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“土壤信号（SitS）”征集活动颁发的，该征集活动是美国国家科学基金会与美国农业部国家食品和农业研究所（USDA NIFA）之间的合作伙伴关系。该奖项由化学部环境化学科学 (ECS) 项目和 NSF 十大创意之一的新北极航行 (NNA) 项目共同资助。 NNA支持的项目旨在解决快速变化的北极地区的融合科学挑战，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，并在适当的情况下整合知识的共同生产。该奖项符合 ECS 计划的使命和 NNA 计划的目标。北极蕴藏的碳量是所有栖息地类型中最多的。它也是全球变暖最快的地区。气温变暖以及火灾频率和范围的增加可能会增加北极土壤中碳基温室气体（GHG）的排放，从而加剧全球气候变化。目前预测未来北极碳储存和释放动态的能力仍然有限，部分原因是缺乏可以在北极冬季运行的现场土壤温室气体传感器。为了增进对调节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经过改进以在可变土壤条件下运行的温室气体传感器。这些传感器的化学测量结果将与一个模型集成，该模型捕获控制北极苔原系统中碳和养分循环的生物相互作用。这种跨学科合作将推进土壤传感器技术，生成新颖的北极系统数据，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，北极星项目是一个由国家科学基金会支持的北极本科研究项目，优先考虑从代表性不足的群体中招募学生。基本的土壤科学挑战包括需要开发能够在土壤剖面内持续低于冰点温度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随空间和时间变化的土壤过程。这项研究的主要目的是通过将新型、低干扰、低功耗的原位温室气体传感器产生的精细温室气体测量结果与化学计量耦合的微生物-植物-土壤（SCAMPS）模型相结合，促进对调节北极土壤碳和氮的封存和释放的过程的理解，这些传感器可以在可变的土壤条件下连续运行。这项研究将传感器开发与已建立的生物地球化学数据收集和机械建模相结合，将有助于加深对在快速变化的气候条件和极端事件下，北极陆地在精细空间和时间尺度上的异质性如何影响永久冻土层土壤与大气之间碳交换的时间、幅度和形式的理解。原位土壤传感器将是首批可在北极土壤温度下连续工作的多模式气体传感器之一，以低成本和低功耗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型多模态传感器来增进对北极碳和养分循环的了解，这些传感器用于连续测量具有不同野火历史的低北极地区多个深度的土壤温室气体排放。除了北极研究的突破之外，该项目还将产生技术创新，从而促进传感器研究界的科学理解，并推动技术实现监测土壤信号的长期目标。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力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 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.