Causes of plant functional trait variability under environmental change and consequences for biogeochemical processes

目标 将森林变成农田，对地球上的生物和非生物系统造成了前所未有的破坏。最大的影响是全球氮(N)和碳(C)循环的普遍变化。随着森林被农田取代，生态系统中支撑植物功能的特征的多样性正在急剧减少或改变，扰乱C和N的循环。这些功能特征是植物对环境条件的反应以及植物对生态系统过程的影响的生化、生理和形态特征。对特征变异的程度和原因进行研究，例如这里提出的计划，将提供对地球生态系统过程如何和为什么已经改变、正在改变和预计将改变的更深层次的理解。 我的长期研究目标是了解植物特性的变异如何影响管理和自然生态系统中的生物地球化学循环。这是通过一个综合了三个研究主题的计划来实现的：(1)树木和森林生态系统过程中的功能特征；(2)作物和农业生态系统过程中的功能特征；以及(3)通过土地利用变化在植物功能特征多样性方面的全球变化。这一动态计划依赖于野外、实验室和开放获取数据研究的强大组合，跨越了一系列陆地生态系统，并使用了多种尖端科学技术、仪器和数据库。 影响 为了达到我的短期目标，这项研究将通过揭示对树木和主要粮食作物性状变异的程度和原因的更丰富的理解，并应用这种理解来解释和预测正在进行的和未来的生态系统过程，从而显著推动全球变化科学。这项研究将对从事全球变化生物学、森林和农业生态学、植物生态生理学和生物地球化学的科学家影响最大。通过提供世界上许多最常见的农作物和树木的高质量特征数据，以及对生态系统功能关系的分析，这项研究也将对应用生态系统生物地球化学建模、粮食安全预测和政策以及土地利用规划和管理具有重要意义。 预期结果 我预计这个项目将培训7名研究生水平的科学家，他们将领导10多篇论文和科学报告。该计划不仅将大大加强我们对以下问题的理解：(1)如何将加拿大森林用于减缓气候变化的战略，而且(2)对加拿大农业用地的生产和可持续性进行长期预测，以及(3)对加拿大生态系统中的植物多样性和生态系统过程在未来可能发生的变化进行预测。至关重要的是，这些贡献将带来实实在在的政策好处，包括加拿大如何才能切实履行2016年《巴黎协定》对减缓气候变化的承诺。

Objectives Turning forests into agricultural lands has caused unprecedented disruptions to Earth's living and non-living systems. The greatest impacts are pervasive changes to global nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) cycles. As forests are replaced by croplands, the diversity of traits that underpin how plants function within ecosystems are being drastically reduced or altered, disrupting the cycling of C and N. These functional traits are the biochemical, physiological, and morphological characteristics of plants that govern both plant responses to environmental conditions, and plant impacts on ecosystem processes. Research on the extent and causes of trait variabilitysuch as the program proposed herewould provide a deeper understanding of how and why Earth's ecosystem processes have changed, are changing, and are predicted to change. My long-term research aim is to understand how variation in plant traits influences biogeochemical cycles in managed and natural ecosystems. This achievable through a program that integrates three research themes focused on (1) functional traits in trees and forest ecosystem processes; (2) functional traits in crops and agroecosystem processes; and (3) global shifts in plant functional trait diversity through land-use change. This dynamic program relies on a powerful combination of field, lab, and open access data research, spans a range of terrestrial ecosystems, and uses multiple cutting-edge scientific techniques, instrumentation, and databases. Impact In reaching my short-term goals, this research will significantly advance global change science by revealing a richer understanding of the extent and causes of trait variation in trees and staple food crops, and then applying this understanding to explain and predict ongoing and future ecosystem processes. This research will most affect scientists working at the intersection of global change biology, forest and agroecology, plant ecophysiology, and biogeochemistry. By providing high-quality trait data for many of the world's most common crops and trees, and analyses on traitecosystem function relationships, this research will also be important for applied ecosystem biogeochemical modelling, food security forecasting and policy, and land--use planning and management. Expected Outcomes I anticipate this program to train 7 graduate-level scientists, who will lead over 10 papers and scientific presentations. This program will substantially strengthen not only our understanding of (1) how Canada's forests may be used in strategies to mitigate climate change, but also for making (2) long-term predictions of the production and sustainability of Canada's agricultural lands, and (3) projections of how plant diversity and ecosystem processes in Canada's ecosystems are likely to change in the future. Crucially, these contributions will have tangible policy benefits, including how Canada could viably meet its 2016 Paris Agreement commitments to mitigating climate change.