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的两倍，而其释放将大大加速大气中二氧化碳的积累。本研究将通过建模方法促进对北极土壤碳在生物和物理尺度上的储存和释放过程的理解。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，并通过描述前所未有的变暖如何影响北极陆地生态系统未来碳平衡的生物-非生物反应，适用于管理机构。此外，这笔拨款将有助于促进助理教授在主要本科机构的职业生涯，同时增强生物地球科学领域的性别和种族多样性。本研究还将通过对本科研究人员的指导指导，直接加强北极生物地球科学的本科教育；研究方法和结果也将被纳入课程和其他教学活动的主要研究者。实地研究表明，北极冻土带生态系统对可比实验操作的不一致响应可能是由植物和分解者群落的局部变化驱动的。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（如微生物适应）和非生物因素（如积雪、融化深度和养分有效性的改变）的相对重要性和它们之间的联系仍然未知。该项目将综合来自北极生态系统环境和实验操作的现有数据。然后，研究人员将使用合成来完善，参数化和验证化学计量耦合，适应微生物-植物-土壤（SCAMPS）模型的改变版本。模拟将探讨季节性变暖的变化和土壤微生物和植物群落的适应潜力，包括群落转移、进化适应和苔原景观的生理变化，如何影响生物地球化学反馈并调节北极土壤和生态系统的未来碳平衡。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。

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.