ADVANCE Fellows Award: Continuing and Enhancing a Career in Arctic Ecology Research and Education

0137832 GoughTerrestrial北极研究往往侧重于植物种群或整个生态系统，群落模式和过程研究较少，缺乏气候变化对不同北极植物群落影响的预测能力，以及对改变环境的潜在生物反馈。这项建议旨在更好地了解群落一级的植被格局以及生态系统一级的进程如何受到植物群落组成的影响。PI目前有两个NSF资助的研究赠款。其中一个项目正在研究阿拉斯加北方两个常见的北极植物群落，即潮湿的酸性苔原和潮湿的非酸性苔原。通过监测植物对两个群落中营养和温度操纵的反应，并进行实验以检查重要物种的发芽和存活，PI正在确定群落如何维持以及它们对操纵的不同反应。通过与生态系统生态学家的合作，这些差异与生态系统功能有关。NSF的第二笔拨款正在研究密歇根州东南部石灰质湿地中七种克隆莎草物种之间的竞争。尽管克隆生长是包括冻土带在内的许多生态系统中植物产生新个体的主要方法，但其对植物群落结构的影响仍不清楚。利用社区和个人层面的实验，PI正在研究不同克隆生长形式的物种之间竞争的短期和长期影响;该项目的结果正在被用来产生新的假设，以在北极植物群落中进行测试。从这项工作中，一些北极植物物种的种群水平过程可以明确地与社区和生态系统联系起来，从而更好地了解各级组织的模式和过程，以及对北极环境变化的生物反馈的预测。高级方案的总体使命是通过增加妇女在学术科学和工程职业中的代表性和地位，增加妇女在科学和工程劳动力中的参与。

0137832GoughTerrestrial arctic research has tended to focus on plant populations or the entire ecosystem, with community patterns and processes less well studied, generating a lack of predictive ability of effects of climate change on different arctic plant communities and potential biotic feedbacks to an altered environment. This proposal seeks better understanding of vegetation patterns at the community level as well as of how processes at the ecosystem level are influenced by plant community composition. The PI currently has two NSF-funded research grants. One project is examining two common arctic plant communities in northern Alaska, moist acidic and moist non-acidic tundra. By monitoring plant responses to nutrient and temperature manipulations in both communities, and conducting experiments to examine germination and survival of important species, the PI is determining how the communities are maintained and how they respond differently to manipulations. The differences are being linked to ecosystem function through collaboration with an ecosystem ecologist. The second NSF grant is examining competition among seven clonal sedge species in southeastern Michigan calcareous wetlands. Although clonal growth is the dominant method of production of new individuals by plants in many ecosystems, including tundra, its effects on plant community structure remain unclear. Using community and individual-level experiments, the PI is examining both short- and long-term effects of competition among species that differ in clonal growth form; the results of this project are being used to generate new hypotheses to be tested in arctic plant communities. From this work, the population-level processes that have been well documented for some arctic plant species can be explicitly linked to the community and the ecosystem, thus providing better understanding of patterns and processes at all levels of organization, as well as predictions for biotic feedbacks to the changing arctic environment.This award is supported through the NSF ADVANCE Program. The overall mission of the ADVANCE Program is to increase the participation of women in the scientific and engineering workforce through the increased representation and advancement of women in academic science and engineering careers.