RII Track-2 FEC: From Ecosystems to Evolution: Harnessing Elemental Data to Detect Stoichiometric Control-Points and their Consequences for Organismal Evolution

所有生物都需要碳、氮和磷等元素按特定比例生长。因此，生态系统中这些元素的相对可获得性可能对生物的生长和性能、生物群落的生物多样性以及水质等生态系统服务的提供产生重大影响。然而，人类活动，包括燃烧化石燃料、城市和住宅发展以及农业实践，正在迅速改变这些元素的绝对和相对丰度。这项以研究基础设施改善Track-2为重点的EPSCoR协作(RII Track-2 FEC)奖将允许来自四个EPSCoR辖区(AR、NE、VT和WY)的研究人员研究当前和不断变化的元素可用性如何影响区域和国家规模的生态系统。为此，研究人员将把来自国家努力的不断增长的环境数据集与正在进行的和较小规模的历史研究结合起来，产生一个公开可用的数据库，其中包含关于生物体的元素组成和这些生物体环境的元素组成的信息。这项工作将侧重于河流、湖泊和其他内陆水域生态系统，为解决每个司法管辖区内发现的富营养化问题提供机会。项目团队将通过专业培训机会参与劳动力发展，开发数据库活动，让研究生和本科生接触生态问题，与艺术家互动，更好地向普通观众传达研究结果，并通过专业合作伙伴关系促进多样性、公平性和包容性，例如淡水科学学会的Instars和Emerge计划。生态化学计量学(ES)应用第一原理来研究元素的不同供应如何限制有机体及其相互作用。通过这次合作，我们将把ES理论与大数据收集和分析工具相结合，以建立研究能力和人力资源能力，以调查目前无法调查的跨尺度生态现象的化学计量控制。具体地说，我们建议：1)利用在广泛的空间和时间尺度上收集的环境数据，建立一个新的数据库，称为化学生境中生物的化学计量特征(STOICH)；2)开发新的工具，以应对研究元素比率及其生态影响的统计和数据可视化挑战；以及3)在EPSCoR的四个司法管辖区建设前沿生态和环境研究的能力。我们将首先将这一能力集中在三个研究目标上：1)阐明关键生物地球化学循环的化学计量控制；2)了解食物链结构和功能如何响应元素错配；以及3)调查元素供应如何影响生物群落中的功能特征多样性。主要调查人员包括来自内布拉斯加-林肯大学、怀俄明大学、中阿肯色大学和米德尔伯里学院的早期职业科学家。每个司法管辖区还包括一名资深科学家，作为早期职业教师的导师。该项目将支持三名博士后研究员、五名研究生和许多本科生研究实习生。学员将受益于所涉及的校园的多样性，其中包括R1、R2以及主要是本科院校。我们将通过在专业协会会议上举办与教育相关的专题研讨会，积极吸引和招募代表不足的社区。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。

All living things require elements like carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in specific proportions to grow. As a result, the relative availability of these elements in an ecosystem can have major impacts on the growth and performance of organisms, the biodiversity of biological communities, and the provisioning of ecosystem services like water quality. Yet, human activities, including burning fossil fuels, urban and residential development, and agricultural practices, are rapidly changing the absolute and relative abundance of these elements. This Research Infrastructure Improvement Track-2 Focused EPSCoR Collaboration (RII Track-2 FEC) award will permit researchers from four EPSCoR jurisdictions (AR, NE, VT, and WY) to address how current and changing elemental availability impacts ecosystems at regional and national scales. To do this, researchers will combine growing environmental datasets from national efforts with ongoing and historical studies at smaller scales to produce a publicly available database containing information on both the elemental composition of organisms and the elemental composition of those organisms’ environment. The effort will focus on stream, lake, and other inland water ecosystems, providing the opportunity to also address eutrophication issues found within each jurisdiction. The project team will engage in workforce development through professional training opportunities, develop database activities that expose graduate and undergraduate students to ecological questions, engage with artists to better communicate findings to general audiences, and promote diversity, equity, and inclusivity through professional partnerships, e.g., the Society for Freshwater Science’s Instars and Emerge program. Ecological stoichiometry (ES) applies first principles to examine how the differential supply of elements constrains organisms and their interactions. Through this collaboration, we will combine ES theory with ‘big data’ harvesting and analysis tools to build the research capability and human resource capacity to investigate stoichiometric control of ecological phenomena occurring across scales that we currently cannot investigate. Specifically, we propose to: 1) harness environmental data collected across wide spatial and temporal scales to build a new database called the Stoichiometric Traits of Organisms In their Chemical Habitats (STOICH), 2) develop new tools to address statistical and data visual challenges to studying elemental ratios and their ecological implications, and 3) build capacity in four EPSCoR jurisdictions for cutting-edge ecological and environmental research. We will focus this capacity initially on three research aims: 1) elucidate stoichiometric controls on critical biogeochemical cycles, 2) understand how food web structure and function respond to elemental mismatches, and 3) investigate how elemental supply impacts functional trait diversity in biological communities. The principal investigators include early career scientists from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Wyoming, University of Central Arkansas, and Middlebury College. Each jurisdiction also includes a senior scientist as a mentor to early career faculty. The project will support three postdoctoral fellows, five graduate students, and many undergraduate research trainees. Trainees will benefit from the diversity of campuses involved that include R1, R2, and primarily undergraduate institutions. We will actively engage and recruit underrepresented communities by holding ES-related topical workshops at professional society meetings with successful mentoring programs.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.