SitS NSF-UKRI: Collaborative Research: Sensors UNder snow Seasonal Processes in the evolution of ARctic Soils (SUN SPEARS)

该项目是通过“土壤中的信号”机会授予的，这是一个涉及美国农业部国家粮食和农业研究所的合作招标。（USDA NIFA）和以下英国研究与创新（UKRI）研究委员会：1）自然环境研究理事会（NERC），2）生物技术和生物科学研究理事会（BBSRC），3）工程和物理科学研究理事会（EPSRC），融化的冰盖和冰川正在暴露出由看似贫瘠的后冰川土壤主导的广阔景观。这些新的栖息地支持专门的和有弹性的微生物，多年后，甚至地衣和植物。然而，对这些偏远地点的访问和测量通常仅限于夏季，因此，对包括长期寒冷、黑暗的冬季在内的季节性影响的研究不足。美国（犹他州大学;科罗拉多大学，博尔德）和英国之间的合作努力。（伦敦玛丽女王大学;英国地质调查局）研究人员将通过持续运行的传感器和重复的实地测量，测量挪威斯瓦尔巴德群岛一座退缩冰川附近土壤中冬春季积雪下的生物、水文和化学活动。这将使科学家能够了解雪下过程如何促进这些独特的土壤生态系统现在和未来的功能和发展。此外，项目研究人员将把互动课程带到科罗拉多和犹他州农村服务不足地区的教室，远程接触世界各地的教室和播客观众，为来自科罗拉多农村的高中生提供研究培训，并为两名大学生和三名博士后研究人员提供培训。北极土壤的空间范围由于冰川退缩而迅速扩大。这些土壤作为气候调节者和生态系统服务的提供者，其重要性日益增加，而且还受到气候变化极地放大效应的影响。尽管以前的努力跟踪冰川退缩后土壤的发展，它仍然是未知的季节性过程在多大程度上影响其演变的年度到几十年的时间尺度。由于大多数北极地区在短暂的夏季之外无法进入，因此先驱北极土壤系统的季节动态在很大程度上未被探索。为了解决这些挑战，该项目的目标是利用高北极冰川前沿的埋地地球物理传感器网络，实现对北极土壤年龄梯度动态过程的全年连续监测。这项工作将与通过最先进的分子技术对土壤生物地球化学过程进行反复实地监测相结合，并开发一个微生物明确的生物地球物理模型来描述土壤演变。该项目使用首次捕获年度内（即季节性）变化的时空时间序列方法，旨在提高对季节性过程如何促进北极土壤长期发展的了解。在地球物理学、工程学、微生物生态学、地球化学和地球系统建模方面具有专长的研究人员之间的这种跨学科合作将允许进行机械推理和预测，并改变在偏远和复杂环境中进行全年研究的能力。数据和模型代码将通过基于网络的档案共享，从而实现新一代土壤模型。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。

This project was awarded through the "Signals in the Soil (SitS)" opportunity, a collaborative solicitation that involves the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA) and the following United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) research councils: 1) The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), 2) the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), 3) the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).Melting ice sheets and glaciers are exposing vast landscapes dominated by seemingly barren post-glaciation soils. These new habitats support specialized and resilient microorganisms and, after many years, even lichens and plants. However, access to and measurements of these remote sites are typically restricted to the summer and, thus, seasonal effects including prolonged cold, dark winters are under-studied. This collaborative effort between U.S. (University of Utah; University of Colorado, Boulder) and U.K. (Queen Mary University of London; British Geological Survey) researchers will measure biological, hydrologic, and chemical activity under the winter and spring snowpack in soils near a retreating glacier in Svalbard, Norway, via continuously operated sensors and repeated field measurements. This will enable scientists to understand how under-snow processes contribute to the functioning and development of these unique soil ecosystems now and into the future. Additionally, project researchers will bring interactive lessons to classrooms in underserved areas in rural Colorado and Utah, remotely reach classrooms and podcast audiences around the world, provide research training for high school students from rural Colorado, and training for two university students and three postdoctoral researchers.The spatial extent of Arctic soils is rapidly expanding due to glacier retreat. These soils are of ever-increasing importance as a climate mediator and provider of ecosystem services and are also experiencing the effects of the polar amplification of climate change. Despite previous efforts to trace the development of soils following glacier retreat, it remains unknown to what extent seasonal processes affect their evolution on annual to multi-decadal timescales. Due to the inaccessibility of most Arctic regions outside of a brief summer period, the seasonal dynamics of pioneer Arctic soil systems are largely unexplored. To resolve these challenges, the project's goal is to achieve continuous year-round monitoring of dynamic processes across an age gradient of Arctic soils using a network of buried geophysical sensors in a High-Arctic glacier forefield. This effort will be coupled with repeated field monitoring of soil biogeochemical processes via state-of-the-art molecular techniques, and development of a microbially-explicit biological-geophysical model to describe soil evolution. Using a space-for-time chronosequence approach that for the first time captures intra-annual (i.e. seasonal) variability, this project aims to improve understanding of how seasonal processes contribute to long-term development of Arctic soils. This cross-disciplinary collaboration among researchers with expertise in geophysics, engineering, microbial ecology, biogeochemistry, and Earth system modelling, will permit mechanistic inference and projections, and transform the capacity to conduct year-round research in remote and complex environments. Data and model code will be shared via web-based archives, enabling a new generation of soil models. Findings will be disseminated to the scientific community through publications and conferences, and communicated more broadly through public engagement.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.