SGER: Arabidopsis in Controlled Environments to Confront Experimentally Models of Emergent Ecosystem Therodynamics

9703908艾伦有一个新兴的生态系统热力学范式，改写了奥德姆的生态系统成熟度的几个原则，作为增加散热能力。更成熟的生态系统具有更复杂的结构和路径，可以将从温暖的行星表面到寒冷的外层空间的梯度消散。从整个生物群系到小型试验田的数据表明，更成熟和结构更复杂的系统具有较冷的上表面。非平衡系统理论表明，复杂的耗散系统的出现是突然的，代表着更高层次的出现。每一个更高的水平出现时，系统利用一些新的手段来抵抗被推高的温度梯度。这项探索性研究的小额资助将在受控条件下对拟南芥进行实验，以研究这些现象。 第一阶段将实现可复制的植被温度测量，区分不同的植被处理，如在不同的空气流动制度下生长的植物。在增加人工拟南芥植物结构复杂性的测试中，拟南芥允许这样的控制，即保持所有其他基因相同，但一个基因决定身高。“目标是一个协议，用于区分人工植被的温带。然后，第二阶段将寻找在植被发展的早期出现的冷却能力的步骤。能够预测耗散温度梯度的能力将告诉机械学家，分离是为了解释紧急冷却现象。这样的解释将使其他人从生理机制上升到景观，生态系统和地区的现象。它还应该验证迄今为止只在事后解释的紧急冷却现象。

9703908 Allen There is an emerging paradigm of ecosystem thermodynamics that recasts several of Odum's principles for ecosystem maturity as an increasing capacity for heat dissipation. More mature ecosystems have more elaborate structure and pathways, which dissipate the gradient from the warm planet surface to cold outer space. Data from whole biomes to small experimental plots suggest that more mature and structurally elaborate systems have a cooler upper surface. The theory of non-equilibrium systems suggests that the emergence of complex, dissipative systems is sudden and represents the emergence of higher hierarchical levels. Each higher level appears as the system avails itself of some new means of resisting being pushed up the temperature gradient. This Small Grant for Exploratory Research will experiment with Arabidopsis to investigate these phenomena under controlled conditions. The first phase will achieve replicable measurements of vegetation temperature that distinguish different vegetation treatments, such as plants grown in different air movement regimes. Arabidopsis allows such control as keeping all else equal but a single gene for stature in tests of increasing structural complexity of contrived Arabidopsis "vegetation." The goal is a protocol for distinguishing the temperate of contrived vegetation. Then the second phase will look for the emergence of the steps in cooling capacity earlier in the development of vegetation. Being able to predict in the ability to dissipate the temperature gradient will tell mechanists disjunctions were to look to explain emergent cooling phenomena. Such explanations will allow others to move up scale from physiological mechanism to phenomena of landscapes, ecosystems, and regions. It should also validate phenomena of emergent cooling that have been explained only post hoc heretofore.