NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2012

2012 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金

• 批准号: 1202869
• 负责人: Barbara Going
• 金额: $ 18.9万
• 依托单位: Going Barbara M
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1202869&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

How can spatial heterogeneity buffer plant communities against climate change?Spatial heterogeneity in the physical environment plays a critical role in driving many ecological patterns and processes and has recently been implicated as an important factor responsible for buffering some communities against climate change. However, the specific mechanism by which spatial heterogeneity confers temporal stability remains unclear. Here, field experiments and empirical models will be used to test two classes of mechanisms for how spatial heterogeneity might buffer communities against climate change. Some buffering mechanisms may operate independently of species interactions, such as when heterogeneity provides physical refugia for species. Alternatively, in communities structured by competitive interactions, spatial heterogeneity might buffer communities via a class of mechanism involving species coexistence mechanisms. This project will test the relative importance of these mechanisms using field experiments in annual serpentine grasslands and simulation models parameterized with data collected from the experiments. This NSF fellowship will support postdoctoral training in research and teaching. Professional training will include extensive analyses using modern statistical programs, such as R, and current modeling approaches. In addition to participating in teaching seminars and course to improve pedagogical skills, the Fellow will teach core courses and serve as a mentor to undergraduate and graduate students at the host institution, Utah State University. Another promising avenue for community outreach is through participation in Distributed Graduate Seminars on climate change in the sagebrush steppe plant community. Finally, the Fellow will continue to provide logistical and long-term planning support to the K-12 science education program, Kids into Discovering Science (KiDS).

空间异质性如何缓冲植物群落对气候变化的影响？物理环境的空间异质性在驱动许多生态模式和过程中发挥着关键作用，最近被认为是缓冲一些社区应对气候变化的重要因素。 然而，空间异质性赋予时间稳定性的具体机制仍不清楚。 在这里，实地实验和经验模型将被用来测试两类机制如何空间异质性可能缓冲社区对气候变化。 一些缓冲机制可能独立于物种间的相互作用，例如当异质性为物种提供了物理避难所时。 另外，在由竞争相互作用构成的群落中，空间异质性可能通过一类涉及物种共存机制的机制来缓冲群落。 本项目将利用在一年生蛇纹草草原进行的实地实验和利用从实验中收集的数据进行参数化的模拟模型来检验这些机制的相对重要性。 这个NSF奖学金将支持研究和教学的博士后培训。 专业培训将包括使用现代统计程序（如R）和当前建模方法进行广泛的分析。 除了参加教学研讨会和课程，以提高教学技能，研究员将教授核心课程，并担任导师，本科生和研究生在东道国机构，犹他州州立大学。 另一个有希望的社区外联途径是通过参加关于山艾树草原植物社区气候变化的分布式研究生研讨会。 最后，研究员将继续提供后勤和长期规划支持的K-12科学教育计划，孩子到发现科学（KiDS）。