NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2022: Rules and Strategies of Plant Microbiomes Under Global Change

Favela, Alonso, Champaign IL

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2022, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. Global environmental change widely affects a broad number of species, from individual cells to entire ecosystems. Environmental disruptions such as warming, drought, and nutrient pollution can trigger changes in both plants and microbes. However, how global change might alter the interaction between these different life forms is not well studied. To fill that knowledge gap, this project will test new theory on plant-microbe associations and use the information from this study to make better predictions about ecosystems experiencing climate change. To broaden participation in science, the fellow will lead workshops to empower diverse communities with the tools to understand global change. The fellow will investigate microbial yield, resource acquisition, stress tolerance, and interaction traits in a tradeoff framework as a Rule of Life, and will apply this tradeoff theory to predict microbial assembly and function across several plant-associated environmental contexts at the Loma Ridge Global Change Experiment in Irvine, CA. Using a combination of theoretical and experimental approaches, the research will address whether trait tradeoffs exist at the microbial genomic level, if microbiome assembly is determined by environmental selection on traits, and if life history strategies predict ecological functioning in a changing environment. This type of molecular-theoretical-modeling approach could be applied across systems from humans to soil microbiomes. This approach can reveal how underlying microbial genomic information and ecology relate to microbiome assembly and function. This integrated research bridges theory, molecular data, and ecosystem processes to generate results with practical value for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Training objectives include building expertise in global change ecology, developing computational and theoretical skills, and practicing inclusive teaching and mentoring. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.