Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biosciences Related to the Environment for FY 1998

Michelle C. Mack本行动为1998年NSF与环境相关的生物科学博士后研究奖学金提供资金。该奖学金为研究员提供了一个获得博士学位之外的额外科学培训的机会，并在美国国家科学基金会生物科学理事会支持的任何生物学领域中，在分子、细胞、有机体、种群、群落和/或生态系统层面上，对生物与其环境之间相互作用的基本机制进行创新和富有想象力的研究。每个奖学金支持在赞助实验室进行的研究和培训计划。这项研究金的研究和培训计划题为“苔藓对北方森林分解的热和化学控制的影响”。大多数将植物功能群与生态系统过程联系起来的研究都集中在直接影响上，如凋落物质量对分解或氮矿化率的影响。植物功能群还可以通过对小气候的影响间接影响生态系统过程。植物物种对土壤温度的影响可能在包含全球陆地碳储量很大一部分的高纬度系统中特别重要，在那里，地下生态系统过程，如分解和营养动态往往受到温度限制。在北方森林中，苔藓可以覆盖森林地面的100%。本研究假设，在北方森林生态系统中，苔藓具有很强的热调节作用，对生态系统的碳储量起主导作用。研究的目的是量化苔藓对生态系统能量通量的重要特性；区分苔藓对分解的热效应和化学效应，以及与养分循环和碳储存的联系效应；并使用模型来测试苔藓在干扰和气候变化后生态系统变化中的作用。

Abstract DBI-9804198 Michelle C. Mack This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biosciences Related to the Environment for 1998. This fellowship provides an opportunity for the Fellow to gain additional scientific training beyond the doctoral degree and to pursue innovative and imaginative research into the fundamental mechanisms underlying the interactions between organisms and their environment at the molecular, cellular, organismal, population, community and/or ecosystem level in any area of biology supported by the Directorate for Biological Sciences of the National Science Foundation. Each fellowship supports a research and training plan to be carried out in a sponsoring laboratory. The research and training plan for this fellowship is entitled effects of mosses on thermal and chemical controls of decomposition in the boreal forest. Most studies that relate plant functional groups to ecosystem processes focus on direct effects, such as the effects of litter quality on decomposition or nitrogen mineralization rates. Plant functional groups can also affect ecosystem processes indirectly through effects on microclimate. Effects of plant species on soil temperature may be particularly important in the high latitude systems that contain a large portion of global terrestrial carbon stores, where below-ground ecosystem processes such as decomposition and nutrient dynamics are often temperature-limited. In boreal forests, mosses can comprise up to 100% cover of the forest floor. This research hypothesizes that mosses are strong thermal regulators in boreal forest ecosystems and thus exert dominating control over ecosystem carbon storage. The goals of the research are to quantify important moss traits for ecosystem energy fluxes; differentiate between moss thermal and chemical effects on decomposition, and link effects to nutrient cycling and carbon storage; and use models to test the role of mosses in ecosystem change following distu rbance and climatic change.