Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology for FY 2009

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This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY 2009. The fellowship supports a research and training plan entitled "Linking plant scaling models with plant physiological models through novel bioinformatics approaches to estimate carbon and water fluxes of diverse plants" for Lisa Patrick. The host institution for this research is the University of Arizon, and the sponsoring scientist is Brian Enquist.This research combines metabolic scaling theory with plant physiological processes to produce a more robust framework for understanding and predicting whole-plant and ecosystem dynamics. Specific research objectives are to (1) integrate plant physiological models with metabolic scaling theory to estimate plant carbon and water fluxes across a wide variety of species, ecosystems, and environmental conditions and (2) statistically evaluate the ability of the coupled model to account for variation in biologically meaningful parameters while quantifying model error at each level (e.g., leaf, plant, species, ecosystem). The research approach involves utilizing and contributing information to diverse databases; integrating models within a hierarchical Bayesian framework; using existing data to parameterize the coupled physiological scaling model and subsequently estimate plant-level carbon and water fluxes across a variety of species, plant functional types, and environments; and statistically validating the new coupled physiological scaling model to quantify model error as well as uncertainty in estimated model parameters and model predictions. The research makes use of cutting-edge statistical tools and novel bioinformatics approaches to synthesize diverse anatomical, architectural, and physiological plant data within the context of semi-mechanistic ecological models. Results are used to improve terrestrial scaling relationships and contribute to improved predictive power for estimating the regional and global carbon and water budgets of woody plants and ecosystems dominated by woody plants. The training goals are to gain the ability to conduct interdisciplinary research through advanced training in modern statistical methods, model implementation and validation techniques, and scaling applications in ecology.