Workshop: Exploring Science Needs for Predicting Organismal Responses to Rapid Directional Environmental Change

探索科学需要预测组织对快速定向环境变化的反应。2008年秋季将举办一次讲习班，以确定在预测有机体及其所属社区和生态系统对快速环境变化的反应方面最紧迫的问题和挑战。人类活动驱动的气候和环境变化目前发生得如此之快，以至于对于大多数高等生物来说，新的适应突变无法在相关的时间尺度上做出反应，使得这些生物依赖现有的遗传多样性来支持适应。与会者被选为在计算模拟和预测建模的总体框架内，代表从分子到生态系统的生物组织的多个层次的不同生物体类型的专门知识。研讨会的中心目标是提高对与快速气候和环境变化相关的研究需求的认识，确定关键的合作研究需求，确定协同作用联系，并制定研究路线图，以帮助联邦资助机构在快速变化的全球环境中确定其研究优先事项。这次研讨会将为不同的参与者提供一个机会，帮助启动新的研究并确定优先顺序，这些研究将促进对综合有机体系统对快速定向环境变化的反应的理解。研讨会的影响体现在它的三个主要目标上：1.确定预测生物对快速环境变化的反应的关键研究需求。确定适当的目标组织系统、实验途径和方法，以及最有希望取得有效进展的综合活动，并确定优先顺序。3.确定关键的模型输入和模型改进，以预测生物体的反应将如何在生态系统和地球范围内引起变化。除了关注环境问题和对生物系统的影响外，讲习班还有更广泛的影响；这一重点与社会问题有关，来自不同背景和具有广泛专业知识的科学家将参与和互动。

Donald R. OrtIOS-0840138Exploring Science Needs for Predicting Organismal Responses to Rapid Directional Environmental Change. A workshop will be convened in the Fall of 2008 to identify the most pressing problems and challenges in predicting the response of organisms, and the communities and ecosystems to which they belong, to rapid environmental change. Anthropogenically driven climate and environmental change is currently occurring so rapidly that for most higher organisms new adaptive mutations are powerless to respond on a relevant time scale leaving these organisms reliant on existing genetic diversity to support adaptation. Participants have been selected to represent expertise on different organism types across multiple levels of biological organization from molecular to ecosystem within an overarching framework of computational simulations and predictive modeling. The central goals of the workshop are to increase the awareness of research needs related to rapid climate and environmental change, identify critical collaborative research needs, identify synergistic links, and develop a roadmap for research that may assist federal funding agencies in setting their research priorities in the context of the rapidly changing global environment. This workshop will provide an opportunity for a diverse group of participants to help initiate and prioritize new research that would advance understanding of the responses of integrative organismal systems to rapid directional environmental change. The impact of the workshop is found in its three primary objectives:1. Identify critical research needs for predicting organismal responses to rapid environmental change.2. Identify and prioritize appropriate target organismal systems, experimental approaches and methods, and integrative activities with greatest promise for efficient progress. 3. Identify critical model inputs and model enhancements that will be required to predict how organismal responses will cause changes at the ecosystem and planet scale. The Broader Impacts of the workshop, beyond the focus on an environmental issue and impact on biological systems; this focus has relevance to societal issues, are that scientists from diverse backgrounds and with a broad range of expertise will participate and interact.