Dissertation Research: Do Venation Networks Match Plant Form, Function, and Evolution to Climate?

该论文改进补助金将提供资金，以发展植物形态，功能和气候之间的定量联系。叶片脉序与年平均温度、大气CO2浓度和干旱度等气候变量密切相关。气候是植物形态和功能的关键决定因素，但这些因素之间仍然缺乏强有力的机械联系。确定这一机制将有助于提高单个植物测量对气候变化的影响，并缩小气候模型对当地生态系统的影响。将制定一个量化模型并将其参数化。该模型将测试社区加权叶序测量收集沿着两个海拔梯度，一个在哥斯达黎加和一个在科罗拉多。初步结果表明，矿脉密度与生长季平均温度之间存在很强的相关性，沿着这些梯度。模型和分析将阐明预测气候变化如何影响生命系统的机制基础。分析将扩大应用这些定量方法的脉序模式在化石叶从良好的描述古社区。从历史上看，化石叶的叶缘已被用来将形态与过去的气候联系起来。研究结果表明，与叶缘相比，脉序是一种更为准确的古气候重建机制。提出了一种创新的方法，以更广泛的影响，通过使用众包的方法来分析叶片脉序。 一个门户网站，使公民科学参与数据分析，并将为教师提供课程计划，将气候和树叶纳入课堂。这些课程将通过与迈尔斯探索性学习中心（图森）的合作伙伴关系进行开发和测试，并通过与亚利桑那大学科学学院K-12外展计划的现有关系传播给数百名教师。

This Dissertation Improvement Grant award will provide funds to develop quantitative linkages between plant form, function and climate. Leaf venation is highly correlated with key climate variables, such as mean annual temperature, atmospheric CO2 and aridity. Climate is a key determinant of plant form and function, but a strong mechanistic linkage between these factors remains lacking. Identifying this mechanism will improve scaling-up of individual plant measurements to climate variation, and scaling-down of climate models to their impact on local ecosystems. A quantitative model will be developed and parameterized. The model will be tested on community weighted leaf venation measurements gathered along two elevational gradients, one in Costa Rica and one in Colorado. Preliminary results suggest strong correlations between vein density and growing season mean temperature along these gradients. The model and analyses will elucidate a mechanistic basis for predicting how variation in climate affects living systems. The analysis will be expanded by applying these quantitative methods to venation patterns in fossil leaves from well-described paleo-communities. Historically, leaf margins from fossil leaves have been used to link morphology to past climate. The research proposes to substantiate that leaf venation provides an accurate mechanism to reconstruct paleo-climate than leaf margins. An innovative approach to broader impacts is proposed by using crowd sourcing approaches to analyze leaf venation. A web portal to enable citizen-science participation in data analysis, and will provide lesson plans for teachers to integrate climate and leaves into their classrooms. These lessons will be developed and tested through a partnership with Miles Exploratory Learning Center (Tucson) and disseminated to hundreds of teachers through an existing relationship with the University of Arizona's College of Science K-12 outreach programs.