BII-Design: Developing a Tree-Focused Biological Integration Institute

该奖项将使莫顿植物园能够设计一个生物整合研究所，该研究所将采用多学科方法来理解和预测整个树木对快速环境变化的反应，包括新兴气候、生物入侵和城市化，跨越组织（即从分子到生态系统）和时间尺度（即从瞬间到几代人）。树木在自然和人造环境中塑造陆地环境，创造森林和林地，并在全球水、碳、养分和能量循环中发挥重要作用。凭借其广阔的根系和广阔的叶冠，它们整合了地上和地下的条件，通过一个动态的生物系统将土壤和天空联系起来。树木对这些新出现的环境的反应——无论是城市的公园道路还是日益干燥的林地——也改变了它们生活的环境，并在性状、基因、行为、群落组成和进化枝上产生了生物创新。要理解这些复杂而偶然的系统，梳理自然与培育的问题，以及我们未来如何最好地管理树木，综合方法是必要的。在设计阶段，该项目将加强该机构目前的本科生研究和公共宣传活动，特别是关于在科学领域代表性不足的个人。树木作为一种生长形式，是综合生物学和生物对环境变化反应研究的重要模型系统。它们不仅支配着陆地生态系统，构成许多生态系统的基本生态和进化基础，而且具有许多引人注目的生物学特征，使它们成为环境变化的特别好的整合者。研究人员将设计一个以“树木如何应对和塑造新环境”为主题的生物整合研究所。他们将利用大型公共植物园的独特研究和培训资源，包括城市、管理、修复和残余生态系统。在设计阶段，树木科学中心的研究人员将与内部和外部专家合作：1)澄清一个核心的总体问题，确定现有项目的协同机会，并优先考虑新的跨学科合作研究团队和项目；2)为数据整合和协作制定管理计划和策略，允许跨学科的交流，包括设计一个基于NSF先前投资经验的综合数据库；3)如何利用植物园现有的树木科学综合培训和指导计划，为学生和早期职业科学家在一系列领域和机构的跨学科合作事业做好准备。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award will enable the Morton Arboretum to design a Biology Integration Institute that will take a multidisciplinary approach to understanding and predicting whole tree responses to rapid environmental changes, including emerging climates, biotic invasions, and urbanization, across organizational (i.e., from molecules to ecosystems) and temporal scales (i.e., from moments to generations). Trees shape terrestrial environments, both in natural and built environments, creating forests and woodlands and play a major role in global water, carbon, nutrient, and energy cycles. With their extensive root systems and expansive leaf canopies, they integrate above and below ground conditions, linking the soil and sky through a dynamic biotic system. Tree responses to these emerging novel environments - be it an urban parkway or an increasingly dry woodland - also alter the environment they live in and generate biological innovations in traits, genes, behavior, community composition, and clades. A synthetic approach is necessary to understand these complex and contingent systems and tease apart questions of nature versus nurture and how we might best manage trees in the future. During the Design phase, the project will enhance the current undergraduate research and public outreach activities of the institution, especially with regard to individuals who are underrepresented in the sciences. Trees, as a growth form, are a great model system for integrative biology and the study of biotic response to environmental change. Not only do they dominate terrestrial ecosystems and form the fundamental ecological and evolutionary basis for many ecosystems, they possess numerous compelling biological characteristics making them particularly good integrators of environmental change. The researchers will design a Biological Integration Institute focused on the theme of “how trees respond to and shape novel environments.” They will leverage the unique research and training resources of a large public botanic garden encompassing urban, managed, restored, and remnant ecosystems. In the Design phase, the researchers in the Center for Tree Science will work with internal and external experts to: 1) Clarify a core overarching question, identify opportunities for synergy in existing projects, and prioritize new cross-disciplinary collaborative research teams and projects; 2) Create a management plan and strategies for data integration and collaboration that allow for interdisciplinary cross-talk, including designing an integrative database that builds on lessons from prior NSF investments; and 3) how to leverage the Arboretum’s existing integrated training and mentorship program in tree science, which prepares students and early career scientists for interdisciplinary, collaborative careers across a range of fields and agencies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.