Dissertation Research: Do Venation Networks Match Plant Form, Function, and Evolution to Climate?

这项论文改良奖将为发展植物形态、功能和气候之间的定量联系提供资金。叶脉与关键气候变量高度相关，如年平均温度、大气二氧化碳和干燥度。气候是植物形态和功能的关键决定因素，但这些因素之间仍然缺乏强大的机械联系。确定这一机制将有助于扩大单个植物测量以适应气候变化，并缩小气候模型以适应其对当地生态系统的影响。将开发一个量化模型并将其参数化。该模型将在沿着两个海拔梯度收集的社区加权叶脉测量数据上进行测试，一个在哥斯达黎加，另一个在科罗拉多州。初步结果表明，沿这些梯度，叶脉密度和生长季节平均温度之间存在很强的相关性。该模型和分析将阐明预测气候变化如何影响生命系统的机制基础。通过将这些定量方法应用于来自描述良好的古群落的化石叶子的脉络模式，分析将得到扩展。从历史上看，化石叶片的叶缘被用来将形态与过去的气候联系起来。这项研究表明，与叶缘相比，叶脉提供了一种重建古气候的准确机制。通过使用众包方法来分析树叶脉络，提出了一种更广泛影响的创新方法。一个门户网站，使公民科学能够参与数据分析，并将为教师提供教案，以便将气候和树叶纳入他们的课堂。这些课程将通过与迈尔斯探索性学习中心(图森)的合作开发和测试，并通过与亚利桑那大学理学院K-12推广计划的现有关系传播给数百名教师。

This Dissertation Improvement Grant award will provide funds to develop quantitative linkages between plant form, function and climate. Leaf venation is highly correlated with key climate variables, such as mean annual temperature, atmospheric CO2 and aridity. Climate is a key determinant of plant form and function, but a strong mechanistic linkage between these factors remains lacking. Identifying this mechanism will improve scaling-up of individual plant measurements to climate variation, and scaling-down of climate models to their impact on local ecosystems. A quantitative model will be developed and parameterized. The model will be tested on community weighted leaf venation measurements gathered along two elevational gradients, one in Costa Rica and one in Colorado. Preliminary results suggest strong correlations between vein density and growing season mean temperature along these gradients. The model and analyses will elucidate a mechanistic basis for predicting how variation in climate affects living systems. The analysis will be expanded by applying these quantitative methods to venation patterns in fossil leaves from well-described paleo-communities. Historically, leaf margins from fossil leaves have been used to link morphology to past climate. The research proposes to substantiate that leaf venation provides an accurate mechanism to reconstruct paleo-climate than leaf margins. An innovative approach to broader impacts is proposed by using crowd sourcing approaches to analyze leaf venation. A web portal to enable citizen-science participation in data analysis, and will provide lesson plans for teachers to integrate climate and leaves into their classrooms. These lessons will be developed and tested through a partnership with Miles Exploratory Learning Center (Tucson) and disseminated to hundreds of teachers through an existing relationship with the University of Arizona's College of Science K-12 outreach programs.