CAREER: Linking macroecology and traits to predict mycorrhizal fungal dispersal

植物很少与世隔绝。事实上，地球上的所有植物都与各种微生物密切相关，这些微生物极大地影响了植物的健康。因此，与植物相关的微生物群落可能对农业，林业和生态系统产生重大影响。菌根真菌是最常见的有益真菌之一，挖掘土壤养分并将其输送给植物以换取糖。然而，它们对植物的影响取决于存在的真菌种类。环境因素和传播决定了微生物群落结构，但人们对微生物如何长距离传播知之甚少。该职业奖结合了国家生态观测站网络（氖）使用数据科学、实验室和大规模实地实验的多种方法来研究真菌传播。这项建议将使高中生参与科学活动，并改善生态数据科学的研究生教育。最后，本项目将研究限制少数民族学生参与生态学的障碍，以提出改善招募和保留的建议。近100年来，“万物皆有”的假设主导了微生物生态学，这表明微生物的扩散是无限的，群落组装机制主要是确定性的。然而，某些真菌在可能影响其长距离传播能力的性状方面有所不同。将性状的知识与支配运动的物理定律结合起来，可以为预测扩散提供一个强大的框架，这是地理学的一个关键组成部分。丛枝菌根（AM）真菌不形成地上结构，并通过无性孢子繁殖，这些孢子具有可能影响长距离传播的显著不同的性状（例如大小，表面附着）。AM真菌扩散的机制和程度知之甚少，然而，为了管理AM真菌群落以改善共生功能，需要关于扩散能力的分类特异性信息。本研究结合性状生态学、宏观生态学和物理规律，通过以下研究目标对AM真菌空中扩散进行研究：1。创建AM真菌性状数据库，以检查所有孢子性状的系统发育组之间的保守性，可能有利于空中传播，2。检查社区结构和孢子性状的空中AM真菌在氖网站和芝加哥城市网站，以确定生态气候特性，预测空中传播，和3。比较所观察到的终端速度与斯托克斯定律预测的具有不同形态特征的AM真菌孢子的光滑球体运动。该职业奖将阐明迄今为止分散在推动微生物生物地理学大陆规模模式方面的推测作用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并且通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响进行评估，被认为值得支持审查标准。

Plants rarely live in isolation. In fact, all plants on Earth live in close association with diverse microorganisms that greatly impact plant health. As a result, the microbial communities that associate with plants can have large implications for agriculture, forestry, and ecosystems. Mycorrhizal fungi are among the most common beneficial fungi, mining soil nutrients and delivering them to plants in exchange for sugars. However, the impact they have on plants depends on the type of fungal species present. Environmental factors and dispersal determine microbial community structure, but little is known about how microbes disperse long distances. This CAREER award combines multiple approaches using data science, laboratory, and large-scale field experiments at the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) to study fungal dispersal. This proposal will involve high school students in science activities and improve graduate education in ecological data science. Finally, this project will study barriers that limit the participation of minority students in ecology to develop recommendations to improve recruiting and retention.For nearly 100 years, the "everything is everywhere" hypothesis has dominated microbial ecology, suggesting that microbial dispersal is unlimited and community assembly mechanisms are primarily deterministic. However, certain fungi vary with respect to traits that could impact their long-distance dispersal capabilities. Coupling knowledge of traits with physical laws that govern movement could provide a powerful framework to predict dispersal, a key component of biogeography. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi form no aboveground structures, and reproduce via asexual spores with substantially varying traits (e.g. size, surface ornamentation) that are likely to impact long-distance dispersal. The mechanisms and extent of AM fungal dispersal are poorly understood, yet, to manage AM fungal communities for improved symbiotic functioning, taxon-specific information regarding dispersal capabilities is required. This study combines trait-based ecology, macroecology, and physical laws to study aerial dispersal of AM fungi through the following research objectives: 1. Create an AM fungal trait database to examine conservatism among phylogenetic groups in all spore traits that potentially facilitate aerial dispersal, 2. Examine community structure and spore traits of aerial AM fungi at NEON sites and Chicago urban sites to identify eco-climatic properties that predict aerial dispersal, and 3. Compare the observed terminal velocity to that predicted by Stokes's Law for movement of a smooth sphere for AM fungal spores with different morphological traits. This CAREER award will illuminate the thus far speculative role of dispersal in driving continent-scale patterns in microbial biogeography.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.