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

[0137832]陆地北极研究往往侧重于植物种群或整个生态系统，对群落模式和过程的研究较少，导致缺乏预测气候变化对不同北极植物群落的影响以及对改变环境的潜在生物反馈的能力。该建议旨在更好地理解群落水平上的植被模式以及生态系统水平上的过程如何受到植物群落组成的影响。PI目前有两项nsf资助的研究经费。其中一个项目是研究阿拉斯加北部两个常见的北极植物群落，潮湿酸性和潮湿非酸性苔原。通过监测两个群落中植物对养分和温度操纵的反应，并进行实验来检查重要物种的发芽和存活，PI正在确定群落是如何维持的，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，将这些差异与生态系统功能联系起来。第二项NSF拨款是研究密歇根州东南部钙质湿地中7种无性系莎草的竞争。尽管无性系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式，但其对植物群落结构的影响尚不清楚。利用群落和个体水平的实验，PI正在研究克隆生长形式不同的物种之间竞争的短期和长期影响；这个项目的结果正被用来产生新的假设，以便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群落和生态系统联系起来，从而更好地理解所有组织水平的模式和过程，以及对不断变化的北极环境的生物反馈的预测。该奖项由美国国家科学基金会ADVANCE计划资助。ADVANCE计划的总体任务是通过增加女性在学术科学和工程职业中的代表性和进步来增加女性在科学和工程劳动力中的参与度。

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.