Interacting Responses of C and N Cycles to Altered Biodiversity, Elevated CO2, and N Enrichment

该研究旨在探讨全球变化因子对温带草原生态系统中生态系统过程相互作用的综合影响。生物体之间的复杂的相互作用和反馈，各种化学元素和物理环境将使用BioCON控制的环境设施在雪松溪自然历史区，明尼苏达州，大气中的二氧化碳，氮（N）的沉积，和植物多样性进行了研究，同时操纵。他们将确定：（1）CO2浓度升高、氮富集和植物多样性对耦合碳-氮循环动态的相互影响，因为它们影响群落和生态系统特性和过程，包括初级生产力、植物组成、碳储量和土壤氮动态;（2）这些相互作用如何由微生物互利共生者、病原体、分解者和土壤食物网的其他类群介导。因此，重点明确放在植物和微生物生物多样性之间的相互作用以及影响生态系统C和N循环的过程上。拟议研究的更广泛影响包括，这将解决人类活动在地方到全球范围内对环境进程的潜在影响方面对社会具有重大意义的问题。 BioCON还将加强研究和教育的基础设施，这是一个独特的设施，向感兴趣的科学家和学生开放，并鼓励他们提出新的倡议。学生将来自各个层次，本科生，研究生和博士后研究人员，包括本科生暑期实习。有链接到威斯康星州的卓越中心的教师和本科生的研究合作和本科生指导环境生物学计划在北方亚利桑那大学，涉及美洲原住民和西班牙裔本科生。该项目还将通过Cedar Creek LTER Schoolyard计划建立并促进与当地公立学校的持续伙伴关系。最后，高级人员包括4名妇女（包括3名职业初期的科学家）和1名少数民族。

The proposed research addresses the integrated effects of several global change factors on interactions among ecosystem processes in a temperate grassland ecosystem. The complex interactions and feedbacks among organisms, various chemical elements and the physical environment will be studied using the BioCON controlled environment facility at the Cedar Creek Natural History Area, Minnesota, where atmospheric CO2, nitrogen (N) deposition, and plant diversity are simultaneously manipulated. The are to determine: (1) the interacting effects of elevated CO2, N enrichment, and plant diversity on the dynamics of coupled carbon-nitrogen cycles as they influence community and ecosystem properties and processes, including primary productivity, plant composition, carbon storage, and soil N dynamics; and (2) how these interactions are mediated by microbial mutualists, pathogens, decomposers, and other taxa of the soil food web. Hence the focus is explicitly on the interactions between plant and microbial biodiversity and processes that influence ecosystem C and N cycling. The broader impacts of the proposed research include the fact that this will address issues of major importance to society regarding the potential impacts of human activities on environmental processes at local to global scales. BioCON will also enhance the infrastructure for research and education, representing a unique facility open to and encouraging new initiatives from interested scientists and students. Students will be from all levels, undergraduate, graduate student, and postdoctoral researchers and includes undergraduates summer internships. There are links to the University of Wisconsin's Center of Excellence for Faculty and Undergraduate Student Research Collaboration and the Undergraduate Mentoring in Environmental Biology Program at Northern Arizona University that involves Native American and Hispanic undergraduates. The project also will both build on and contribute to ongoingpartnerships with local public schools through the Cedar Creek LTER Schoolyard program. Finally, the senior personnel include four women (including three early-career scientists) and one minority.