Dimensions US-China: Collaborative Research: How historical constraints, local adaptation, and species interactions shape biodiversity across an ancient floristic disjunction

生物多样性是多维的，由物种内部和物种之间的遗传、表型、生态和地理变异组成。了解地球生物多样性的来源和模式将有助于我们更好地了解地球的生态系统，并制定保护它们的新策略。在森林中，植物与土壤细菌和真菌一起生长，但人们对森林内部和森林之间这些联系如何变化，以及这些相互作用如何维持或产生生物多样性知之甚少。东亚和北美东部的森林在古代是相连的，有着共同的进化和生态历史；因此，它们提供了一个独特的机会来研究跨越地理空间和进化时间的生物多样性驱动因素。佛罗里达大学、北卡罗来纳州立大学、芝加哥大学的研究人员以及中国科学院和浙江大学的同事合作开展了这个项目，研究植物、真菌和土壤细菌之间的联系如何通过空间和时间塑造生物多样性。研究团队为本科生、研究生和博士后研究人员制定了广泛的教育和培训计划，包括实地和实验室组成部分。培训还将包括一门面向中美参与者的网络课程，这将促进国际科学合作。这项研究还将为改进全球气候变化模型提供有价值的信息，为国家和国际气候和能源政策提供信息。这个多学科项目整合了系统基因组学、生物地理学、植物和微生物进化和生态学，以解决关于生物多样性起源和维持的新问题。研究小组将使用下一代DNA测序方法重建系统发育，为改进年代测定和生物地理分析提供一个强大的框架。通过对北美东部6个森林样地和中国4个森林样地的系统发育比较分析，评价了大陆内部和大陆之间系统发育多样性的空间格局。探索真菌和土壤细菌的分类和功能多样性将对它们的生物多样性和与植物的相互作用产生新的认识。从植物功能性状分析和遥感冠层特性推断出的生态系统功能将在所有站点计算，并与真菌和土壤细菌功能分析联系起来。系统发育和比较方法的创新应用将导致植物、土壤细菌和真菌在群落和区域尺度上的系统发育和功能多样性的新发现。历史联系、当前模式和未来物种分布模型的整合将导致对生物多样性驱动因素的更全面的看法，并将使未来的假设驱动研究成为可能。

Biodiversity is multidimensional, composed of genetic, phenotypic, ecological, and geographic variation within and among species. Understanding the sources and patterns of Earth's biodiversity will lead to a better understanding of our planet's ecosystems and new strategies on how to conserve them. Within forests, plants grow in association with soil bacteria and fungi, but little is known about how these associations vary within and among forests, or how these interactions maintain or generate biodiversity. The forests of eastern Asia and eastern North America were anciently connected and have a shared evolutionary and ecological history; they therefore offer a unique opportunity to study the drivers of biodiversity across geographical space and through evolutionary time. This collaborative project among researchers at the University of Florida, North Carolina State University, Chicago University and colleagues at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Zhejiang University investigates how the associations among plant, fungal and soil bacteria shape biodiversity through space and time. The research team has developed an extensive education and training program for undergraduates, graduate students and post-doctoral researchers comprising both field and lab components. Training will also include a cyber-enabled course for Chinese and US participants that will promote international scientific collaborations. This research will also contribute valuable information to improve global climate change models that inform national and international climate and energy policies.This multidisciplinary project integrates phylogenomics, biogeography, and plant and microbial evolution and ecology to address novel questions on the origins and maintenance of biodiversity. The research team will reconstruct phylogenies using next-generation DNA sequencing methods to provide a robust framework for improved dating and biogeographic analyses. Comparative community phylogenetic analyses at six forest sites in eastern North America and four sites in China will evaluate spatial patterns of phylogenetic diversity within and between continents. Exploration of fungal and soil bacteria taxic and functional diversity will yield new understanding of their biodiversity and interactions with plants. Ecosystem function, inferred from analysis of plant functional traits and remotely sensed canopy properties, will be computed at all sites and linked to analyses of fungal and soil bacteria function. Innovative applications of phylogenetic and comparative methodologies will lead to new discoveries in phylogenetic and functional diversity of plants, soil bacteria and fungi at community and regional scales. Integration of historical connections, current patterns, and future species distribution models will lead to more holistic views of the drivers of biodiversity and will enable future hypothesis-driven research.