Dimensions US-China: Disentangling the Components of Tree Biodiversity: Integrating Phylogenies, Functional Traits and Transcriptomes

温带和热带森林包含了地球生物多样性的很大一部分，它们提供了包括气候调节在内的重要生态系统服务。尽管它们很重要，但人们对森林生态系统内部和之间产生和维持生物多样性的过程仍然知之甚少。这种认识的缺乏适用于各种热带和亚热带森林，也适用于多样性较低的温带森林。此外，我们对森林多样性的认识主要与物种多样性有关；生物多样性的系统发育、功能和遗传方面的调节过程可能与生态系统功能更密切相关，但对这些过程的了解却少得多。系统发育、遗传和功能多样性模式及其在维持生物多样性中的作用将在美国和中国的温带和亚热带森林中进行研究。实验和观察研究的结合将导致一种新的方法——称为群落功能系统基因组学——它应该提供对森林生物多样性水平的原因和后果的详细见解。这项研究将为森林管理提供信息，它将加强美国和中国研究人员之间的合作，该项目将资助为两国研究生和早期职业科学家举办的联合培训讲习班。

Temperate and tropical forests contain a significant proportion of our planet's biodiversity, and they provide important ecosystem services that include climate regulation. Despite their importance, the processes that produce and maintain biodiversity within and among forested ecosystems remain poorly understood. This lack of understanding applies to diverse tropical and subtropical forests, and also to less diverse temperate forests. Further, the insights we do have about forest diversity primarily concern species diversity; far less is known about the processes regulating the phylogenetic, functional and genetic dimensions of biodiversity that are likely to be more closely related to ecosystem function.Patterns of phylogenetic, genetic, and functional diversity, and their roles in maintaining biological diversity, will be examined in temperate and subtropical forests in the United States and in China. A combination of experimental and observational research will lead to a new approach - termed community functional phylogenomics - that should provide detailed insights into the causes and consequences of the levels of biodiversity in forests. The research will inform forest management, it will strengthen collaboration between researchers in the United States and China, and the project will fund a joint training workshop for graduate students and early career scientists in both countries.