Mid-scale RI-1 (M1:IP): A Deep Soil Ecotron facility to explore belowground communities and ecosystem processes

授予爱达荷州大学实施深层土壤生态设施，这将导致深层土壤的更好的理解，进一步阐明地球上的生命种类，其在生态系统过程中的作用，以及对全球变化的反应。深层土壤生态中心将提供美国目前缺乏的研究基础设施，加速对深层土壤及其在更广泛生物圈中所起作用的研究，并导致旨在评估地下结构和功能的新技术的开发。此外，Deep Soil Ecotron将作为EPSCoR研究人员网络的中心枢纽，专注于与深层土壤相关的问题。该全国网络目前有来自九个EPSCoR管辖区的代表。研究生将参与深层土壤生态区的各个方面。这些从代表性不足的群体中招募的学生将接受前所未有的项目管理培训。该项目管理计划将包括研讨会，课程和实践经验，将培养环境科学基础设施发展的未来领导者和创新者。最后，为未来几代土壤研究人员的基础将扩大既定的中学课程开发计划，中学生将设计和进行迷你ecotron实验。从这一设施中获得的理解有助于减缓该国土壤资源的退化，并有助于应对未来的挑战，从而确保后代的土壤生物多样性、粮食安全和气候缓解能力。与深海不同，人们对深层土壤知之甚少。目前，对深层土壤的研究仅限于挖掘土壤坑，这限制了直接操纵深层土壤环境的研究和实验。Deep Soil Ecotron将为研究人员提供无与伦比的研究深层土壤的能力。这一设施由24个高度仪器化的生态单元组成，可对深度达3米的土壤剖面进行反复取样和连续监测。深层土壤生态实验室将使研究人员能够使用在更常见的现场和实验室实验中无法实现的方法和仪器来解决以下四个广泛的研究需求。首先，深层土壤生态区将揭示深层土壤群落和过程如何影响表层土壤并与之相互作用，从而影响整个生态系统。第二，深层土壤生态试验室将使研究人员能够确定深层土壤对全球和土地利用变化的反应，例如土壤温度升高和农业管理实践。第三，从深层土壤生态区获得的信息将被纳入地球系统模型，以改善模型的代表性。第四，深层土壤生态试验室将为开发用于深层土壤现场监测的传感器提供试验平台。最终，Deep Soil Ecotron将成为世界上第一个此类项目，揭示一个基本上未知和未开发的环境，并加速对地下系统的研究。 该项目由中等规模RI-1计划、刺激竞争性研究的既定计划（EPSCoR）和生物研究基础设施创新（IIBR）计划共同资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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 University of Idaho to implement a Deep Soil Ecotron facility that will lead to an improved understanding of deep soils, further illuminating the variety of life on the planet, its role in ecosystem processes, and its response to global change. The Deep Soil Ecotron will provide research infrastructure that the US currently lacks, accelerate research on deep soils and the role these soils play in the broader biosphere, and lead to the development of novel technologies aimed at assessing belowground structure and function. Additionally, the Deep Soil Ecotron will serve as the central hub for a network of EPSCoR researchers focused on questions related to deep soils. This national network currently has representatives from nine EPSCoR jurisdictions. Graduate students will be involved in all aspects of the Deep Soil Ecotron. These students, recruited from underrepresented groups, will receive unprecedented training in project management. The project management program, which will include workshops, classes, and hands-on-experience, will generate the future leaders and innovators of infrastructure development in the environmental sciences. Finally, the groundwork for future generations of soil researchers will be laid by expanding an established middle school curriculum development program, where middle school students will design and conduct mini-ecotron experiments. The understanding gained from this facility can help mitigate the degradation of the nation’s soil resources and help address future challenges, thus ensuring soil biodiversity, food security, and climate mitigation capacities for future generations. Not unlike the deep ocean, little is known about deep soils. Currently, research on deep soils is limited to excavating soil pits, which limits research and experiments that directly manipulate the deep soil environment are currently non-existent. The Deep Soil Ecotron will give researchers the unparalleled ability to investigate deep soils. This facility, composed of twenty-four, highly instrumented ecounits, will allow for soil profiles up to three meters in depth to be repeatedly sampled and continuously monitored. The Deep Soil Ecotron will enable researchers to address the following four broad research needs using approaches and instrumentation which have been unattainable under more common field and laboratory experiments. First, the Deep Soil Ecotron will reveal how deep soil communities and processes affect and interact with surface soils to influence whole ecosystems. Second, the Deep Soil Ecotron will allow researchers to determine how deep soils respond to global and land-use change, such as increasing soil temperature and agricultural management practices. Third, information gained from the Deep Soil Ecotron will be integrated into earth system models to improve model representation. Fourth, the Deep Soil Ecotron will provide a testbed for the development of sensors for the in-situ monitoring of deep soils. Ultimately the Deep Soil Ecotron will be the first of its kind in the world, shedding light on a largely unknown and unexplored environment, and accelerating research on belowground systems. This project is jointly funded by the Mid-scale RI-1 Program, the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), and Infrastructure Innovation for Biological Research (IIBR) Program.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.