NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2020: The functional biogeography of ectomycorrhizal fungi: elucidating cross-scale mechanisms that inform global models

该行动资助了NSF 2020财年生物学博士后研究奖学金，研究基因组，环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。该奖学金支持将以创新方式对生活规则领域作出贡献的研究员的研究和培训。这项研究将提高对植物和真菌之间的生物相互作用的理解，这些相互作用影响森林对快速变化的气候的反应。该研究员将结合现场、实验室和气候建模方法来研究植物如何与共生（有益的）根相关真菌相互作用。土壤氮的有效性控制着森林生长，该研究员将比较热带、温带森林和北方森林的共生真菌对树木吸收氮的影响有何不同。通过确定现有真菌群落与特定气候区域的联系，该研究员将预测未来的真菌群落，以预测森林将如何应对气候变化。为了扩大这项工作的影响，该研究员将通过在实地和实验室指导和教学服务不足的第一代高中生和本科生来促进学生的学习和发现。本研究采用一种综合的方法来调整土壤特性与外生菌根（ECM）真菌的生物地理群落结构和功能之间的层次分析水平。该研究员将使用一系列测序方法来了解ECM群落对有机氮的清除能力的变化，此外，该研究员将开发统计方法，将ECM衰变的测量与ECM属的地理分布联系起来。这样做，研究员将限制当前和未来植物对有机氮的同化，有机氮是植物氮的来源，由于对其对植物生长的总体贡献了解不足，未包括在现有的地球系统模型中。最后，利用功能生物地理框架预测ECM共生体对气候变化的响应。该研究员正在接受宏基因组分析、生态预测和气候建模统计方法方面的培训。该研究员将与斯坦福大学教育学院合作，研究和实施基于探究的单元，将现场和实验室方法连接起来。最后，该研究员将开发、教授和出版关于土壤和微生物生态学的本科和高中教育课程。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。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2020, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. This research will improve understanding of biological interactions between plants and fungi that affect forest response to a rapidly changing climate. The fellow will use a combination of field, laboratory and climate modeling approaches to study how plants interact with symbiotic (helpful) root-associated fungi. Soil nitrogen availability controls forest growth and the fellow will compare how symbiotic fungi in the tropics, temperate forests and boreal forests differ in their impact on tree uptake of nitrogen. By determining how existing fungal communities are linked with certain climatic regions the fellow will forecast future fungal communities in order to predict how forests will respond to a changing climate. To broaden the impact of the work, the fellow will promote student learning and discovery by mentoring and teaching underserved and first-generation high-school and undergraduate students in the field and laboratory. This research uses an integrative approach to align hierarchical levels of analysis between soil properties and the biogeographic community structure and function of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi. The fellow will use a range of sequencing approaches to understand variation in the capacity of ECM communities to scavenge for organic N. Moreover, the fellow will develop statistical approaches to link measurements of ECM decay with the geographic distribution of ECM genera. In so doing, the fellow will constrain current and future plant assimilation of organic N, a source of plant N which is not included in existing earth system models due to poor understanding of its overall contribution to plant growth. Finally, the fellow will use a functional biogeographic framework to forecast the response of ECM symbionts to climatic change. The fellow is being trained in statistical approaches for metagenomic analysis, ecological forecasting and climatic modeling. Working in conjunction with the Stanford School of Education, the fellow will study and implement inquiry-based units bridging field and laboratory approaches. Finally, the fellow will develop, teach and publish educational undergraduate and high-school curricula on soil and microbial ecology.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.