| NSF Org: |
DEB Division Of Environmental Biology |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | May 1, 2014 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | May 30, 2017 |
| Award Number: | 1354972 |
| Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Betsy Von Holle
mvonholl@nsf.gov (703)292-4974 DEB Division Of Environmental Biology BIO Directorate for Biological Sciences |
| Start Date: | June 1, 2014 |
| End Date: | May 31, 2020 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $593,357.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $829,238.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2016 = $242,136.00 FY 2017 = $176,490.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1 UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO ALBUQUERQUE NM US 87131-0001 (505)277-4186 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
1700 Lomas Blvd. NE, Suite 2200 Albuquerque NM US 87131-0001 |
| 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): |
Population & Community Ecology, POP & COMMUNITY ECOL PROG |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001617DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001718DB 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
Species are moving up mountainsides as temperatures rise. As ranges move to higher altitudes, important interactions between species may be disrupted, with as yet unknown consequences. The coupled dynamics arising from species interactions can produce complex and unanticipated ecological responses to climate change. Novel species responses may feed back on the rate of climate change itself by altering processes that influence carbon cycling.
Fungal symbionts of plants, such as endophytes and mycorrhizal fungi, are now well documented to influence the resilience of plants to climate change. Fungi also play critical roles in carbon cycling, by storing carbon in recalcitrant forms and decomposing organic material. Therefore, the potential for climate change to decouple plant and fungal interactions deserves careful attention. While plant movement under changing climates is easily observed, movement of fungal species is inconspicuous and little studied. This project will gauge the potential for plant-fungal symbioses to become destabilized under future climates and test the consequences of disruptions for individual plant species and carbon cycling.
This project has four major components. First, the distributions of fungal symbionts colonizing plant leaves and roots will be described along replicated elevation gradients in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, using microscopy and DNA sequencing. This work constitutes the largest altitudinal survey of fungal symbionts anywhere in the world. Second, an NSF-funded, 22-year long warming experiment will be leveraged to test, for the first time, whether fungal responses to climate warming match their distributional patterns along natural, altitudinal gradients. Third, reciprocal transplants of plants and fungi will mimic range shifts under a 3°C warmer climate and experimentally test the consequences of symbiosis decoupling. Fourth, functional assays will evaluate how disrupted symbioses affect carbon cycling.
Broader Impacts: A majority of the budget is allocated to training the next generation of scientists, including students from underrepresented groups at the University of New Mexico, a majority-minority institution. K-12 outreach includes high school teacher training and curriculum development for under-served schools and symbiosis workshops in a kids nature camp and adult citizen science program supported through the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory.
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.
This project gauged the potential for plant-fungal symbioses to become destabilized under future climate change and tested the consequences of climate disruptions on plant fitness and carbon allocation processes. The work focused on dominant grasses along altitudinal gradients in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
Intellectual Merit
We conducted the largest altitudinal survey of fungal symbiota in plants to date, using replicated elevation gradients in the Rocky Mountains. We contextualized our results against a global meta-analysis of altitudinal patterns in the distributions of plant-associated fungi. Altitudinal patterns in fungal distributions were inconsistent with the responses of fungal symbionts to direct climate warming in the world’s longest running infrared warming experiment, suggesting that temperature was not a strong driver of fungal symbiont biogeography. Our results demonstrated, for the first time, that a space-for-time substitution approach to predicting responses to warming does not work for fungal symbionts of plants. Reciprocal transplants of fungal symbiont communities between high and low elevation sites demonstrated that mismatches between fungal symbionts and plants can reduce plant fitness. Low elevation fungi grown with plants at high elevation sites increased seedling mortality, and high elevation fungi brought down into warmer, drier low elevation environments reduced plant growth. Mismatches between fungal symbionts and plants also affected belowground carbon cycling processes. Altogether this work improves predictions on how plant-microbe interactions will respond to climate disruption.
Broader Impacts
This project has provided opportunities for teaching and mentoring in ecological research. Training improved the performance, skills, and attitudes of members of underrepresented groups, improving access to and retention in research, teaching, and STEM professions. The project trained a female postdoctoral researcher (now tenure-track faculty), three graduate students, 36 undergraduate students, three technicians, and one high school student. The award also supported five summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates, co-hosted by the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. We developed and disseminated new educational materials for both kids’ nature camps and adult community science programs. We brought science and technology to elementary and middle school classrooms. We created a large permanent archive of fungal endophyte isolates that includes new fungal species and provides an important resource for documenting fungal diversity. Our data are publicly available through the Environmental Data Initiative (EDI). These data serve as an important resource for understanding current patterns and predicting future changes in the response of ecological communities to climate.
Last Modified: 11/11/2020
Modified by: Jennifer Rudgers
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