CAREER: Influences of plant traits on wood decomposition rates across scales: From fungal microbe communities to carbon turnover

森林系统包含了地球上大约一半的碳。这些森林中的大部分碳被锁在木质茎中，要么是活的植物，要么是掉落在地上的枯木。碳从木材释放回大气的速度对全球气候变化有很大影响。气候也影响木材的腐解率和林木的死亡率。树木在化学和物理结构上的不同决定了这些关系的每一种。这个项目是一个长期职业目标的一部分，目的是确定植物解剖、化学和功能特征(如木材密度、树木高度)对木材腐解率的影响。该项目的重点是美国密苏里州奥扎克高地的温带森林，这是落基山脉和阿巴拉契亚山脉之间最大的森林生态系统之一。该项目围绕三个相互关联的主题展开。树木性状的变化将与分解速率的变化有关，这种变化将与真菌群落的变化(木材分解的主要原因，从而从木材释放碳)联系在一起，分解速率的变化将扩大到整个景观中碳释放的变化。这三个主题将联系在一起，以探讨可能的管理影响。密苏里大学圣路易斯分校的大部分学生都是大都市学生，它的本科生物学课程中没有任何实地课程。作为该项目的一部分，研究人员将开发一门本科生研究课程，重点关注植物、真菌、昆虫和其他类群之间生态相互作用的多样性，以及人类对这些类群的影响。本课程将包括野外和实验室部分，并将使学生接触到当地的博物学家和该地区的生物多样性。

Forest systems contain approximately half of the carbon held on the planet. Much of this forest carbon is locked up in woody stems either in living plants or as dead wood fallen on the ground. The rate that carbon is released from wood back into the atmosphere has large implications for global climate change. Climate also influences both decomposition rates of wood and forest tree mortality. Variation in how wood is chemically and physically constructed by trees regulates each of these relationships. This project is part of a long-term career goal to determine the influence of plant anatomy, chemistry, and functional traits, e.g., density of wood, height of trees, on rates of wood decomposition. This project focuses on temperate forests of the Ozark Highlands, MO, USA, one of the largest forested ecosystems between the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains. The project is developed around three interrelated themes. Variation in tree traits will be related to variation in decomposition rates, this variation will be linked to changes in the fungal community (the predominant cause of wood decomposition and thus carbon release from wood), and variation in decomposition rates will be scaled up to variation in carbon release across the landscape. The three themes will be linked together to explore possible management implications. The University of Missouri - St. Louis, which has a predominantly metropolitan student body, lacks any field courses in its undergraduate biology curriculum. As part of this project researchers will develop an undergraduate research course, focusing on the diversity of ecological interactions among plants, fungi, insects and other taxa, and human impacts on these taxa. This course will have field and laboratory components and will bring students into contact with local naturalists and the biodiversity of the region.