| NSF Org: |
DEB Division Of Environmental Biology |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | June 13, 2016 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | June 13, 2016 |
| Award Number: | 1643052 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Simon Malcomber
smalcomb@nsf.gov (703)292-8227 DEB Division Of Environmental Biology BIO Directorate for Biological Sciences |
| Start Date: | March 1, 2016 |
| End Date: | May 31, 2018 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $160,732.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $160,732.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
3112 LEE BUILDING COLLEGE PARK MD US 20742-5100 (301)405-6269 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
1210 Biology-Psychology BLDG College Park MD US 20742-5141 |
| 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: |
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| 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
Temperate and tropical forests contain a significant proportion of our planet's biodiversity, and they provide important ecosystem services that include climate regulation. Despite their importance, the processes that produce and maintain biodiversity within and among forested ecosystems remain poorly understood. This lack of understanding applies to diverse tropical and subtropical forests, and also to less diverse temperate forests. Further, the insights we do have about forest diversity primarily concern species diversity; far less is known about the processes regulating the phylogenetic, functional and genetic dimensions of biodiversity that are likely to be more closely related to ecosystem function.
Patterns of phylogenetic, genetic, and functional diversity, and their roles in maintaining biological diversity, will be examined in temperate and subtropical forests in the United States and in China. A combination of experimental and observational research will lead to a new approach - termed community functional phylogenomics - that should provide detailed insights into the causes and consequences of the levels of biodiversity in forests. The research will inform forest management, it will strengthen collaboration between researchers in the United States and China, and the project will fund a joint training workshop for graduate students and early career scientists in both countries.
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.
The project sought to identify the abiotic and biotic drivers of tree biodiversity in forests in the US and Asia. The approach taken was to simultaneously integrate transcriptomic, trait and phylogenetic data with detailed forest plot data to address several hypotheses. Important results of the work include, but are not limited to, 1) a demonstration the differential gene expression in response to drought is a stronger predictor of the natural distribution of trees in a US forest than the traits widely measured in ecology; 2) the first empirical evidence showing that defense gene sequence similarity between species is related to their demographic rates when living in close proximity to one another; 3) the first empirical evidence that gene sequence similarity for genes related to photosynthesis predict the demographic rates of tree seedlings in natural forest stands; and 4) the demonstration that it is now feasible to conduct large transcriptomic and gene expression inventories and comparative analyses that can transform the future of forest ecology. To date, the reserach conducted in this project has resulted in 18 peer-reviewed journal articles many of which appear in top general biology journals and in the top ecology-specific journals.
The project also had a significant training component. Training of lab personnel and non-lab personnel was conducted and training workshops were also held. The primary objective was to train traditional field ecologists in the concepts and methods necessary for an integration of transcriptomic information into a modern forest ecology research program. This was a major challenge, but it resulted in multiple early career ecologists now integrating transcriptomic information into their research. The project also resulted in an open access Special Feature in the Journal of Ecology, the flagship journal of the British Ecological Society, which featured papers from this project as well as multiple other NSF-funded Dimensions of Biodiversity projects.
Lastly, the project as a US-China collaborative research grant. This required extensive interactions virtually and in person with Chinese counterparts. These interactions were very productive scientifically and allowed early career researchers the opportunity to experience collaboration in an international setting where cultural differences can often be large.
Last Modified: 06/26/2018
Modified by: Nathan G Swenson
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