Microbial facilitation at the leading edge of plant species distributional shifts

微生物促进植物物种分布变化的前沿

• 批准号: 1457827
• 负责人: Katharine Suding
• 金额: $ 77.2万
• 依托单位: University of Colorado at Boulder
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-06-01 至 2019-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1457827&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Microbial; facilitation; leading; edge; plant

In high-elevation mountain environments, the ranges of many alpine plant species are limited by a short and cold growing season. Beyond these limits no vascular plants survive, but microbial life thrives. Warmer spring temperatures and earlier snowmelt could allow alpine plant species to expand into these unvegetated areas. This research will examine whether some plant species will benefit from soil microbes as they expand their distribution in response to climate change. The interactions of plants with the high elevation soil microbes will be examined to test whether microbes increase the ability of plants to withstand cold, drought, and low-nutrient stress. The research will advance ecological science in the context of understanding the impacts of climate change on biodiversity and changes in species distribution on the landscape. The project also will contribute to secondary school education through curriculum development.This project will investigate the influence of a key biotic interaction, between plants and soil microbes, on the ability of plant species to track climate change and expand their range uphill in high montane systems. Recent methodological advances will be used to develop experiments to quantify mechanisms that underlie plant-microbial associations and to include results in habitat distribution models. The research includes (1) observational work on distributional patterns of both plants and soil microbes (bacteria and fungi) in a spatially-explicit grid at the upper edge of plant distributions into unvegetated sub-nival areas, (2) manipulations of plant-microbial interactions via inoculation experiments combined with dual-RNA transcriptomics to assay gene expression to describe interactions among plant and microbes and (3) field manipulations of growing season length and plant-microbe associations to quantify the effects of microbial facilitation into previously plant-free zones. Partnership with Rocky Mountain National Park will enable the project to collect data relevant to management concerns and participate in outreach programs, and Science LIVE, an interactive web-based tool, will be used to develop high school curriculum modules.

在高海拔山区环境中，许多高山植物物种的范围受到短而寒冷的生长季节的限制。除了这些限制之外，没有血管植物能够生存，但是微生物生命蓬勃发展。较高的春季温度和较早的融雪可能会使高山植物物种扩展到这些已培养的区域。这项研究将检查某些植物物种在响应气候变化时扩大其分布时是否会从土壤微生物中受益。将检查植物与高海拔土壤微生物的相互作用，以测试微生物是否会增加植物承受寒冷，干旱和低营养胁迫的能力。 这项研究将在理解气候变化对生物多样性的影响以及物种分布对景观的影响的背景下推进生态科学。该项目还将通过课程开发为中学教育做出贡献。该项目将调查植物和土壤微生物之间关键的生物相互作用的影响，对植物物种跟踪气候变化并扩大其在高山地系统中的山坡的能力。最新的方法学进步将用于开发实验，以量化植物 - 微生物关联的机制，并将结果包括在栖息地分布模型中。这项研究包括（1）在植物分布到植物的上边缘的空间解释网格中，在植物分布到植根的亚nival区域中的空间明确网格中的分布模式（细菌和真菌）的观察工作，（2）通过植物 - 微生物相互作用来进行接种式互动中的植物相互作用（3），以形容植物互动，以形容二元组合的植物（3），以形容恒星互动（3）生长季节的长度和植物微叶剂的关联，以量化微生物促进性对以前无植物区域的影响。与落基山国家公园（Rocky Mountain National Park）的合作伙伴关系将使该项目能够收集与管理问题相关的数据，并参与外展计划，而科学现场（Science Live）将使用基于网络的交互式工具来开发高中课程模块。