Collaborative Research: SitS:Integrating Novel Greenhouse Gas Sensor Technology with Mechanistic Modeling to Improve Projections of Arctic Soil Responses to Climate Change and Fire

该奖项是通过“土壤中的信号(SITS)”征集，这是美国国家科学基金会和美国农业部国家粮食和农业研究所(USDA NIFA)之间的合作伙伴关系。该奖项的共同资金由化学部的环境化学科学(ECS)计划和NSF的十大想法之一的新北极航行(NNA)计划提供。NNA支持以下项目：应对快速变化的北极地区的汇聚科学挑战，增强新的研究伙伴关系，使下一代北极研究人员多样化，加强正规和非正规教育的努力，并在适当情况下整合联合生产知识。这一奖项与ECS计划的使命和NNA计划的目标一致。北极是所有栖息地类型中储存碳最多的地区。它也是全球变暖最快的地区。气温变暖，随着火灾频率和范围的增加，可能会增加北极土壤的碳基温室气体(GHG)排放，从而放大全球气候变化。目前预测未来北极碳储存和释放动态的能力仍然有限，部分原因是缺乏能够在北极冬季运行的现场土壤温室气体传感器。为了促进对北极土壤碳储存和释放过程的了解，加州理工州立大学、奥克兰大学、韦恩州立大学和伍兹霍尔研究中心之间的合作将开发温室气体传感器，这种传感器经过改进，可以在不同的土壤条件下运行。来自这些传感器的化学测量将与一个模型相结合，该模型捕获了支配北极冻土带系统中碳和养分循环的生物相互作用。这种跨学科的合作将推进土壤传感器技术，产生新的北极系统数据，并改进北极如何应对火灾和变暖的模型。拟议的项目将被纳入教学活动，并通过与北极星项目的整合，北极星项目是一项由NSF支持的北极本科生研究计划，优先考虑从代表性较低的群体中招收学生。基本的土壤科学挑战包括需要开发能够在土壤剖面内在冰冻温度下持续运行的温室气体传感器，以及改进下一代机械生物地球化学模型以预测土壤过程在空间和时间上的变化。这项研究的主要目的是通过将新型、低干扰、低功率的原位温室气体传感器产生的细尺度温室气体测量与化学计量耦合驯化微生物-植物-土壤(SCAMPS)模型相结合，促进对北极土壤碳和氮的固定和释放过程的理解。这项研究将传感器开发与现有的生物地球化学数据收集和机制建模相结合，将有助于更好地理解在快速变化的气候条件和极端事件下，北极陆地在精细时空尺度上的异质性如何影响以永久冻土为主的土壤和大气之间的碳交换的时间、数量和形式。就地土壤传感器将是首批可以在北极土壤温度下连续工作的多模式气体传感器之一，以低成本和低功率提供高灵敏度和特异性的多种温室气体测量。这些土壤传感器最终可以分布在各种生态系统中，以研究北极和其他关键土壤环境中发生的动态变化。这项研究将通过改进和验证新的多模式传感器来促进对北极碳和养分循环的理解，这些传感器被部署在不同野火历史的低北极田野地点的多个深度连续测量土壤温室气体产生。除了北极研究的突破，该项目还将产生技术创新，促进传感器研究界的科学理解，并推动技术朝着监测土壤信号的长期目标前进。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。

This award was made through the "Signals in the Soil (SitS)" solicitation, a collaborative partnership between the National Science Foundation and the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA). Co-funding for this award is being provided by the Environmental Chemical Sciences (ECS) program in the Division of Chemistry, and the Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) program, one of NSF’s ten Big Ideas. NNA supports projects that address convergence scientific challenges in the rapidly changing Arctic, empower new research partnerships, diversify the next generation of Arctic researchers, enhance efforts in formal and informal education, and integrate the co-production of knowledge where appropriate. This award aligns with the mission of the ECS program and the goals of the NNA program. The Arctic contains the largest amount of stored carbon of any habitat type. It is also the most rapidly warming global region. Warming temperatures, along with increasing fire frequency and extent, may amplify global climate change by increasing carbon-based greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from Arctic soils. Current abilities to predict future arctic carbon storage and release dynamics remain limited due, in part, to a lack of on-site soil GHG sensors that can operate over Arctic winters. To advance knowledge of the processes regulating arctic soil carbon storage and release, this collaboration between California Polytechnic State University, Oakland University, Wayne State University, and the Woods Hole Research center will develop GHG sensors that are refined to operate under variable soil conditions. The chemical measurements from these sensors will be integrated with a model that captures the biological interactions that govern carbon and nutrient cycling in arctic tundra systems. This cross- disciplinary collaboration will advance soil sensor technology, generate novel arctic system data, and improve models of how the Arctic is responding to fire and warming. The proposed project will be incorporated into teaching activities and through integration with the Polaris Project, an NSF-supported arctic undergraduate research program that prioritizes recruitment of students from underrepresented groups.Fundamental soil science challenges include the need to develop GHG sensors that can continuously operate below freezing temperatures within soil profiles and the improvement of next-generation mechanistic biogeochemical models to project soil processes which vary in space and time. The primary objective of this research is to advance understanding of the processes regulating the sequestration and release of carbon and nitrogen from arctic soils by integrating fine-scale GHG measurements generated by novel, low-disturbance, and low-power in situ GHG sensors that can operate continuously under variable soil conditions with the Stoichiometrically Coupled, Acclimating Microbe-Plant-Soil (SCAMPS) model. This research, which integrates sensor development with established biogeochemical data collection and mechanistic modeling, will help to improve understanding of how arctic terrestrial heterogeneity across fine spatial and temporal scales affects the timing, magnitude, and form of carbon exchanged between permafrost- dominated soils and the atmosphere under rapidly changing climate conditions and extreme events. The in situ soil sensors will be among the first multimodal gas sensors that can function continuously at arctic soil temperatures, providing multiple GHG measurements with high sensitivity and specificity at low cost and low power. These soil sensors can ultimately be distributed in various ecosystems to study the dynamic changes occurring in the Arctic and other critical soil environments. This research will advance understanding of carbon and nutrient cycling in the Arctic by refining and validating novel multimodal sensors deployed to continuously measure soil GHG production at multiple depths across low Arctic field sites with varying wildfire histories. In addition to breakthroughs for arctic research, this project will generate technological innovations that will advance scientific understanding in the sensor research community and drive technology toward the long-term goal of monitoring the signals in the soil.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.