NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2019: Can community assembly theory explain assembly and reassembly in dryland ecosystems?

2019 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：群落组装理论能否解释旱地生态系统中的组装和重组？

• 批准号: 1907214
• 负责人: Mandy Slate
• 金额: $ 13.8万
• 依托单位: Slate, Mandy
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1907214&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2019, Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. Understanding how natural communities are structured is a fundamental question in ecology, with important implications for conservation. According to ecological theory, the number of species, and abundance of each species in a community is affected by how species' traits, such as size and growth rate, interact with the environment. This project investigates how precipitation and biological soil crusts (biocrusts are communities of moss, lichen, cyanobacteria and other biota that cover soil surfaces among vascular plants in drylands) influence plant species growing in dryland communities. The research will test ecological theory to determine the factors that influence native and invasive species plant establishment in dryland ecosystems. Throughout this project, the fellow will partner with established programs, focused on increasing the representation of underrepresented groups in science, to train, mentor, and provide independent research experiences for students during the academic year and in summer programs.Specifically, the proposed work will test the ability of using community assembly theory to explain the assembly of native plant communities and predict exotic plant invasions by conducting parallel field experiments in disparate drylands and quantifying relationships between plant traits at the seed and seedling stage and recruitment success while manipulating rainfall and biocrust filters. Understanding how rainfall patterns and biocrusts influence plant establishment will inform directed community reassembly for restoration purposes. Outreach activities include collaboration with the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars program to mentor a diverse cohort of students dedicated to conservation. The fellow will also pair with four existing programs at CU Boulder to provide one-on-one mentoring for undergraduate students from disadvantaged groups and develop research-based educational material for K-12 students to enhance the early exposure of pre-college students to environmental biology.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.

该行动为2019财年生物学生物学研究金提供了一项NSF博士后研究奖学金，扩大了人数不足的生物学的参与。奖学金支持该研究员的研究和培训计划，这将增加生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。了解自然社区的结构是生态学中的一个基本问题，对保护具有重要意义。根据生态理论，一个社区中每个物种的物种数量和丰度受到物种特征（例如大小和生长速率）与环境相互作用的影响。该项目调查了降水和生物土壤外壳（生物构成是苔藓，地衣，蓝细菌和其他覆盖旱地血管植物中土壤表面的社区）影响旱地社区生长的植物物种。该研究将测试生态学理论，以确定影响旱地生态系统中本土和入侵物种植物建立的因素。在整个项目中，同伴将与已建立的计划合作，专注于增加代表性不足的科学中的代表性，培训，指导，并在学年和夏季计划中为学生提供独立的研究经验。具体来说，拟议中的工作将测试使用社区组装理论来通过构建本地植物社区的构造和量身定量的领域来测试，并通过统一的领域来测试，并在本地群体中进行脉冲的领域，并在脉冲上进行统一的领域，并进行脉冲的领域，以探讨外国人的领域，并进行脉冲型，并在频繁的范围内进行脉冲领域，以违反型号的领域，以违反现场的范围，并违反型号的领域，以违反外来植物的领域，并违反型号。在操纵降雨和生物过滤器的同时，种子和幼苗阶段和招募成功。了解降雨模式和生物群体如何影响植物的建立将为有指导的社区重新组装以恢复目的。外展活动包括与多丽丝·杜克（Doris Duke）保护学者计划的合作，以指导各种致力于保护的学生。该研究员还将与Cu Boulder的四个现有计划配对，为来自弱势群体的本科生提供一对一的指导，并为K-12学生开发基于研究的教育材料，以增强大学前学生的早期暴露于环境生物学上。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，反映了通过评估范围的支持者的支持者，该奖项已被评估概念和公众的支持者。

项目成果

Positive interactions between an exotic invader and moss biocrusts vary across life stage and correspond with the effect of water pulses on soil nitrogen

• DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.13831
• 发表时间: 2021-06
• 期刊: Functional Ecology
• 影响因子: 5.2
• 作者: Mandy L. Slate;M. McLeod;R. Callaway

Exotic Prosopis juliflora suppresses understory diversity and promotes agricultural weeds more than a native congener

• DOI: 10.1007/s11258-020-01040-1
• 发表时间: 2020-05
• 期刊: Plant Ecology
• 影响因子: 1.7
• 作者: Mandy L. Slate;Mandy L. Slate;François Mitterand Tsombou;R. Callaway;Inderjit;A. El-Keblawy

Nitrogen addition, but not pulse frequency, shifts competitive interactions in favor of exotic invasive plant species

添加氮气（而非脉冲频率）会改变竞争性相互作用，有利于外来入侵植物物种

• DOI: 10.1007/s10530-022-02833-3
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Biological Invasions
• 影响因子: 2.9
• 作者: Slate, Mandy L.;Matallana-Mejia, Nicolas;Aromin, Alessandra;Callaway, Ragan M.
• 通讯作者: Callaway, Ragan M.