CAREER: Leaf microclimates and plant-insect interactions

职业：叶子微气候和植物与昆虫的相互作用

• 批准号: 0844916
• 负责人: Harry Woods
• 金额: $ 83.74万
• 依托单位: University of Montana
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-07-01 至 2015-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0844916&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Leaf; microclimates; plant; insect

"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)." Plant-eating insects make up over one quarter of all macroscopic organisms, and the plants they eat another quarter. Little is known, however, about the factors influencing which insects occur on which plants. The proposed studies examine a set of questions about how leaf microclimates - the temperature and relative humidity adjacent to a leaf's surface - influence insect-plant associations. In particular, the studies are structured by three questions. First, how different are leaf microclimates from nearby macroclimates (the conditions that a meteorologist would call "climate")? Second, how do insects interact with available microclimates? This section focuses both on females searching for places to lay eggs and on eggs and larvae in different microclimates. Third, how does the effectiveness of other, better-known plant defenses (secondary compounds and trichomes) depend on leaf microclimate? This application of environmental biophysics to the study of plant-insect interactions will illuminate basic questions about insect ecology, and it will serve as a platform for understanding effects of global climate change on insect herbivores, including crop pests. The work will be carried out in the context of a new educational initiative at the University of Montana - the Montana Program on Insects in the Environment, or M-PIE. M-PIE will focus on three areas. First, MPIE's core will be an upper-division undergraduate class on the environmental biophysics of plant-insect interactions. This yearly class will prepare students to be active collaborators on the projects. Second, M-PIE will establish formal ties to University of Montana's Project TRAIN (Training American Indians in Environmental Biology), and one environmental sciences student from Salish Kootenai College will participate in M-PIE every year. Third, M-PIE will support local high schools in Missoula by training 2 teachers in Years 2-4, with the goal of helping them develop teaching units on insect-plant biology.

“该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。“食草昆虫占所有宏观生物的四分之一以上，它们吃的植物又占四分之一。然而，人们对影响哪种昆虫在哪种植物上发生的因素知之甚少。拟议中的研究调查了一系列关于叶子微气候--叶子表面附近的温度和相对湿度--如何影响昆虫-植物关系的问题。特别是，研究报告由三个问题构成。首先，树叶的小气候与附近的大气候（气象学家称之为“气候”的条件）有多大的不同？第二，昆虫如何与现有的小气候相互作用？本节重点介绍了雌性在不同的小气候下寻找产卵的地方以及卵和幼虫。第三，其他更知名的植物防御（次生化合物和毛状体）的有效性如何取决于叶微气候？环境生物物理学在植物-昆虫相互作用研究中的应用将阐明昆虫生态学的基本问题，并将作为了解全球气候变化对包括作物害虫在内的食草昆虫影响的平台。 这项工作将在蒙大拿大学的一项新的教育计划--蒙大拿环境昆虫计划（M-PIE）的背景下进行。 M-PIE将侧重于三个领域。 首先，MPIE的核心将是一个关于植物-昆虫相互作用的环境生物物理学的高年级本科班。这个年度课程将培养学生成为项目的积极合作者。其次，M-PIE将与蒙大拿大学的项目TRAIN（在环境生物学方面培训美洲印第安人）建立正式联系，每年将有一名来自Salish Kootenai学院的环境科学学生参加M-PIE。 第三，M-PIE将通过培训2名2-4年级的教师来支持米苏拉当地的高中，目标是帮助他们开发昆虫植物生物学教学单元。