| NSF Org: |
DEB Division Of Environmental Biology |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 28, 2014 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | January 20, 2016 |
| Award Number: | 1442280 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Katharina Dittmar
kdittmar@nsf.gov (703)292-7799 DEB Division Of Environmental Biology BIO Directorate for Biological Sciences |
| Start Date: | January 1, 2015 |
| End Date: | December 31, 2020 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $1,199,043.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $1,203,836.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2016 = $4,793.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1523 UNION RD RM 207 GAINESVILLE FL US 32611-1941 (352)392-3516 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
Gainesville FL US 32611-7800 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Dimensions of Biodiversity |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001617DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.074 |
ABSTRACT
Biodiversity is multidimensional, composed of genetic, phenotypic, ecological, and geographic variation within and among species. Understanding the sources and patterns of Earth's biodiversity will lead to a better understanding of our planet's ecosystems and new strategies on how to conserve them. Within forests, plants grow in association with soil bacteria and fungi, but little is known about how these associations vary within and among forests, or how these interactions maintain or generate biodiversity. The forests of eastern Asia and eastern North America were anciently connected and have a shared evolutionary and ecological history; they therefore offer a unique opportunity to study the drivers of biodiversity across geographical space and through evolutionary time. This collaborative project among researchers at the University of Florida, North Carolina State University, Chicago University and colleagues at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Zhejiang University investigates how the associations among plant, fungal and soil bacteria shape biodiversity through space and time. The research team has developed an extensive education and training program for undergraduates, graduate students and post-doctoral researchers comprising both field and lab components. Training will also include a cyber-enabled course for Chinese and US participants that will promote international scientific collaborations. This research will also contribute valuable information to improve global climate change models that inform national and international climate and energy policies.
This multidisciplinary project integrates phylogenomics, biogeography, and plant and microbial evolution and ecology to address novel questions on the origins and maintenance of biodiversity. The research team will reconstruct phylogenies using next-generation DNA sequencing methods to provide a robust framework for improved dating and biogeographic analyses. Comparative community phylogenetic analyses at six forest sites in eastern North America and four sites in China will evaluate spatial patterns of phylogenetic diversity within and between continents. Exploration of fungal and soil bacteria taxic and functional diversity will yield new understanding of their biodiversity and interactions with plants. Ecosystem function, inferred from analysis of plant functional traits and remotely sensed canopy properties, will be computed at all sites and linked to analyses of fungal and soil bacteria function. Innovative applications of phylogenetic and comparative methodologies will lead to new discoveries in phylogenetic and functional diversity of plants, soil bacteria and fungi at community and regional scales. Integration of historical connections, current patterns, and future species distribution models will lead to more holistic views of the drivers of biodiversity and will enable future hypothesis-driven research.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Over 250 years ago, the famous scientist Carl Linnaeus noticed the similarity between the plants of eastern North America and eastern Asia, based on specimens that had been collected during global exploration and brought to Europe. This observation laid the foundation for further study a century later by the US botanist Asa Gray. During the past 150 years, this pattern has continued to intrigue botanists and ecologists: How are the plants on each continent related to each other? How did the separation occur? When did it occur? Is the similarity we observe today simply the result of the plants’ evolutionary history or is it a combination of their history and their ongoing interactions with their environment? In this study, we analyzed patterns of plant diversity from the perspective of their evolutionary history, their functional diversity (that is, what role they play in their ecosystems), and the fungal and bacterial diversity that occurs in the soil. This work required the development of new lab, field, and analytical methods, all of which are being extended to other studies. Although our analyses are ongoing, we have made several conclusions, in addition to the methods we discovered. (1) The distribution and abundance of soil fungi are driven in part by the plants that grow in adjacent soil. (2) The same is true of bacteria, but to a lesser extent than fungi. (3) Rates of molecular evolution are similar between related plants from eastern Asia and eastern North America, indicating that such rates are not responsible for higher rates of species formation in eastern Asia. (4) Ecological niches are similar between related plants of eastern Asia and eastern North America. Higher numbers of plant species in eastern Asia than eastern North America are likely due to the availability of more habitat types in a given area in Eastern Asia rather than intrinsic differences between the plants in the two regions. Future studies will continue to examine the scale of differences between plants from the two continents, incorporating evolutionary history, ecology, and microbial diversity for a comprehensive interpretation.
Last Modified: 03/31/2021
Modified by: Pamela S Soltis
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