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、种群和社区如何应对环境变化以及保护生物多样性所面临挑战的关键。本研究调查了具有不同温度和湿度制度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性状属性，它们在生态群落中的存在和表现，以及最终从基因到群落的生物多样性模式。这项研究使用遗传学，生理学，生态学，进化生物学和数学建模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，该项目还将提高科学素养和参与与营养物富营养化，生物多样性保护和进化适应以及相关STEM职业途径的认识有关的关键主题。该项目旨在加深了解生态系统养分可用性的增加是否会导致放宽与核酸以及构建基因组和转录组相关的材料成本限制，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。这项研究将：（1）表征非模式异源多倍体和同源多倍体物种的细胞型中的基因组大小、转录组表达模式和元素组成以及功能/生理性状之间的关系;（2）从事实地研究，以广泛阐明基因组大小与光合作用，生长，以及不同养分供应和气候条件下多种植物和植物组合的养分利用;以及（3）将来自不同营养处理地块和气候条件下多个植物和消费者群落组合的联合收割机物种发生数据与时间序列系统发育建模方法和操作性田间实验相结合，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。

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.