模上产生新的见解。它将记录河流和溪流苔原环境中多种物种的自然反应，并就生态系统之间的能量和基因流进行大规模实验。 Evome将培养新一代的生物学家，培训了跨学科思考和工作的新一代生物学家，特别关注跨学科和跨机构课程，学生的研究基金，研究基金和研究员计划，对研究人员的纳入和保留不足。最后，它将通过博客，社交媒体和无线电故事来创建研究过程，并帮助研究人员创建的媒体和故事，这些故事将Evome的综合理解带入了包括粗糙和阿拉斯加的土著社区，包括本土社区。元生态系统）响应气候变化。新的证据表明，进化可能会迅速发生，重新评估了长期以来的范式，即生态系统和元生态系统的弹性可以在没有进化的情况下理解。 Evome通过整合从基因到元生育系统来了解生态进化论和理解，以了解每个生物水平如何与其他生物相互作用。在此过程中，该研究所解决了地球上最快速变暖的地方中基因组学，分子遗传学，进化，生理，社区生态学和生态系统生物学的基本问题。 Evome将评估关键物种的当前自适应能力，这些物种沿着阿拉斯加北部的纬度梯度整合北极生态系统，包括利用居住在北极温泉中的人群的见解。 Evome将进行元系统实验，以操纵能量（垃圾和绝缘迁移包容/排除）和基因（移植和共同花园）流动中的河流/河岸系统。它将将这些信息与强大的全基因组评估和模型相结合，以解散食物网响应与进化并改变潜在特征和生态系统响应的过程。 Evome还将开发新颖的生物监测设备，计算算法和新的建模技术，以开发灵活和适应性的预测工具。通过这种方式，Evome将为地球元生态系统对气候变化的共同生态和进化反应做出更广泛，机械和预测的理解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准来通过评估来通过评估来支持的。