Microbial facilitation at the leading edge of plant species distributional shifts

在高海拔山区环境中，许多高山植物物种的范围受到生长季节短和寒冷的限制。超过这些限制，维管束植物不会存活，但微生物生命会蓬勃发展。较温暖的春季气温和较早的融雪可能会使高山植物物种扩展到这些没有植被的地区。这项研究将研究一些植物物种是否将受益于土壤微生物，因为它们扩大了自己的分布，以应对气候变化。将研究植物与高海拔土壤微生物的相互作用，以测试微生物是否提高植物抵御寒冷、干旱和低营养胁迫的能力。这项研究将在了解气候变化对生物多样性的影响和物种分布对景观的变化的背景下推动生态科学的发展。该项目还将通过课程开发为中学教育做出贡献。该项目将调查植物与土壤微生物之间的一种关键生物相互作用对植物物种跟踪气候变化的能力的影响，并扩大它们在高山系统中的活动范围。最近的方法学进展将被用来开发实验，以量化植物-微生物关联的基础机制，并将结果纳入栖息地分布模型。这项研究包括：(1)植物和土壤微生物(细菌和真菌)在植物分布上缘的空间显式网格中的分布模式的观测工作，(2)通过接种实验控制植物与微生物的相互作用，结合双RNA转录组分析基因表达，以描述植物与微生物之间的相互作用；(3)生长季节长度和植物与微生物联合的田间操作，以量化微生物促进进入以前的无植物区域的影响。与落基山国家公园的合作将使该项目能够收集与管理问题相关的数据并参与外联计划，并将使用基于网络的互动工具Science LIVE来开发高中课程模块。

In high-elevation mountain environments, the ranges of many alpine plant species are limited by a short and cold growing season. Beyond these limits no vascular plants survive, but microbial life thrives. Warmer spring temperatures and earlier snowmelt could allow alpine plant species to expand into these unvegetated areas. This research will examine whether some plant species will benefit from soil microbes as they expand their distribution in response to climate change. The interactions of plants with the high elevation soil microbes will be examined to test whether microbes increase the ability of plants to withstand cold, drought, and low-nutrient stress. The research will advance ecological science in the context of understanding the impacts of climate change on biodiversity and changes in species distribution on the landscape. The project also will contribute to secondary school education through curriculum development.This project will investigate the influence of a key biotic interaction, between plants and soil microbes, on the ability of plant species to track climate change and expand their range uphill in high montane systems. Recent methodological advances will be used to develop experiments to quantify mechanisms that underlie plant-microbial associations and to include results in habitat distribution models. The research includes (1) observational work on distributional patterns of both plants and soil microbes (bacteria and fungi) in a spatially-explicit grid at the upper edge of plant distributions into unvegetated sub-nival areas, (2) manipulations of plant-microbial interactions via inoculation experiments combined with dual-RNA transcriptomics to assay gene expression to describe interactions among plant and microbes and (3) field manipulations of growing season length and plant-microbe associations to quantify the effects of microbial facilitation into previously plant-free zones. Partnership with Rocky Mountain National Park will enable the project to collect data relevant to management concerns and participate in outreach programs, and Science LIVE, an interactive web-based tool, will be used to develop high school curriculum modules.