Collaborative Research: RAPID: Capturing a critical transition in fungal wood endophyte communities by rapid-response sampling post-hurricane in Puerto Rico.

合作研究：RAPID：通过波多黎各飓风后的快速响应采样，捕捉木材真菌内生菌群落的关键转变。

• 批准号: 1822081
• 负责人: Skip Van Bloem
• 金额: $ 3.15万
• 依托单位: Clemson University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-04-01 至 2020-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1822081&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; RAPID; Capturing; critical

Endophytes are organisms that live inside plants. These inhabitants were long invisible to scientists studying plants, but with the advancement of DNA-based assessment tools, researchers have discovered an increasing diversity of organisms that reside inside healthy plants. Endophytes include hundreds of microbial species (bacteria and fungi) that live in healthy wood inside standing trees. Some provide benefits to the host tree, but others, particularly fungi, may attack and/or weaken trees (pathogens) or may try to get a head start decomposing wood (saprotrophs). In addition, there are many microbes present as endophytes with functions that have yet to be determined. Determining these functions is a critical need for predicting the risk of tree hazards, and for modeling rates of decomposition and carbon released once a tree dies. Accurately predicting wood decay is difficult and presents a significant uncertainty in carbon cycle models. To improve predictive power, it is necessary to model a key transition that occurs when a tree dies a natural death, killing many endophytes but exposing a payoff to others that rise to dominate these subsequent microbial communities, particularly saprotrophs. This research makes use of a natural disturbance event, the great deal of tree damage created by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, to study how endophytes shape the fungal decomposition communities that develop post-disturbance. With this knowledge, it is possible not only to improve decomposition models but also better predict endophyte success, an asset for predicting tree hazard risks in future hurricanes. The project also offers opportunities for STEM training of several female team members, including Puerto Rican collaborators affected by Hurricane Maria. It will also lead to production of a public video describing the science, the scientists, and the role of endophytes in tree hazards and decomposition processes in nature.The goals of this project are to track the development of tree endophyte fungi post-hurricane in Puerto Rico's Guanica Forest scientific area, and to correlate this process with environmental variables and wood traits (e.g. nitrogen content). There are three specific objectives to reach this goal, 1) rapid-response sampling to assess fungal communities present at time zero, 2) tracking communities at two additional time points to assess persistence of endophytes, and 3) matching outcomes over one year to site climate data (temperature, rainfall) and to wood substrate physiochemistry. This study includes wood sections from 14 tree species, either cut and left in ground contact to decay along a transect or remaining standing as a stump section. A key hypothesis is that endophyte saprotrophs will have a greater influence on decomposition in standing sections rather than in ground contact, but that the overall rates of decomposition will be influenced by climate and wood physiochemical variables, particularly wood nitrogen and heartwood content. The study design allows coupling of community structure and function with host traits over time.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.

内生菌是生活在植物内部的生物。长期以来，研究植物的科学家们一直看不见这些“居民”，但随着基于dna的评估工具的进步，研究人员发现，健康植物体内的生物多样性日益增加。内生菌包括数百种微生物（细菌和真菌），它们生活在直立树木内的健康木材中。有些对寄主树有益，但另一些，特别是真菌，可能会攻击和/或削弱树木（病原体），或者可能试图抢先开始分解木材（腐养菌）。此外，还有许多微生物作为内生菌存在，其功能尚未确定。确定这些功能对于预测树木灾害的风险，以及模拟树木死亡后分解和碳释放的速度至关重要。准确预测木材腐烂是困难的，并且在碳循环模型中呈现出显著的不确定性。为了提高预测能力，有必要对树木自然死亡时发生的关键转变进行建模，这种转变杀死了许多内生菌，但却给其他微生物带来了回报，这些微生物在随后的微生物群落中占主导地位，尤其是腐养菌。本研究利用波多黎各飓风玛丽亚造成的大量树木破坏这一自然干扰事件，研究内生菌如何塑造干扰后发展的真菌分解群落。有了这些知识，不仅可以改进分解模型，还可以更好地预测内生菌的成功，这是预测未来飓风中树木危害风险的一项资产。该项目还为几名女性团队成员提供STEM培训机会，包括受飓风玛丽亚影响的波多黎各合作者。它还将导致制作一个公共视频，描述科学、科学家以及内生菌在自然界树木危害和分解过程中的作用。该项目的目标是跟踪波多黎各瓜尼卡森林科学区域飓风后树木内生真菌的发展，并将这一过程与环境变量和木材特征（如氮含量）联系起来。为了实现这一目标，有三个具体目标：1)快速响应采样，以评估时间零点存在的真菌群落；2)在两个额外的时间点跟踪群落，以评估内生菌的持久性；3)将一年内的结果与现场气候数据（温度、降雨）和木材基质物理化学相匹配。本研究包括来自14种树种的木材，要么被砍伐并留在地面接触，沿着样带腐烂，要么作为树桩部分保留。一个关键的假设是，腐养内生菌对直立剖面的分解比对接触地面的分解有更大的影响，但总体分解率将受到气候和木材理化变量的影响，特别是木材氮和心材含量。研究设计允许群落结构和功能与宿主特征随时间的耦合。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Stem-inhabiting fungal communities differ between intact and snapped trees after hurricane Maria in a Puerto Rican tropical dry forest

• DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2020.118350
• 发表时间: 2020-11
• 期刊: Forest Ecology and Management
• 影响因子: 3.7
• 作者: François Maillard;E. Andrews;Molly A. Moran;P. Kennedy;S. Bloem;J. Schilling