Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Microbial Biology for FY 2003

这一行动为2003财年NSF微生物生物学博士后奖学金提供了资金。该奖学金支持关于原生动物、微藻、真菌、古生物、细菌和病毒物种的基本生物学的培训和研究，这些物种通常不被认为是模式生物。此外，它还为新近获得博士学位的人提供了在微生物生物学方面获得额外培训的机会，在知名科学家的赞助下获得研究经验，并在本科和研究生培训期间拓宽他们的科学视野，超越研究经验。这些奖学金的进一步设计是为了帮助新科学家引导他们的研究工作跨越传统的学科界限，并利用独特的研究资源、地点和设施，包括外国地点。研究和培训计划的标题是“将土壤微生物置于生态系统背景中：美国西南部土壤中微生物群落的动态”。这项拟议的研究解决了两个基本而重要的问题：(1)土壤微生物群落如何受到植被和气候变化的影响？以及(2)微生物群落动态如何影响土壤碳循环过程？这项工作有望提高我们对气候变化和美国西南部草原向灌木丛的广泛转化如何影响土壤碳储存的理解。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Microbial biology for FY2003. The fellowship supports training and research on the basic biology of protozoan, microalgal, fungal, archaeal, bacterial and viral species that are not generally considered to be model organisms. Further, it provides opportunities for recent doctoral recipients to obtain additional training in microbial biology, to gain research experience under the sponsorship of established scientists, and to broaden their scientific horizons beyond the research experiences during the undergraduate and graduate training. These fellowships are further designed to assist new scientists to direct their research efforts across traditional disciplinary lines and to avail themselves of unique research resources, sites, and facilities, including foreign locations.The research and training plan is entitled "Placing soil microorganisms into an ecosystem context: the dynamics of microbial communities in soils of the southwestern U.S." The proposed research addresses two fundamental and important questions: (1) how are soil microbial communities influenced by changes in vegetation and climate? and (2) how do microbial community dynamics influence soil carbon cycling processes? This work promises to improve our understanding of how climate change and the widespread conversion of grasslands to shrublands in the southwestern U.S. affects soil carbon storage.