A Path Toward an Environmentally Secure Future through Ecosystem Science and Monitoring

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。该项目涉及俄亥俄州托莱多大学鲍曼-奥迪实验室大楼南翼的实验室翻新。这些实验室建于40多年前，目前是环境科学系教职员工的研究设施。翻新后的空间将成为生物圈恢复研究中心。新的中心将对驱动生物圈的生态系统过程和人类活动的影响进行跨学科的合作研究。该设计鼓励发展全面的研究方法。例如：将田间生态学与遥感和预测模型相结合；将土壤生物化学与植物生态生理学相结合，以更好地了解植物和土壤系统。翻新将包括：实验室案例的内部建造和翻新；电力、管道、供暖、冷却、空气处理和引擎盖通风的整修；以及网络布线。以下是该中心将要开展的研究领域的例子：如何利用森林管理做法加强碳固存，同时保持森林用于木材和娱乐用途的生产力；受管理环境中昆虫种群群落聚集的生态原理及其对热带森林农业系统生态的影响；寻找预测湿地和水生生态系统提供的生态系统服务可持续性的生态标志；研究与碳循环有关的自然景观的通量；环境因素，如火、干旱和气候变化对异养和自养土壤呼吸的作用，从而对森林生态系统固碳潜力的影响；不同凋落物质量、二氧化碳浓度、温度和外源氮输入下土壤微生物群落的演变，以预测不同环境条件下土壤固碳的能力；极端高温胁迫、二氧化碳升高和水可利用性如何影响光合作用生产力；开发和应用遗传和生物分子技术用于环境细菌病原体的原位检测和群落指纹分析；研究环境污染物的持久性，如集中动物饲养操作中的激素和抗生素，应用于农业用地的污水污泥中残留的药物和个人护理产品，以及温室产业产生的废物产生的丙烯酰胺；开发用于环境感知的电化学设备。该奖项将帮助该大学保持环境科学研究生和本科生研究的活力。除了为研究和研究培训提供基础设施外，翻修工程还将提供资源，用于学校教师参与的暑期研究项目。升级的研究能力将加强中心教职员工与其他学术机构和政府机构在环境方面的合作。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009(Public Law 111-5).This project involves the renovation of laboratories in the south wing of the Bowman-Oddy Laboratories Building at the University of Toledo, in Toledo, Ohio. Constructed over 40 years ago, these laboratories currently serve as the research facility for faculty from the Department of Environmental Sciences. The renovated space will become the Center for Biosphere Restoration Research. The new Center will conduct interdisciplinary, collaborative research on the ecosystem processes that drive the biosphere and on the impacts of human activity. The design encourages the development of holistic approaches to research. Examples include: the linking of field ecology with remote sensing and predictive models; and the collaboration of soil biochemistry with plant ecological physiology to gain greater understanding of the plant‐soil system.The renovation will include: interior construction and renovation of laboratory case-work; refurbishment of electrical, plumbing, heating, cooling, air-handling, and hood ventilation; and network wiring. NSF is contributing part of the overall cost of a portion of the renovation that is associated with research and research training.The following are examples of areas of research to be conducted in the Center: how forest management practices can be used to enhance carbon sequestration while maintaining the productivity of the forest for timber and recreational use; the ecological principles underlying community assembly of insect populations in managed environments and their implications for the ecology of agricultural systems in tropical forests; a search for ecological markers predictive of the sustainability of the ecosystem services provided by wetland and aquatic ecosystems; the study of fluxes from the natural landscape that are related to the carbon cycle; the role of environmental factors such as fire, drought and climate variations on heterotrophic and autotrophic soil respiration, and hence on the carbon sequestration potential of forest ecosystems; the evolution of soil microbial communities under varying inputs of litter quality, carbon dioxide concentrations, temperature, and exogenous nitrogen in order to predict the ability of soils to sequester carbon under varying environmental conditions; how extreme heat stress, elevated carbon dioxide, and water availability affect photosynthetic productivity; developing and deploying genetic and biomolecular techniques for the in situ detection and community fingerprinting of environmental bacterial pathogens; the study of the persistence of environmental contaminants such as hormones and antibiotics from concentrated animal feeding operations, pharmaceuticals and personal care products that are residual in sewage sludge applied to agricultural lands, and acrylamides arising from waste created by the greenhouse industry; the development of electrochemical devices for environmental sensing.The award will help the university to maintain a vibrant program of graduate and undergraduate research in the environmental sciences. In addition to providing infrastructure for research and research training, the renovation will provide a resource that will be used for summer research programs involving school teachers. The upgraded research capabilities will enhance the collaborations of Center faculty with partners at other academic institutions and at government agencies with environmental portfolios.