EAGER SitS:Collaborative Research:Projecting Arctic soil and ecosystem responses to warming using SCAMPS: A stoichiometrically coupled, acclimating microbe-plant-soil model

了解未来北极陆地的碳平衡至关重要，因为高纬度土壤中的碳含量大约是大气中碳含量的两倍，其释放将导致大气中二氧化碳积累的大幅加速。这项研究将利用建模方法，促进对北极土壤在生物和物理尺度上储存和释放碳的调控过程的理解。这项研究将促进对北极土壤和生态系统过程控制的基础研究，并通过描述对前所未有的变暖的生物-非生物联系起来的反应如何影响北极陆地生态系统未来的碳平衡，适用于管理机构。此外，这笔赠款将有助于促进一个以本科为主的机构的助理教授的职业生涯，同时加强生物地理科学中的性别和种族多样性。这项研究还将通过指导本科生研究人员的指导，直接促进北极生物地学的本科生教育；研究方法和研究结果也将被主要研究人员纳入课程和其他教学活动。实地研究表明，在北极冻土带生态系统中，对类似实验操作的不一致反应可能是由植物和分解者群落的局部差异驱动的。然而，控制冻土带对气候变化的这些不同反应的关键生物因素(如微生物驯化)和非生物因素(如变化的积雪、融化深度和养分可获得性)的相对重要性及其之间的联系仍不清楚。该项目将综合北极生态系统环境和实验操作的可用数据。然后，研究人员将使用合成来改进、参数化和验证化学计量耦合、驯化微生物-植物-土壤(SCAMPS)模型的改变版本。模拟将探索季节变暖的变化和土壤微生物和植物群落的适应潜力，包括苔原景观中的群落变化、进化适应和生理变化，如何影响生物地球化学反馈和调节未来北极土壤和生态系统的碳平衡。这一奖项反映了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。

Understanding future arctic terrestrial carbon balance is vital because high latitude soils contain about twice as much carbon as is in the atmosphere and its release would drive a major acceleration of atmospheric carbon dioxide accumulation. This research will advance the understanding of processes regulating the storage and release of carbon from arctic soils across biological and physical scales using a modeling approach. The study will promote both basic research into the controls on arctic soil and ecosystem processes and be applicable to management agencies by describing how linked biotic-abiotic responses to unprecedented warming may influence future carbon balance in Arctic terrestrial ecosystems. Further, this grant will help advance the career of an Assistant Professor at a primarily undergraduate institution, while enhancing gender and racial diversity in the biogeosciences. This research will also directly enhance undergraduate education in arctic biogeoscience through directed mentorship of undergraduate researchers; the research approach and findings will also be incorporated into courses and other teaching activities by the primary investigators.Field studies suggest that inconsistent responses to comparable experimental manipulations across arctic tundra ecosystems might be driven by local variation in the plant and decomposer community. However, the relative importance of, and links between, key biotic (e.g. microbial acclimation) and abiotic factors (e.g. altered snowpack, thaw depth, and nutrient availability) that govern these divergent responses of tundra to climate variation, remains unknown. This project will synthesize available data from ambient and experimental manipulations of arctic ecosystems. The investigators will then use the synthesis to refine, parameterize, and validate a changed version of the Stoichiometrically Coupled, Acclimating Microbe-Plant-Soil (SCAMPS) model. Simulations will explore how variation in seasonal warming and the acclimation potential of the soil microbial and plant community, encompassing community shifts, evolutionary adaptation, and physiological changes across tundra landscapes, affects biogeochemical feedbacks and regulates future carbon balance of arctic soils and ecosystems.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.