CAREER: Quantifying how and when global change alters the role of biodiversity in ecosystem functioning

职业：量化全球变化如何以及何时改变生物多样性在生态系统功能中的作用

• 批准号: 2340606
• 负责人: Laura Dee
• 金额: $ 97.7万
• 依托单位: University of Colorado at Boulder
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-03-15 至 2029-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2340606&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Quantifying; how; when; global

Humans are driving global environmental change that is altering biodiversity with the potential to transform the ecosystem functions that support human well-being. To address the grand challenges of global environmental change, scientists and practitioners need a causal understanding – or robust evidence of cause-and-effect relationships – of how and when global change impacts ecosystems. In response, this CAREER proposal will develop an integrated research and education platform to transform understanding of global change impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning and to train the next generation of global change scientists. To facilitate these advances, the project will study how chronic drought impacts biodiversity and ecosystem functioning of grassland ecosystems in the southwest/central US because of their importance to the global carbon cycle and current projections of intensifying drought in this region. Then, the research will broaden insights to other ecosystems (e.g., to study warming impacts on alpine tundra), through cultivating inclusive, collaborative teams to tackle focal research questions with NSF Long Term Ecological Research and NEON data. This research’s broader impacts focus on training the next generation of scientists to enhance their methodological toolbox and ability to lead inclusive teams that promote diverse perspectives. To achieve these goals, the researcher will lead a distributed graduate seminar with training in inclusive team science; create innovative, open-source course modules on data science; and catalyze professional development for K12 teachers.This CAREER proposal seeks to transform the methods used to acquire causal understanding and to generate new causal understanding about the mechanisms through which drought and warming will alter biodiversity and, in turn, ecosystem functioning. This project proposes a novel integration of existing NSF data, new experimental tests, and recent, multidisciplinary advances in causal inference techniques that are currently underutilized in ecology. This convergent approach will generate quantitative estimates of: (1) why and how biodiversity change dampens or amplifies the impacts of drought on ecosystem productivity, and whether the mechanisms through which biodiversity affects productivity (2) differ for soil functions and (3) vary with a site’s climate history and plant functional traits. Through a distributed graduate seminar, the project will include teams of graduate students to synthesize (4) how these direct and indirect effects of global change vary across drivers (e.g., warming, nitrogen pollution) and ecosystems. This integrated approach will deliver insights on the mechanisms through which global change alters the effect of biodiversity on productivity and generate broader advances in the causal inference in ecology. To deliver broader impacts, the researcher will lead a distributed graduate seminar that provides a vehicle to advance the use of best practices for inclusive team science and work with pedagogy experts and graduate students to create and evaluate data science modules. To extend benefits to K12 classrooms and low-income communities in Colorado, the project will work with CU Boulder’s Science Discovery’s Teacher Professional development program to collaborate with teachers to integrate concepts of global change and data literacy into their classes, potentially reaching thousands of students.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.

人类正在推动全球环境变化，这正在改变生物多样性，并有可能改变支持人类福祉的生态系统功能。为了应对全球环境变化的巨大挑战，科学家和实践者需要对全球变化如何以及何时影响生态系统有一个因果关系的理解--或因果关系的有力证据。作为回应，该CAREER提案将开发一个综合研究和教育平台，以改变对全球变化对生物多样性和生态系统功能影响的理解，并培养下一代全球变化科学家。为了促进这些进展，该项目将研究长期干旱如何影响美国西南部/中部草原生态系统的生物多样性和生态系统功能，因为它们对全球碳循环的重要性以及该地区干旱加剧的当前预测。然后，这项研究将拓宽对其他生态系统的认识（例如，研究气候变暖对高山苔原的影响），通过培养包容性的合作团队，利用NSF长期生态研究和氖数据解决重点研究问题。这项研究的更广泛的影响集中在培训下一代科学家，以加强他们的方法工具箱和能力，领导包容性的团队，促进不同的观点。为了实现这些目标，研究人员将领导一个分布式的研究生研讨会，培训包容性的团队科学;创建创新的开源数据科学课程模块;并促进K12教师的专业发展。这项职业建议旨在改变用于获得因果理解的方法，并对干旱和变暖将改变生物多样性的机制产生新的因果理解，反过来，生态系统的功能。该项目提出了一种新的整合现有的NSF数据，新的实验测试，以及最近的，多学科的因果推理技术，目前在生态学中未充分利用的进展。这种趋同的方法将产生以下方面的定量估计：（1）生物多样性变化为什么以及如何抑制或放大干旱对生态系统生产力的影响，以及生物多样性影响生产力的机制是否因土壤功能而异，以及（3）是否因地点的气候历史和植物功能特征而异。通过分布式研究生研讨会，该项目将包括研究生团队，以综合（4）全球变化的这些直接和间接影响如何在驱动因素之间变化（例如，气候变暖、氮污染）和生态系统。这一综合方法将深入了解全球变化改变生物多样性对生产力的影响的机制，并在生态学因果推理方面取得更广泛的进展。为了产生更广泛的影响，研究人员将领导一个分布式的研究生研讨会，为推进包容性团队科学的最佳实践的使用提供一个工具，并与教育学专家和研究生合作，创建和评估数据科学模块。为了将利益扩展到科罗拉多的K12教室和低收入社区，该项目将与CU Boulder的科学发现教师专业发展计划合作，与教师合作，将全球变化和数据素养的概念融入他们的课堂，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识产权进行评估来支持。优点和更广泛的影响审查标准。