MRI: MRI: Acquisition of a X-ray Machine at Chicago Botanic Garden

芝加哥植物园(CBG)被授予购买一台橱柜X光机，以支持在生态系统保护和恢复中应用的种子生物学和生态学研究。X光机对于扩大直接保护活动的范围和影响至关重要，因为这些活动为社会提供了各种和广泛的好处。这些活动包括全球濒危植物分类群和高草草原植物的种子库，以及养护和恢复本地植物种群及其栖息地。改进了对CBG超过11,000个种子库的管理，这些种子库用于长期保护利益植物保护和成功种子中心，分别是稀有植物和修复相关植物的国家原生植物种子库计划。新的X光机还将增强CBG的教育使命。了解和使用这台机器将提高保护专业人员、研究生和我们的科学职业连续(SCC)计划参与者的研究培训质量，该计划让初中生、高中生和本科生(包括REU参与者)参与科学研究，重点关注历史上被排除在科学之外的群体。由CBG和西北大学提供的植物生物学和保护项目的研究生将使用它进行研究，来自当地、地区和国家保护机构、政府机构和其他研究机构的教师和访问科学家也将使用它进行研究。重要的是，新的X光设备将满足国家基础设施的需求。该设施在芝加哥和中西部北部建立了急需的能力，以进行与种子相关的基础和应用研究，并保护和恢复当地植物及其栖息地。X光机将使CBG能够增强其在生态学、进化、保护生物学、恢复生态学、授粉生物学以及保护方法和实践方面的能力。CBG研究包括小型、零散植物种群的生物学；稀有和受威胁的本地植物以及入侵植物物种的人口学；植物和传粉者对环境变化的反应；种子的功能特征；观赏植物的入侵潜力；种子传输区的遗传学；等等。CBG的科学家将使用X光机评估种子中的胚胎形成，测试种子的活力，通过改进植物适合性的测量来更好地模拟植物人口统计学，以及观察蜜蜂的脂肪储备等用途。X射线成像既快速又非破坏性，使人们能够进行如果没有它就不可能进行的研究-例如，测量种子胚胎特征，然后将它们与单个种子的萌发联系起来。最后，X光设备将促进改进种子库方法的研究，使整个社会受益。这一奖项反映了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。

An award is made to the Chicago Botanic Garden (CBG) to purchase a cabinet x-ray machine to support research on seed biology and ecology for applications in ecosystem conservation and restoration. The x-ray machine is critically important for expanding the scope and impact of direct conservation activities, which provide diverse and broad benefits to society. Such activities include seed banking of globally imperiled plant taxa and plants of the tallgrass prairie as well as conserving and restoring native plant populations and their habitats. Improved curation of CBG’s over 11,000 seed collections banked for long-term conservation benefits Center for Plant Conservation and Seeds of Success, the national native plant seed banking programs for rare plants and restoration-relevant plants respectively. The new x-ray machine will also enhance CBG’s educational mission. Learning about and using the machine will improve the quality of research training for conservation professionals, graduate students, and participants in our Science Career Continuum (SCC) program, which engages middle school, high school, and undergraduate students (including REU participants) in scientific research focusing on groups historically excluded in science. Graduate students in the Plant Biology and Conservation Program offered by CBG and Northwestern University will use it for research, as will faculty and visiting scientists from local, regional, and national conservation institutions, governmental agencies, and other research institutions. Importantly, the new x-ray equipment will fill a national infrastructure need. The facility builds much-needed capacity in Chicago and the upper Midwest to conduct basic and applied seed-related research and to conserve and restore native plants and their habitats.The x-ray machine will enable CBG to increase its capabilities to advance knowledge in ecology, evolution, conservation biology, restoration ecology, pollination biology, and in conservation methods and practice. CBG studies encompass the biology of small, fragmented plant populations; demography of both rare and threatened native plants, and invasive plant species; plant and pollinator responses to environmental changes; functional traits of seeds; invasive potential of ornamental plants; genetics of seed transfer zones; and more. CBG scientists will use the x-ray machine to assess embryo formation in seeds, test seed viability, better model plant demography with improved measures of plant fitness, and observe fat reserves in bees, among other uses. X-ray imagery is both rapid and non-destructive and allows one to conduct research that would be impossible without it – for example, measuring seed embryo characteristics and then linking them to germination of individual seeds. Lastly the x-ray facility will facilitate studies on improving seed banking methodology, benefiting society at large.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.