BII-Implementation: The causes and consequences of plant biodiversity across scales in a rapidly changing world

该生物综合研究所将利用遥感和光谱生物学的工具，开发测量单个植物和景观植被的新技术，以了解生物多样性变化的原因和后果。生物多样性丧失和气候变化是威胁人类生命维持系统及其应对重大挑战能力的重大全球危机。对于我们来说，将我们对生命多样性的知识从细胞到大陆汇集在一起，以更好地了解其变化对影响我们福祉的生物过程的原因和后果，这一点从未像现在这样重要。随着生物科学变得越来越分散，需要新的方法来整合不同规模的生物过程，以了解地球生命支持系统的基础。光谱生物学利用能量与物质相互作用的方式来揭示关于植物的化学、结构、功能和进化的大量信息。该项目利用现有的技术和平台，如国家生态观测网络(NEON)--以及那些甚至随着即将到来的卫星在全球范围内出现的技术和平台--使用相同的货币量化每个生物规模的生命构件：来自太阳的光子被植物反射。在这样做的同时，研究所将培训下一代多样化和综合性的生物学家，包括指导来自边缘群体的年轻科学家。它将通过市场科学单元、地球分钟视频、博物馆展览以及通过贝尔自然历史博物馆、雪松溪生态系统科学保护区(CCESR)和威斯康星州部落保护协会的公众参与和教育活动，重点参与美国原住民社区、K-12教师培训和公共宣传。该研究所将调查快速变化的世界中植物多样性的原因和后果，从细胞和组织中的基因和分子到社区、生态系统、景观和生物圈。该研究所专注于植物生物多样性，广义上定义为包括从最小到最大的生物规模的生命中的异质性。该研究所的一个前提是，生命被设想为在不同的尺度上发生，嵌套在几个不同的生物等级概念中，这些概念由独立但相关的生理学、进化生物学和生态学领域定义。该研究所将着重使用光谱生物学和面向过程的预测模型，通过五个主题来研究生物成分在一个尺度上产生更高尺度上的新特性的方式：主题1.由转录、代谢和形态变异联系在一起的叶和整个植物尺度上性状变异的遗传和环境(即GxE)驱动因素；主题2.进化如何产生生命树上的功能和光谱变异及其对生物多样性检测的效用；专题3.在生命树上取样的功能和光谱上不同的分类群如何在当地相互作用，导致在当前和未来环境条件下在多个空间尺度上的群落聚集和动态；专题4.生物多样性对生态系统功能的影响及其对全球变化的反应；专题5.如何在各种空间尺度上改进组织到生态系统尺度属性的参数化，并改进纳入植物功能多样性的陆面模型。该研究所将以新的方式整合生物学，以前所未有的方式利用光谱生物学、实验、观测和合成建模的潜力，改变对生物尺度内和生物尺度之间的变化如何推动植物和生态系统对全球变化的反应的理解，这些变化跨越了日、季节和千禧年的时间尺度。在这样做的过程中，该研究所将使用和推进最先进的理论。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Biology Integration Institute will use the tools of remote sensing and spectral biology to develop new techniques for measuring individual plants and landscape vegetation so as to understand the causes and consequences of biodiversity change. Biodiversity loss and climate change are major global crises that threaten humanity’s life support systems and its ability to cope with major challenges. It has never been more important for us to bring together our knowledge of life’s diversity from cells to continents to better understand the causes and consequences of its change for the biological processes that impact our well-being. As the biological sciences have become increasingly fragmented, new ways to integrate biological processes across scales are needed to understand the basis of Earth's life support systems. Spectral biology takes advantage of the way that energy interacts with matter to reveal immense amounts of information about the chemistry, structure, function, and evolution of plants. The project harnesses the technology and platforms now available, such as the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)—and those emerging even at the global scale with forthcoming satellites—to quantify building blocks of life at every biological scale using the same currency: photons from the sun that are reflected by plants. While doing so, the Institute will train the next generation of diverse and integrative biologists, including the mentoring of young scientists from marginalized groups. It will focus on engaging Native American communities, K-12 teacher training, and public outreach through Market Science modules, Minute Earth videos, a museum exhibit and public engagement and educational activities through the Bell Museum of Natural History, the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve (CCESR), and the Wisconsin Tribal Conservation Association.The Institute will investigate the causes and consequences of plant biodiversity across scales in a rapidly changing world, from genes and molecules within cells and tissues to communities, ecosystems, landscapes and the biosphere. The Institute focuses on plant biodiversity, defined broadly to encompass the heterogeneity within life that occurs from the smallest to the largest biological scales. A premise of the Institute is that life is envisioned as occurring at different scales nested within several contrasting conceptions of biological hierarchies, defined by the separate but related fields of physiology, evolutionary biology, and ecology. The Institute will emphasize the use of spectral biology and process-oriented predictive models to investigate the ways that biological components at one scale give rise to emergent properties at higher scales by addressing five themes: Theme 1. The genetic and environmental (i.e., GxE) drivers of trait variation at the leaf and whole plant scale linked by transcriptomic, metabolic and morphological variation; Theme 2. How evolution generates the functional and spectral variation across the tree of life and its utility for biodiversity detection; Theme 3. How functionally and spectrally distinct taxa, sampled across the tree of life, interact locally, leading to the assembly and dynamics of communities at multiple spatial scales, under current and future environmental conditions; Theme 4. The consequences of biodiversity for ecosystem functioning and its response to global change; Theme 5. How to improve parameterization of tissue- to ecosystem-scale properties at various spatial scales and advance land surface models that incorporate plant functional diversity. The Institute will integrate biology in new ways by harnessing the potential of spectral biology, experiments, observations, and synthetic modeling in a manner never before possible to transform understanding of how variation within and among biological scales drives plant and ecosystem responses to global change over diurnal, seasonal, and millennial time scales. In doing so, the institute will use and advance state-of-the-art theory.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.