CAREER: Strategies for Understanding the Effects of Global Climate and Environmental Change on Northern Peatlands

职业：了解全球气候和环境变化对北部泥炭地影响的策略

• 批准号: 0346625
• 负责人: Jill Bubier
• 金额: $ 49.99万
• 依托单位: Mount Holyoke College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-05-01 至 2010-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0346625&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Strategies; Understanding; Effects; Global

The main objective of my CAREER plan is to improve our understanding of feedbacks between peatland ecosystems and the atmosphere in response to global climate change and increasing atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition through a combination of research and educational activities with undergraduate women students at Mount Holyoke College and collaborations with peatland scientists in Canada, U.S. and Finland. Peatlands contain one-third of the global pool of soil carbon, which is currently sequestered as peat under cold, waterlogged conditions. However, if the climate becomes warmer and drier in the northern latitudes, soil decomposition rates could increase, adding more carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) to the atmosphere, thus fueling the warming trend. Alternatively, plant growth could be enhanced under a warmer, drier climate, thus removing more CO2 from the atmosphere through enhanced photosynthesis. Elevated levels of atmospheric nitrogen could also stimulate plant growth. In sum, peatlands will either become positive or negative feedbacks to global warming depending on the relative responses of plant growth and soil decomposition to climate change and N deposition. I propose a cascade mentoring approach where students evolve from research assistants to full collaborators in furthering our understanding of three main topics: (1) the environmental controls on interannual and seasonal variability in carbon dioxide and methane exchange, important greenhouse gases, (2) the different responses of a range of plant communities along hydrologic and nutrient gradients to climate variability, and (3) the influence of nitrogen deposition on the carbon balance and vegetation community composition.

我的职业规划的主要目标是通过与芒特霍利奥克学院的本科女学生的研究和教育活动，以及与加拿大、美国和芬兰的泥炭地科学家的合作，提高我们对泥炭地生态系统与大气之间反馈的理解，以响应全球气候变化和增加大气氮(N)沉积。泥炭地含有全球土壤碳库的三分之一，目前在寒冷、涝渍的条件下以泥炭的形式被隔离。然而，如果北纬地区的气候变得更加温暖和干燥，土壤分解速度可能会加快，向大气中增加更多的二氧化碳（CO2）和甲烷（CH4），从而加剧变暖趋势。另一种选择是，在更温暖、更干燥的气候下，植物的生长可以得到促进，从而通过增强光合作用从大气中去除更多的二氧化碳。大气中氮含量的升高也会刺激植物生长。综上所述，泥炭地将成为全球变暖的正反馈或负反馈，这取决于植物生长和土壤分解对气候变化和氮沉降的相对响应。我提出了一种梯级指导方法，让学生从研究助理发展为全面的合作者，从而进一步理解三个主要主题：(1)环境对重要温室气体二氧化碳和甲烷交换年际和季节变化的控制；(2)沿着水文和养分梯度的一系列植物群落对气候变率的不同响应；(3)氮沉降对碳平衡和植被群落组成的影响。