MRI/RUI: Aquisition of Controlled Environment Chambers for Enhanced Research in the Plant Biology Program at Hope College

在Thomas Bultman博士的指导下，霍普学院获得了一笔赠款，用于购买四个受控环境植物生长室，加上最近招聘的教员，这将极大地加强和扩大霍普学院植物科学的研究和教学计划。正在进行的和预测的全球气候变化使植物生态学成为生物学的一个特别关键的子领域，因此本科生需要接触这个领域。这些实验室将允许重复的多因素实验，其样本量足够大，以确保统计有效性。试验室将由计算机联网，以允许从本地或远程地点进行综合控制。受控环境室将用于促进师生合作研究全球气候变化对植物-真菌和植物-真菌-昆虫相互作用的影响，以及对来自新热带云雾森林的树苗的影响。布特曼博士和学生们将测试增加的二氧化碳和干旱是否会与其他环境变量相互作用，影响内生真菌/草的互惠共生。利用受控环境室，将进行试验，以评估地上部和根部质量对内生真菌感染、二氧化碳水平、落叶、干旱和真菌基因型变化的响应。Swarthout博士和学生将通过提高羧化酶的水平来确定内生感染的草对升高的二氧化碳和温度的反应。他们将在营养素(氮和磷)和水的可获得性变得有限的一系列条件下探索这种反应。布特曼博士实验室的成员还将使用受控环境生长室测试昆虫对内生真菌感染、二氧化碳水平、植物损害、干旱和真菌基因型变化的反应。同样，它们也将决定食草动物的天敌对内生真菌感染、二氧化碳水平和真菌基因变异的反应。默里博士和学生们将试图找出哥斯达黎加蒙特韦尔德云雾森林内树苗海拔分布变化的生理学解释。该奖项更广泛的意义是，研究和课堂环境中的本科生将获得使用适当的统计程序评估小学和互动影响的重要培训。精确控制光照时间、光照强度、温度、湿度和二氧化碳的能力将极大地扩大希望学院的教职员工和学生的研究机会。这些机会对学生作为科学家的发展至关重要，并有助于确保学生从事科学事业。

A grant has been awarded to Hope College under the direction of Dr. Thomas Bultman for the acquisition of four controlled environment plant growth chambers, which, along with recent faculty hires, will considerably strengthen and extend the research and teaching program in the plant sciences at Hope College. Ongoing and predicted global climatic changes make plant ecology a particularly critical subfield of biology and therefore one to which undergraduates need exposure. The chambers will allow replicated, multi-factorial experiments of sufficient sample size for statistical validity. Chambers will be computer networked to allow integrated control from local or remote sites. The controlled environment chambers will be used to foster faculty-student collaborative research on impacts of global climatic change on plant-fungus and plant-fungus-insect interactions and on tree seedlings from neotropical cloud forests. Dr. Bultman and students will test if enhanced CO2 and drought interact with other environmental variables to influence an endophytic fungus/grass mutualism. Utilizing the controlled environment chambers, experiments will be conducted to the evaluate shoot and root mass response to variation in endophyte infection, CO2 level, defoliation, drought and fungal genotype. Dr. Swarthout and students will determine the response of endophytically-infected grass to elevated CO2 and temperature through enhanced levels of carboxylating enzymes. They will explore this response under a range of conditions in which nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and water availability become limiting. Members of Dr. Bultman's laboratory will also test the insect response to variation in endophyte infection, CO2 level, plant damage, drought and fungal genotype using the controlled environment growth chambers. In like manner, they will also determine the response by natural enemies of herbivores to variation of endophyte infection, CO2 level, and fungal genotype. Dr. Murray and students will seek to uncover physiological explanations for alterations in elevational distributions of tree seedlings within the cloud forests at Monteverde, Costa Rica. The broader significance of the award is that undergraduate students in both research and classroom settings will gain important training in assessing primary and interaction effects using appropriate statistical procedures. Ability to precisely control light duration, light intensity, temperature, humidity and CO2 will greatly expand faculty and student research opportunties at Hope College. These opportunities are critical in the development of students as scientists and help to ensure students pursue careers in science.