Collaborative Research: A biotic awakening: How do invertebrates, microbes, and plants determine soil organic matter responses to release from nutrient limitation in arctic tundra?

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。该项目的目标是确定植物，微生物和土壤无脊椎动物如何相互作用，以推动土壤有机质和碳固存与环境的变化，并增加土壤养分的供应，在北方阿拉斯加占主导地位的高地北极苔原生态系统。支持者将使用现场观察，实验，实验室和建模方法相结合，以解决四个研究目标，包括：1。了解植物群落中有据可查的变化如何改变植物对土壤的输入（根和凋落物）。确定土壤微生物和无脊椎动物群落如何响应这些输入3。调查有机质的损失是否与土壤活动的增加和/或群落结构的变化有关。在DAYCENT模型（Parton等，2001）的基础上，结合植物、微生物和无脊椎动物的作用，建立土壤成土作用模型。这项工作将在图利克湖长期生态研究地点进行，并将利用一套长期营养添加地块（有些可追溯到30多年前）以及最近操纵的地点。一名博士后研究员，至少两名研究生和几名本科生将作为该项目的一部分接受培训。PI还将举办教师发展研讨会和其他K-12外展计划。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The goal of this project is to determine how plants, microbes and soil invertebrates interact to drive changes in soil organic matter and carbon sequestration with ambient and increased soil nutrient availability in the dominant upland arctic tundra ecosystem in northern Alaska. The proponents will use a combination of field observation, experimental, laboratory, and modeling approaches to address four research objectives that include:1. Understanding how well-documented changes in the plant community alter plant inputs to soils (roots and litter)2. Determining how soil microbial and invertebrate communities respond to these inputs3. Investigating if the loss of SOM occurs in response to an increase in soil activities and/or a change in community structure, and 4. Developing a model of soil pedogenesis based on the DAYCENT model (Parton et al. 2001) that incorporates the roles of plants, microbes, and invertebrates. This work will be conducted at the Toolik Lake Long-Term Ecological Research site and will utilize a suite of long-term nutrient-addition plots (some extending back over 30 years) as well as more recently manipulated sites. A postdoctoral researcher, at least two graduate students, and several undergraduates will be trained as part of this project. The PIs will also conduct teacher development workshops and other K-12 outreach programs.