Conference: Multiscale Plant Vascular Biology, June 16-22, 2018, Mt. Snow, VT.

该奖项将支持大约15名职业生涯早期的科学家参加关于植物用于生产力的具体机制的两个相互联系的会议，从细胞以下一直到地貌的规模。会议本身聚焦于与植物生长和生存密切相关的两个因素：水和光合作用产物(植物在光合作用过程中产生的糖，用于建造植物，是地球上所有生物消耗的所有食物的基础)。大多数参与者已经在研究这些因素中的一个或两个的运输，但他们通常只在以下一个或两个尺度上工作：基因转录、细胞生理学和发育、木材或内树皮生理学或发育、整个植物的大小和形状，或者群落或整个景观的功能。这次会议提供了一个重要的场所，让从事这些不同规模工作的研究人员汇聚一堂。规模较小的会议是为初出茅庐的科学家举办的，而规模较大的会议有专门的活动，旨在帮助初出茅庐的科学家与更成熟的科学家建立有意义的关系。主办方预计所有科学家都将从这些关系中受益，因此这些会议不仅将推动植物生物学领域的发展，还将丰富工作人员基础，以确保该领域的持续进步。该奖项将资助大约15名早期职业科学家参加两个相互关联的会议-为期5天的戈登研究会议(GRC)和为期两天的多尺度植物血管生物学领域的戈登研究研讨会(GRS)(目标规模分别为200名科学家和50名早期科学家)的旅费和注册费。人们越来越认识到，关于水和光合作用在系统中的运动的知识提供了许多关于该系统如何运作的信息，从亚细胞部分的水平上到景观。同样的信息可以用来了解系统对扰动的健壮性有多强，以及这种健壮性的基础，可以用于预测和管理应用，如为未来条件开发合适的植物，了解植物生理学和气候变化引起的生态系统变化之间的联系，以及将群落蒸腾与地下和大气中的水储存联系起来。GRC将重点研究这些系统的可塑性，以帮助预测什么是可能的，并可能显示可变性如何在多个尺度上稳定或破坏系统的稳定。GRS将为这些领域的早期研究人员提供一个论坛，以确定血管运输在气候变化中的作用方面的知识差距，并可通过多学科合作加以解决。这些会议有三个更广泛的影响。1)为一系列科学家提供学习机会，重点是职业生涯早期和代表性不足群体的参与。GRC将有四项活动来鼓励混合和指导。GRS有促进同行互动的议程。这些会议通过致力于增加生物科学多样性的科学协会和组织广泛宣传。2)推进科学，鉴于初级生产者(植物)的重要性及其对健康和生产力的许多风险，科学的发展最终可能有助于确保我们在地球上的继续生存。3)在支离破碎的领域中发展社区。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award will support about 15 early-career scientists to participate in two linked conferences on the specific mechanisms used by plants for productivity, at scales from below the cell all the way up to the landscape. The conferences themselves focus on two factors that are tightly associated with plant growth and survival: water and photosynthate (sugars produced by plants during photosynthesis, that are used for building plants and that are the basis for all food consumed by all organisms on Earth). Most participants already work on the transport of one or both of these factors, but they usually only work at one or two of the following scales: gene transcription, cell physiology and development, wood or inner bark physiology or development, whole plant size and shape, or function of communities or entire landscapes. This conference provides an important venue to bring together researchers working on these different scales. The smaller conference is for early-career scientists, and the larger conference has special activities designed to help early-career scientists make meaningful relationships with more established scientists. The organizers expect that all scientists will benefit from these relationships, and so the conferences will not only move the fields of plant biology forward, but will enrich the worker-base to ensure continuing advancements in the field.This award will support the travel and registration costs of about 15 early-career scientists for two linked conferences, the five-day Gordon Research Conference (GRC), and the two-day Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) in the area of Multiscale Plant Vascular Biology (target sizes 200 scientists, and 50 early-career scientists, respectively). It is increasingly recognized that knowledge of water and photosynthate movement through systems gives much information about how that system functions, from the levels of subcellular parts up through landscapes. That same information may be used to understand how robust a system is to perturbation, and the basis for that robustness, which can be used in predictions and management for applications such as development of suitable plants for future conditions, understanding the links between plant physiology and climate-change-induced ecosystem shifts, and linking community transpiration to ground and atmospheric water stores. The GRC will focus on plasticity in these systems to help predict what is possible, and may show how the variability stabilizes or destabilizes systems at multiple scales. The GRS will provide a forum for early-career researchers in these fields to identify knowledge gaps in the role of vascular transport on climate change and that can be addressed through multidisciplinary collaborations. The conferences have three broader impacts. 1) Learning opportunity for a range of scientists, with an emphasis on early-career and participation of under-represented groups. The GRC will have four activities to encourage mixing and mentoring. The GRS has an agenda to facilitate peer interaction. The meetings are being advertised broadly through scientific societies and organizations that work to increase diversity in biological sciences. 2) Advancement of science, the elaboration of which may ultimately help ensure our continued existence on Earth given the importance of primary producers (plants) and the many risks to their health and productivity. 3) Development of community in a fragmented field.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.