Renovation of Research Greenhouses at UC Santa Barbara for Ecological, Evolutionary and Developmental Studies

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。该项目将取代UCSB校园内的一组温室海湾。 目前的温室有四个海湾，是旧的和破旧的，并计划拆除。 该大学打算用一个新的温室综合体取代现有的设施，该综合体位于旧设施附近。 这将有三个组成部分：（1）一个三间温室的板条房子，是要拆除的网站，（2）一个小温室将保持高山条件，（？）阿尔卑斯山的房子？），在目前开放的场地上新建一个温室，以及（3）在目前拥有两座将被拆除的小型建筑物的场地上建造第二个三间温室。 阿尔卑斯山的房子是为了模拟高山环境的温度，光线和湿度。 第一个组成部分已经作为一个单独的项目正在建设中。 目前的项目是建造第二和第三部分，并完成第一部分三个海湾中的两个海湾的内部，使它们能够运作。 现有的温室最终将被拆除。新的温室设施将实现全年可控的环境，并为现有温室无法提供的实验研究提供许多选择。它将有可能控制光照、浇水制度和温度，并确定它们对植物生长和繁殖的影响。 更换后的设施将能够排除（或包括）传粉者、害虫和食草动物，从而能够进行需要控制环境的生态、遗传和进化实验研究。 该设施将用于研究负责维持植物多样性的具体形态、生理和人口特征;确定适应极端环境和特定授粉者的遗传基础;测试物理环境的属性如何影响植物分布、生产力和物候;研究植物对干旱等多种逆境的识别和响应的遗传机制。 工作将包括开花时间，授粉，种子生产和发芽的关键事件的遗传和环境控制的研究。这些研究包括发现和分析花结构的形态和生物化学变化，这些变化推动了传粉者的专业化。除了为研究提供基础设施外，该设施还将用于本科生、研究生和博士后研究人员的研究培训。 可能产生社会影响的研究包括对入侵物种及其生物控制的研究，以及对影响种子质量和发芽的遗传机制的研究（这与减轻作物损失有关）。 该设施将用于推进新模型基因组系统的开发，该系统将提供给更广泛的研究界。 校园有一些活动，旨在促进代表性不足的群体，经济困难的学生和优秀的本科生的成员的招聘和财政支持。 这些课程的学生参与植物生物学研究，并将能够利用新温室的研究培训机会。 大学？的生物多样性和生态恢复中心为本科生提供实习机会，为当地公立学校的学生提供动手植物学活动。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This project is to replace a cluster of greenhouse bays on the UCSB campus. The current greenhouse has four bays, is old and decrepit, and is scheduled for demolition. The University intends to replace the existing facility with a new greenhouse complex located adjacent to the old. This will have three components: (1) a three-bay greenhouse on the site of a lath house that is to be demolished, (2) a small greenhouse what will maintain alpine conditions, (the ?Alpine House?), to be newly built on a currently open site, and (3) a second three-bay greenhouse to be built on a site that currently holds two small buildings that will be demolished. The alpine house is designed to simulate the temperature, light and humidity of high alpine environments. The first component is already under construction as a separate project. The current project is to construct the second and third components, and to finish the interior of two of the three bays in the first component to make them operational. The existing greenhouse will ultimately be demolished.The new greenhouse facility will enable year-round controlled environments and provide many options for experimental research that are unavailable with the current greenhouse. It will be possible to control light, watering regimes, and temperature, and to determine their impacts on plant growth and reproduction. The replacement facility will make it possible to exclude (or include) pollinators, pests and herbivores, and thus enable ecological, genetic and evolutionary experimental research that requires a controlled setting. The facility will be used for research on the specific morphological, physiological, and demographic traits responsible for the maintenance of plant diversity; the identification of the genetic basis for adaptations to extreme environments and specific pollinators; tests of how attributes of the physical environment influence plant distributions, productivity, and phenology; and research on the genetic mechanisms underlying plant recognition and responses to a variety of stresses such as drought. Work will include studies of the genetic and environmental controls of the critical events of flowering time, pollination, seed production, and germination. These studies include the discovery and analysis of the morphological and biochemical changes in floral structure that drive pollinator specialization.In addition to providing infrastructure for research, the facility will be used for research training of undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral associates. Research that is likely to have societal impacts includes research on invasive species and their biological control, and research into the genetic mechanisms affecting seed quality and germination (which is relevant to the mitigation of crop losses.) The facility will be used to advance the development of a new model genomic system that will be made available to the wider research community. The campus has a number of activities designed to facilitate the recruitment and financial support of members of underrepresented groups, economically disadvantaged students, and highly talented undergraduates. Students in these programs participate in plant biology research and will be able to take advantage of research training opportunities in the new greenhouses. The University?s Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration provides internship opportunities for undergraduates to provide hands-on botanical activities to students in local public schools.