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

温带和热带森林拥有地球生物多样性的很大一部分，它们提供重要的生态系统服务，包括气候调节。森林生态系统内部和相互之间产生和维持生物多样性的过程尽管重要，但人们仍然知之甚少。对多样性热带和亚热带森林以及多样性较少的温带森林缺乏了解。此外，我们对森林多样性的认识主要涉及物种多样性;对生物多样性的系统发育、功能和遗传方面的调控过程知之甚少，而生物多样性可能与生态系统功能更密切相关。系统发育、遗传和功能多样性的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。实验和观察研究相结合将导致一种新的方法-称为社区功能性生物多样性基因组学-这将提供对森林生物多样性水平的原因和后果的详细了解。该研究将为森林管理提供信息，将加强美国和中国研究人员之间的合作，该项目将为两国研究生和早期职业科学家的联合培训研讨会提供资金。

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.