BEE: Consequences of phenotypic plasticity for gene-to-ecosystem linkages: Multi-stress experiments across the climatic range of a foundation species

预测生态系统如何应对环境变化是环境科学家面临的一个重大挑战。一种策略是关注在其生态系统中发挥最关键作用的生物体的特征。沿着，重要树种如三角叶杨为其他种类提供了荫凉、栖息地和食物。许多种类的昆虫以树叶和福尔斯落在河里的垃圾为食。叶子的特性影响这些昆虫的生存，然后影响食物链上游的鸟类和鱼类。过去的研究表明，树叶的大小和化学成分等特征部分是由树木的基因决定的。然而，随着环境的变化，这些特征会发生什么变化，我们知之甚少。这项研究将使用来自亚利桑那州的弗里蒙特棉白杨树木，评估树木如何进化以适应过去的环境压力，包括温度变化和昆虫的攻击。这些关于树木压力历史的信息将被用来预测它在未来环境压力下将发挥的作用。研究结果将有助于西南地区正在进行的河流恢复项目，帮助确定应该种植的树木类型，以支持健康的生态系统。基础物种内的遗传变异是功能性状多样性的主要来源，这反过来又塑造了群落结构和生态系统过程。然而，个别基因型可能会表达不同的性状值时，暴露于环境变化。这种表型可塑性可以在基因型之间不同，作为对气候变化或草食动物活动的进化反应，产生基因型x环境（G x E）相互作用。这项研究将测试的假设，了解当地适应基因型的可塑性的演变将提高预测的影响，在广泛的景观尺度的遗传变异。首先，该研究将使用三个现有的普通花园来研究西南树种的基因型如何在炎热和寒冷的条件下表达不同的叶片性状。在所有的花园，草食动物损害的实验操作将被用来调查多个叶片性状的非生物和生物胁迫的相互影响。第二，该项目将测试如何从每个基因型所在地过去的环境变化中预测性状的变化。最后，凋落物移植实验和调查将被用来量化改变叶性状对依赖于这些树木的陆生和水生昆虫的整个群落的影响。通过调查物种范围内表型可塑性的进化原因和生态后果之间的反馈，应该大大提高我们在快速变化的景观中预测生态系统持久性的能力。该奖项反映了NSF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。

Predicting how ecosystems will respond to environmental change is a major challenge for environmental scientists. One strategy is to focus on the traits (characteristics) of organisms that play the most critical roles in their ecosystems. Along rivers, key tree species such as cottonwoods provide shade, habitat, and food for a wide range of other species. Many types of insects feed on the leaves and on the litter that falls in the river. The traits of the leaves impact the survival of these insects, which then impacts birds and fish higher up the food chain. Past research shows that leaf traits like leaf size and chemistry are partly determined by a tree's genes. However, little is known about what will happen to these traits as the environment changes. Using Fremont cottonwood trees from across Arizona, this research will assess how trees have evolved to tolerate environmental stresses in the past, including both changing temperatures and attacks from insects. This information about a tree's history of stress will then be used to predict the role it will play under future environmental stress. The results will aid ongoing river restoration projects across the Southwest by helping identify the types of trees that should be planted to support healthy ecosystems.Genetic variation within foundation species is a major source of diversity in functional traits, which in turn shape community structure and ecosystem processes. However, individual genotypes may express different trait values when exposed to environmental change. This phenotypic plasticity can differ among genotypes as an evolved response to climatic variability or herbivore activity, producing genotype x environment (G x E) interactions. This research will test the hypothesis that understanding the evolution of plasticity in locally adapted genotypes will enhance prediction of the impacts of genetic variation at a broad landscape scale. First, the research will use three existing common gardens to investigate how genotypes of a southwestern tree species express different leaf traits in hot vs. cold conditions. Across all gardens, experimental manipulation of herbivore damage will be used to investigate interactive effects of abiotic and biotic stress on multiple leaf traits. Second, the project will test how variation in traits can be predicted from past variation in the environment at each genotype's home location. Finally, litter transplant experiments and surveys will be used to quantify the impacts of changing leaf traits on whole communities of terrestrial and aquatic insects dependent on these trees. Investigating feedbacks between the evolutionary causes and ecological consequences of phenotypic plasticity across a species' range should greatly improve our ability to predict ecosystem persistence across a rapidly changing landscape.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.