Reducing Uncertainty in Heterotrophic Respiration: Linking Continental Experiments, Analytical Modeling, and Shared Data Sets

确定陆地碳平衡（一个景观获得或失去多少碳）需要正确估计输入和输出之间的差异。然而，对产出方的科学认识相对薄弱；特别是，对所谓的异养呼吸（RH），即微生物从土壤和腐烂的有机物质中呼吸的碳的有限理解，限制了我们的预测能力。这引发了一个令人不安的问题，这个问题是这个探索性项目的焦点和潜在的知识价值：如果潜在的科学理解不平衡，大陆尺度的碳能平衡吗？为了解决这一问题，提供了资金，以举办关于理解、限制和预测大规模RH碳通量的社区评估，汇集了具有广泛专业、国籍和专业知识的科学家。本次研讨会将受益于并利用碳循环科学的一些趋同趋势：创新的新的大陆规模实验；将个体测量与大陆至全球尺度分析联系起来的分析方法的复杂性；越来越多地使用工具来协作、记录和分析共享数据集。为了最大限度地发挥本次研讨会的影响力，获奖者将在线直播会议过程；发布所有演示文稿；撰写白皮书，概述了解大陆尺度RH的主要限制，并提供可能的解决方案；撰写针对研讨会主题的稿件，重点关注对大规模科学的影响；在国家会议上举行后续会议；并鼓励参与者将此作为推进宏观系统生物学基础科学研究的跳板。

Determining the terrestrial carbon balance (how much carbon a landscape is gaining or losing) requires correctly estimating the difference between inputs and outputs. Scientific knowledge of the output side is relatively weak, however; in particular, the limited understanding of what is termed heterotrophic respiration (RH), the carbon respired by microbes from soil and decaying organic material, limits our predictive ability. This raises an unsettling question, one that is the focus, and underlying intellectual merit, of this exploratory project: can continental-scale carbon be balanced if the underlying science understanding is unbalanced? To address this problem, funds are provided to host a community assessment on understanding, constraining, and predicting large-scale RH carbon fluxes, bringing together scientists with a wide range of specialties, nationalities, and expertise. This workshop will benefit from, and take advantage of, a number of converging trends in carbon cycle science: innovative new continental-scale experiments; the sophistication of analytical methods linking individual measurements with continental- to global-scale analyses; and the increasing use of tools to collaborate, document, and analyze shared data sets. To maximize the impact of this workshop, the Awardee will live-stream the proceedings online; post all presentations; write a white paper that outlines the major limitations to understanding continental-scale RH, and offers possible solutions; develop manuscript(s) that address workshop topics, focusing on implications for large-scale science; hold follow-up sessions at national meetings; and encourage participants to use this as a springboard in advancing fundamental scientific research in Macrosystems Biology.