Functional ecology of the alpine cryptogamasphere in the face of change (CryptFunc)

隐花苔藓(苔藓、地衣)是高山和高纬度生态系统生态系统的重要组成部分，对碳循环和养分循环非常重要。特别是，隐蔽植物如何从大气中吸收氮(固氮)在这些系统中可能具有相当重要的意义，因为在这些系统中，植物和微生物通常不容易获得养分。我们对这些过程的了解很差，特别是在高山地区，特别是在夏季主要生长季以外的一年中的其他时间。这令人担忧，因为气候变化正在不成比例地影响更高纬度、更高海拔、更高的生态系统，并通过雪盖的变化对冬季产生强烈影响。这也意味着，对加密工具在全球气候建模中所起作用的理解没有得到很好的解决，在加密工具丰富的生态系统中，这是一个缺陷。隐花植物的地上部分也有各种各样的微生物群落。作为复杂的微生物食物链的一部分，这包括光合作用的有机体和能够固定大气氮的微生物。目前，我们几乎没有关于这些群落的分子生态学的信息，以及微生物-加密系统的结构和功能是否会随着时间的推移而在不同的加密系统中发生变化。为了了解这一点，以及高山隐子如何随着时间的推移和对能量和养分可获得性的变化做出反应，我们将在苏格兰东部凯恩戈姆斯的实地考察中研究四种不同的隐花。在这个亚北极高山环境中，我们将测量C和N是如何被隐形植物捕获和循环的，首次测量这些过程是如何在雪下发生的，并追踪C和N进入土壤的命运。我们将使用遮荫方法来改变C进入系统的方式，使我们能够确定隐蔽植物如何在能量可获得性改变的情况下改变其营养循环。总之，这些研究将帮助我们更好地模拟这些生态系统在不断变化的气候下的情况，并增加我们对加密游戏圈生态的理解。

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.