Functional ecology of the alpine cryptogamosphere in the face of change

隐花植物（苔藓、地衣）是高山和高纬度生态系统的重要组成部分，对碳和营养物质的循环至关重要。特别是，隐花植物如何从大气中吸收氮（固氮），在这些系统中可能相当重要，因为植物和微生物通常不容易获得营养物质。我们对这些过程的理解很差，特别是在高山地区，特别是在主要夏季生长季节以外的时间。考虑到气候变化如何间接影响高纬度、高海拔的生态系统，并通过改变积雪，强烈影响冬季，这一点令人担忧。这也意味着理解隐花植物在全球气候建模中的作用还没有得到很好的解决，在它们丰富的生态系统中，这是一个缺点。隐花植物也有一个多样的微生物群落栖息在地上部分。作为复杂的微生物食物网的一部分，这包括光合生物和可以固定大气氮的微生物。目前，我们对这些群落的分子生态学知之甚少，以及微生物-隐花植物系统的结构和功能是否随时间而变化，以及在不同的隐花植物之间。为了了解这一点，以及高山隐花植物如何随着时间的推移以及对不断变化的能量和营养物质的可用性做出反应，我们将在苏格兰东部凯恩戈姆斯的实地研究四种不同的隐花植物。在这种亚北极高山环境中，我们将测量C和N是如何被隐花植物捕获和循环的，首次测量这些过程是如何在雪下发生的，并跟踪C和N进入土壤的命运。我们将使用阴影方法来改变C进入系统的方式，使我们能够确定隐花植物如何在改变能量可用性的情况下改变其营养循环。总之，这些调查将帮助我们更好地模拟这些生态系统如何在不断变化的气候下，并增加我们对隐花植物圈生态的理解。

Cryptogams (mosses, lichens) are a conspicuous part of the ecology of alpine and higher-latitude ecosystems, and are important for cycling carbon and nutrients. In particular, how cryptogams take nitrogen from the atmosphere (N-fixation), could be of considerable importance in these systems, where nutrients are generally not easily accessible by plants and microbes. Our understanding on these processes is poor, especially in the alpine, and especially for times of the year outside of the main summer growing season. This is concerning given how climate change is disproportionally effecting higher latitude, higher elevation, ecosystems, and through changing snow-cover, affecting winter strongly. This also means that understanding the role cryptogams plays in global climate modelling is not well resolved, and in ecosystem where they are abundant, this is a shortcoming. Cryptogams also have a diverse microbial community inhabiting the aboveground parts. As part of a complex microbial food web, this includes photosynthesising organisms and microbes that can fix atmospheric nitrogen. Currently, we have little information on the molecular ecology of these communities, and if the structure and function of the microbe-cryptogam system varies over time, and amongst different cryptogams. To understand this, and how alpine cryptogams function over time and in response to changing energy and nutrient availability, we will study four different species of cryptogams in our fieldsite in the Cairngorms of eastern Scotland. In this sub-arctic alpine environment, we will measure how C and N are captured and cycled by cryptogams, measure for the first time how these processes occur under snow, and track the fate of C and N into soils. We will use shading methods to change how C enters to the system, allowing us to determine how cryptogams change their nutrient cycling under altered energy availability. Together, these investigations will help us better model how these ecosystems under a changing climate, and increase our understanding of the ecology of the cryptogamosphere.