RCN: Integrating Organismal Biology into NEON

生命科学的一个中心目标是了解生物体将如何应对环境变化。该项目资助了一个研究协调网络(RCN)，该网络将把一群不同的生物学家聚集在一起，以确定如何最好地利用霓虹灯数据和基础设施来解决有关生物体将如何应对环境变化的紧迫问题。国家生态观测网(NEON)及其相关的基础设施是国家科学基金会最大的基础设施投资之一。霓虹灯是一个天文台，通过30年来在美国各地一系列研究地点收集的一致数据，记录生态系统的变化。RCN将建立一个成员在背景、专业知识和职业阶段各不相同的专业网络，举办研讨会和研讨会，重点关注霓虹灯的潜力，以回答生物生物学中的关键问题，并通过研究交流为下一代研究人员提供培训经验。作为一个整体，区域协调网络将扩大代表不足群体在职业生涯各阶段的参与，开发播客节目，以增进对霓虹灯相关概念的科学和技术理解，并为公众创造新的参与性科学活动。最后，这个RCN将使与人类健康和美国经济直接相关的研究成为可能，例如关于疾病的存在和驱动因素的知识，它们通过动物种群的传播，以及环境变化如何可能加剧这些威胁。NEON为对基本生物学问题提出新的见解提供了一个独特的机会，但目前来自不同生物学领域的研究人员在使用霓虹灯方面存在差异。生态学家率先使用霓虹灯数据来调查人口、社区和生态系统对环境变化的反应。然而，生物学家还没有完全认识到霓虹灯及其相关基础设施的潜力。尽管霓虹灯非常适合回答生物生物学中的一些重大问题，但这次错失了机会。生物学家使用不同的综合方法来了解生物体的行为、生理和生活史中的变异，以及这些多个特征如何跨越环境梯度相互作用并产生种群分化。通过霓虹灯的使用，生物生物学家有很大的潜力来帮助揭示基因如何变成表型，并在时空尺度上发现以前不可能实现的新模式。由于研究人员对霓虹灯的目标、基础设施和能力缺乏认识，使用霓虹灯资源的生物生物学研究一直落后。该RCN将通过将生物学家纳入霓虹灯用户社区并促进生态学家和生物生物学家之间的互动来多样化和加强霓虹灯的使用。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。

A central goal in the life sciences is understanding how organisms will cope with environmental change. This project funds a Research Coordination Network (RCN) that bring will together a diverse group of biologists to identify how to best leverage NEON data and infrastructure to address pressing questions about how organisms will cope with environmental change. The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) and its associated infrastructure represents one of the largest infrastructure investments by the National Science Foundation. NEON serves as an observatory to document ecosystem change through 30 years of consistent data collection at a series research sites across the United States. The RCN will develop a professional network whose members are diverse in background, expertise, and career stage, host workshops and symposia that focus on the potential of NEON to answer key questions in organismal biology and provide training experiences for the next generation of researchers through research exchanges. As a whole, the RCN will broaden participation of under-represented groups across career stages, develop podcast episodes to enhance scientific and technological understanding of concepts related to NEON, and generate new participatory science activities for the general public. Finally, this RCN will enable research that have direct relevance to human health and the US economy, such as knowledge of the presence and drivers of disease, their spread through animal populations, and how environmental change may exacerbate these threats.NEON presents a unique opportunity to produce novel insights into fundamental biological questions, yet there are currently disparities in use of NEON by researchers from different fields of biology. Ecologists have taken the lead with using NEON data to investigate the responses of populations, communities, and ecosystems to environmental change. However, the potential of NEON and its associated infrastructure have not been fully realized by organismal biologists. This missed opportunity is despite the fact that NEON is well-suited for answering some major questions in organismal biology. Organismal biologists use diverse and integrative approaches to understand variation in the behavior, physiology, and life histories of organisms and how these multiple traits interact across environmental gradients and produce population differentiation. Through the use of NEON, there is great potential for organismal biologists to help reveal how genotypes become phenotypes and discover new patterns at spatiotemporal scales that have not previously been possible. Organismal biology research using NEON resources has lagged behind because of a lack of awareness by researchers of NEON’s goals, infrastructure, and capacity. This RCN will diversify and strengthen NEON usage by incorporating organismal biologists into the community of NEON users and by promoting interactions between ecologists and organismal biologists.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.