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

这一行动为NSF 2019财年生物学博士后研究奖学金提供资金，扩大了生物学领域代表性不足群体的参与。该奖学金支持一项针对该研究员的研究和培训计划，该计划将增加生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。了解自然群落是如何构成的是生态学中的一个基本问题，对保护具有重要意义。根据生态学理论，群落中物种的数量和丰富度受到物种特征(如大小和生长速度)与环境相互作用的影响。该项目调查降水和生物土壤结皮(生物结皮是苔藓、地衣、蓝藻和其他覆盖旱地维管植物土壤表面的生物群)如何影响旱地群落中生长的植物物种。这项研究将检验生态学理论，以确定影响旱地生态系统中本地和入侵物种植物建立的因素。在整个项目中，研究员将与已建立的项目合作，重点是增加科学中代表性不足的群体的代表性，在学年和暑期项目中为学生培训、指导和提供独立的研究经验。具体地说，拟议的工作将测试使用群落组装理论解释本地植物群落组装和预测外来植物入侵的能力，方法是在不同的旱地进行平行的田间实验，并量化种子和幼苗阶段的植物特征与招募成功之间的关系，同时操纵降雨和生物灰尘过滤器。了解降雨模式和生物结壳如何影响植物的建立，将有助于为恢复目的而进行定向群落重组。外展活动包括与多丽丝·杜克保护学者计划合作，指导一批致力于保护的不同学生。该研究员还将与CU Boulder现有的四个项目合作，为来自弱势群体的本科生提供一对一指导，并为K-12学生开发基于研究的教育材料，以加强大学前学生对环境生物学的早期接触。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 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.