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

了解生物体的基因、外观和环境之间的联系是了解生物体、种群和群落如何应对环境变化和保护生物多样性挑战的关键。本研究探讨了不同温度和湿度条件下土壤氮磷水平的变化如何改变植物的遗传和功能性状属性、它们在生态群落中的存在和表现，以及从基因到群落的生物多样性模式。本研究利用遗传学、生理学、生态学、进化生物学和数学建模等领域的技术，全面研究这些联系。该项目整合了K-12年级和本科生的课程和实地研究经验，以提高学生的兴奋，学习和参与科学和科学方法。通过与在科学传播和媒体生成方面受过培训的学生和专业人员合作，该项目还将提高与营养富营养化、生物多样性保护和进化适应以及相关STEM职业道路相关主题相关的科学素养和参与度。该项目旨在加强对生态系统养分可用性的增加是否会导致与核酸和构建基因组和转录组相关的材料成本限制的放松，从而影响初级生产者基因组和转录组的结构以及它们所嵌入的生态群落的理解。本研究将：(1)研究非模式异源多倍体和自多倍体物种细胞型的基因组大小、转录组表达模式、元素组成和功能生理性状之间的关系；(2)开展野外研究，广泛阐明基因组大小与多种植物和植物组合在不同养分供应和气候条件下光合作用、生长和养分利用等性状之间的关系；(3)结合不同营养处理地块和气候条件下多个植物和消费群落群落的物种发生数据，采用时间序列系统发育建模方法和可操作的野外实验，深入了解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机制。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

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.