An ecological perspective on biogeosciences (V2.0)

加拿大人面临的一个重要挑战是预测全球环境变化和/或替代性土地利用和管理做法如何影响陆地生态系统的功能及其提供的服务。关注生物对碳和养分循环的控制是应对这一挑战的一个有希望的方法。我们可以通过采用几个科学领域的观点来做到这一点，每个科学领域都对自然现象提供不同的见解。我自己的学术训练根植于应用生物地球科学（即农业学士学位；森林科学博士学位；森林土壤管理博士后）。然而，在过去的20年里，我加入了各种研究小组，其中包括基础生态学家，他们向我灌输了一种关于生态理论原则的补充观点。因此，我和我的学生培养了对陆地生态系统功能的双重视角，使我们能够解决机制和理论问题。作为生物地球科学家，我们研究的过程和机制是驱动陆地碳和营养循环的近似因素。作为生态学家，我们推进并依靠理论框架来理解这些现象的进化含义，以及推测、概括和大胆预测。简单地说，作为生物地球科学家，我们在问某些现象是“如何”发生的；作为生态学家，我们在问“为什么”它们会发生？这项发现基金提案是基于这样一种信念，即通过对陆地生物地球科学的生态学视角，可以获得大量的知识和技术。在这个结构中，我和我的学生将探索四个研究主题：(I)全球变化对北方森林生态系统功能的影响，特别是生物固氮和土壤C稳定性；（ii）基于性状的预测土壤有机质分解根际启动的方法；通过农业方法管理植物丛枝菌根群落的结构和效益；（四）北方森林生态系统中非本地蚯蚓造成的温室气体净平衡和生态级联。这一跨学科研究项目将为以下方面提供重要的基础知识：(a)变化世界中北方森林生态系统的生物地球化学，(b)植物从原生土壤有机质中获取养分的方式，以及(c)入侵蚯蚓的广泛生态影响。这些新知识可能会像过去一样指导未来的政策和土地管理决策。

An important challenge facing Canadians is predicting how global environmental changes and/or alternative land use and management practices affect the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems and the services that they provide. Focusing on the biotic controls over carbon and nutrient cycling is a promising way to meet this challenge. We can do this by adopting the perspective of several scientific fields, each offering different insights into natural phenomena. My own academic training is rooted in the applied biogeosciences (i.e. BSc in agriculture; PhD in forest sciences; Postdoc in forest soil management). However, over the past 20 years I have joined various research groups that include fundamental ecologists who have infused in me a complementary outlook on ecological theory principles. My students and I thus foster a dual perspective on the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems that allows us to address both mechanistic and theoretical questions. As biogeoscientists, we study processes and mechanisms that are the proximate factors driving terrestrial carbon and nutrient cycles. As ecologists, we advance and rely upon theoretical frameworks to understand the evolutionary implications of these same phenomena, as well as to speculate, generalize and make bold predictions. Simply put, as biogeoscientists we are asking “how” do certain phenomena occur; as ecologists, we are asking “why” do they occur? This Discovery Grant proposal is predicated on the belief that substantial knowledge and technologies can be achieved by shedding an ecological perspective on terrestrial biogeosciences. Within this structure, my students and I will explore four research themes: (i) The effects of global changes on boreal forest ecosystem functions, notably biological nitrogen fixation and soil C stability; (ii) A trait-based approach for predicting the rhizosphere priming of soil organic matter decomposition; (iii) Managing the structure and benefits of plant-arbuscular mycorrhizal communities through agricultural practices; (iv) The net greenhouse gas balance and ecological cascades created by non-native earthworms in northern forest ecosystems. This transdisciplinary research program will contribute important and fundamental knowledge on (a) the biogeochemistry of boreal forest ecosystems in a changing world, (b) means by which plants can mine nutrients from native soil organic matter, and (c) broad-scale ecological impacts of invasive earthworms. This new knowledge is likely to guide future policy and land management decisions, as it has in the past.