Collaborative Research: MRA: Elucidating Plant and Mycorrhizal Fungal Relationships and Consequences across Space and Time

许多植物依靠地下真菌来帮助它们获得营养并对环境胁迫做出反应。揭示这些相互作用的模式和驱动因素对于理解森林生态和改进管理实践非常重要。土壤中的植物-真菌组合可以显著影响植物的生长和陆地生态系统的功能。这项研究将利用几个现有的数据集，包括由美国国家生态观测网络(NEON)和美国林业局(USFS)收集的数据集，以了解：1)全国范围内植物-真菌联合的格局；2)影响这些联合的关键因素；以及3)植物-真菌相互作用如何影响关键的生态系统功能，如碳循环。这项研究项目将通过形成和测试有关植物-真菌联合的新理论，为微生物生态学、生态系统科学和全球变化生物学领域做出贡献。该项目的成果将使森林管理者、政策制定者和其他利益攸关方了解如何改善植物和真菌生物多样性的生态系统管理，以促进可持续生态系统。该项目将有助于不同学生在不同阶段的专业发展。该项目的目标是了解植物和菌根真菌多样性在空间和时间尺度上的联系的模式、驱动因素和后果。这些信息将使人们能够更好地预测性地了解它们所控制的基本生态系统功能。该项目将使用一个整体的、依赖于规模的框架，预测丛枝菌根(AM)和外生菌根(EM)真菌-植物联合的强度和方向，并提供关于跨空间和随时间对生态系统功能影响的更多洞察。该项目的具体目标包括：1)通过广泛的DNA测序和分析，阐明不同尺度上植物和菌根真菌多样性的格局；2)确定所观察到的共生格局的关键非生物和生物驱动因素；以及(3)预测植物-菌根真菌耦合对树木生产力和土壤碳储存的影响，这两个关键的森林生态系统功能。通过在依赖尺度的背景下将地上和地下多样性的多个方面联系起来，该项目将首次制作强大的大陆范围AM和EM真菌分布图。利用NEON和USFS对植物和真菌多样性可能的生物和非生物驱动因素进行的丰富数据采样，该项目还将提供对这些驱动因素何时何地用于耦合或分离植物和菌根真菌多样性的广泛了解。最后，通过将植物和菌根真菌多样性与它们对植物生产力和土壤碳储存和稳定性的影响联系起来，该项目将提高对生态系统对环境压力的适应能力的理解。该项目将培养不同的本科生和研究生、博士后学者，并将促进三名早期职业科学家的发展。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。

Many plants are dependent on belowground fungi to help them obtain nutrients and respond to environmental stress. Revealing the patterns and drivers of these interactions is important for understanding forest ecology and improving management practices. Plant-fungal associations in the soil can dramatically influence plant growth and terrestrial ecosystem function. This research will take the advantage of several existing datasets, including those collected by National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), to understand: 1) nation-wide patterns of plant-fungal associations; 2) key factors that influence these associations; and 3) how plant-fungal interactions influence key ecosystem functions such as carbon cycling. This research project will contribute to the fields of microbial ecology, ecosystem science, and global change biology by formulating and testing new theories about plant-fungal associations. Results of the project will inform forest managers, policymakers, and other stakeholders on how to improve ecosystem management of plant and fungal biodiversity to promote sustainable ecosystems. The project will contribute to the professional development of diverse students at several stages.The goal of this project is to understand the patterns, drivers, and consequences of the linkages between plant and mycorrhizal fungal diversity across spatial and temporal scales. This information will enable better predictive understanding of essential ecosystem functions which they control. The project will use a holistic, scale-dependent framework that forecasts the strength and direction of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) and ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungal-plant associations, and provides greater insight about the consequences for ecosystem functioning across space and over time. Specific objectives of the project include: 1) elucidation of patterns of plant and mycorrhizal fungal diversity across scales by extensive DNA sequencing and analysis; 2) determination of key abiotic and biotic drivers of observed co-occurence patterns; and (3) forecasting the effects of plant-mycorrhizal fungal couplings on tree productivity and soil C storage, two key forest ecosystem functions. By linking multiple facets of both above- and belowground diversity in a scale-dependent context, the project will produce robust continental-wide distribution maps of AM and EM fungi for the first time. Leveraging data-rich sampling of putative biotic and abiotic drivers of plant and fungal diversity by NEON and the USFS, the project will also provide broad-scale understanding of when and where these drivers serve to couple or decouple plant and mycorrhizal fungal diversity. Finally, by linking plant and mycorrhizal fungal diversity to the consequences they have for plant productivity and soil C storage and stability, the project will improve understanding of ecosystem resilience to environmental stress. The project will train diverse undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and will enhance the development of three early=career scientists.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.