CAREER: Regional control of local functions: Dispersal and the biodiversity-ecosystem function relationship

生物多样性有可能维持健康的生态系统。多种物种共同努力，以循环养分，为水和土壤解毒，并保持水的可用性。如果我们想要维持健康的生态系统，了解物种如何对这些功能做出贡献是很重要的。虽然扩散是物种如何在自然界中生存的一个重要因素，但扩散过程如何影响生态系统尚不清楚。植物、动物和微生物可以在景观中移动，并在现有和新的栖息地定居。这个项目调查殖民如何影响生物多样性和功能。具体地说，这项研究的重点是捕食昆虫但依赖微生物群落获取营养的肉食性植物。这些植物如何在接受不同的微生物克隆的情况下保持这种消化功能？首先，研究人员将确定美国西海岸和东海岸这种植物微生物的差异。然后，他们将通过实验来确定微生物为植物循环营养的能力是否取决于扩散和定居。这项研究的结果将告诉我们如何在考虑扩散的同时管理生物多样性和功能。这些发现可能通过告知如何维持对地球上生命至关重要的生态系统功能而产生重大的社会影响。此外，这项工作将促进我们对微生物组及其在人类健康和农业中的作用的理解。该项目将支持对西班牙裔服务机构的学生进行培训，这些学生将获得与生态学和生物技术职业相关的方法技能。生物多样性-生态系统功能关系的形成仍然是生态学中一个挥之不去的问题。因此，预测生态系统将如何应对环境变化和栖息地丧失，以及我们应该如何管理生物多样性以优化功能，仍然是具有挑战性的。该提案将调查殖民者功能多样性的原因及其对生态系统功能的影响。传统上被忽视的殖民者的数量和类型可能是理解因扩散而相互联系的群落的生态系统功能率变化的关键。殖民可以贡献一个地点不存在的功能物种，也可以贡献消耗资源并阻碍群落功能的非功能物种。具体地说，它将探索环境因素如何在殖民者池中产生功能多样性，以及这些殖民者池是否在(1)群落之间的距离、(2)扩散速率和(3)生境过滤器对多样性-生态系统功能关系的影响中起中介作用。该项目将侧重于与肉食性猪笼草Darlingtonia calfornica和Sarracenia Purpurea相关的微生物群落的降解功能。这些自然微观世界在其地理范围内具有明显的殖民者群体，并具有易于驯服的退化功能。该项目将结合实地采样和微观世界实验来调查猪笼草内的微生物群落。微生物群落及其功能将使用扩增子测序、元基因组学和降解分析进行概述。具体地说，这项研究将确定殖民者池和栖息地过滤器在推动生态系统功能方面的作用。此外，这一职业计划还包括教育努力，例如(1)在两门本科课程中开展探究性活动，(2)在研究实验室培养和评估学生明确的指导计划，以及(3)建立生物科学生物信息学小组。总体而言，这里描述的工作将使人们更好地了解扩散在社区功能中的作用，并有助于培训不同的下一代科学家，专门从事生态学、分子生物学和生物信息学。该奖项反映了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。

Biological diversity has the potential to maintain healthy ecosystems. Multiple species work together to recycle nutrients, detoxify water and soils, and maintain water availability. It is important to understand how species contribute to these functions if we want to maintain healthy ecosystems. While dispersal is an important element of how species live in nature, it is unclear how dispersal processes influence ecosystems. Plants, animals and microbes can move across the landscape and colonize existing and new habitats. This project investigates how colonization influences biological diversity and function. Specifically, this research focuses on carnivorous plants that capture insects yet depend on their microbial communities to access the nutrients. How do these plants maintain this digestive function despite receiving different microbial colonists? First, the researchers will determine differences in the plant’s microbes along the West and East coast of the US. Then, they will use experiments to establish whether the microbe’s ability to recycle nutrients for the plant depends on dispersal and colonization. Results from this research will inform how to manage biodiversity and function while considering dispersal. These findings may have major societal impacts by informing how to maintain ecosystem functions critical for life on planet Earth. Additionally, this work will advance our understanding of the microbiome and its role in human health and agriculture. This project will support training for students at a Hispanic Serving Institution who will gain skills in methods relevant for careers in ecology and biotechnology.The shape of the biodiversity-ecosystem function relationship remains a lingering question in ecology. As a result, it is still challenging to predict how the ecosystems will respond to environmental change and habitat loss, and how we should manage biodiversity to optimize functioning. This proposal will investigate the causes of colonist functional diversity and its consequences for ecosystem function. Traditionally overlooked, the number and type of colonists may hold the key to understanding variation in ecosystem function rates of communities interconnected by dispersal. Colonization can contribute functional species that were absent from a site or non-functional species that consume resources and impede community function. Specifically, it will explore how environmental factors generate functional diversity in colonist pools, and whether these colonist pools mediate the effect of (1) distance between communities, (2) dispersal rates and (3) habitat filters on diversity-ecosystem function relationships. This project will focus on the degradative function of microbial communities associated with the carnivorous pitcher plants Darlingtonia californica and Sarracenia purpurea. These natural microcosms have distinct colonist pools along their geographic ranges and tractable degradative functions. This project will use a combination of field sampling and microcosm experiments to investigate microbial communities within pitcher plants. The microbial communities and their functions will be profiled using amplicon sequencing, metagenomics and degradation assays. Specifically, this research will establish the role of colonist pools and habitat filters in driving ecosystem function. Additionally, this CAREER project includes educational efforts such as (1) developing inquiry-based activities in two undergraduate courses, (2) cultivating and evaluating explicit mentoring plans for students in research labs, and (3) founding a Biological Sciences Bioinformatics Group. Overall, the work described here will lead to a better understanding of the role of dispersal in community function and contribute to training of a diverse next-generation of scientists specializing in ecology, molecular biology and bioinformaticsThis 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.