CAREER: Can material costs contribute to the structuring of biodiversity patterns from genomes and transcriptomes to multispecies communities?

了解有机体的基因、外观和环境之间的联系，对于了解生物体、种群和群落将如何应对环境变化以及保护生物多样性的挑战都是关键。这项研究调查了不同温度和水分状况的地区土壤氮和磷水平的变化如何改变植物的遗传和功能特征属性，它们在生态群落中的存在和表现，并最终改变从基因到群落各个层次的生物多样性格局。本研究使用遗传学、生理学、生态学、进化生物学和数学模型等领域的技术来全面研究这些联系。该项目整合了K-12年级和本科生在课程和实地研究方面的经验，以增强学生对科学和科学方法的兴奋、学习和参与。通过与受过科学传播和媒体生成培训的学生和专业人员合作，该项目还将提高科学素养和参与与营养富营养化、生物多样性保护、进化适应和相关STEM职业道路相关的关键主题的参与。该项目力求加强人们对生态系统养分供应增加是否导致放松与核酸和构建基因组和转录本相关的材料成本限制，从而影响初级生产者的基因组和转录本的结构以及它们所在的生态群落的认识。这项研究将：(1)描述非模式异源多倍体和同源多倍体物种的基因组大小、转录组表达模式和元素组成以及细胞型功能/生理性状之间的关系；(2)开展田间研究，广泛阐明不同养分供应和气候条件下多种植物和植物组合中基因组大小与光合作用、生长和养分利用相关性状的关系；以及(3)将来自不同营养处理小区和气候条件的多个植物群落和消费者群落的物种出现数据与时间序列系统发育建模方法和操纵性田间实验相结合，以获得对材料成本和基因组大小在自下而上和自上而下控制生物多样性模式中的作用的机械见解。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。

Understanding the connections between an organism’s genes, their appearance, and their environment is key to both understanding how organisms, populations, and communities will respond to environmental changes and the challenges to preserving biodiversity. This research investigates how changes in soil nitrogen and phosphorus levels in areas with characteristically different temperature and moisture regimes alters the genetic and functional trait attributes of plants, their presence and performance in ecological communities, and ultimately patterns of biodiversity across levels from genes to communities. This research uses techniques from the fields of genetics, physiology, ecology, evolutionary biology, and mathematical modelling to comprehensively investigate these linkages. This project integrates K-12 grade and undergraduate students in course- and field-based research experiences to enhance student excitement, learning, and involvement of science and the scientific method. By working with students and professionals trained in scientific communication and media generation, this project also will increase both scientific literacy and engagement on critical topics related to nutrient eutrophication, conservation of biodiversity, and evolutionary adaptation and the awareness of related STEM career pathways. This project seeks to enhance understanding of whether increased ecosystem nutrient availability results in the relaxation of material cost constraints associated with nucleic acids and building genomes and transcriptomes, thereby affecting the structure of primary producer’s genomes and transcriptomes and the ecological communities in which they are embedded. This research will: (1) Characterize the relationships among genome size, transcriptome expression patterns and elemental composition, and functional/physiological traits in cytotypes of a non-model allopolyploid and an autopolyploid species; (2) Engage in field research to broadly elucidate relationships between genome size and traits related to photosynthesis, growth, and nutrient usage in multiple plants and plant assemblages under different nutrient supplies and climatic conditions; and (3) Combine species occurrence data from multiple plant and consumer community assemblages in different nutrient treatment plots and climate conditions with time series phylogenetic modelling approaches and manipulative field experiments to obtain mechanistic insights into the roles of material costs and genome size in bottom-up and top-down controls of biodiversity patterns.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.