Collaborative Research: NSF-SNSF: SCALE-UP - Understanding VPD impacts on forests across scales to advance the next generation of Earth-system models
Ente: Org Interaction & Ecology
Scadenza: 2030-07-31
Importo max: 599.594 EUR
Paese: US
Descrizione
The dryness of the Earth's atmosphere (vapor pressure deficit, or VPD) is increasing. Its effects on many plant processes – from leaf photosynthesis, to tree growth and mortality, to forest production and water use – remain poorly understood. How does rising VPD affect different tree species growing in different locations? How do the effects of rising VPD on plants vary depending on the amount of moisture in the soil? How much and how quickly can plants cope with changes in VPD? And how do VPD effects operating on short-term, small-scale leaf processes translate to longer-term and larger-scale impacts on whole forests? Not knowing answers to these questions challenges researchers' ability to predict and manage forest responses to rapid changes in the environment. This project, termed SCALE-UP, is a partnership between institutions funded by the U.S. NSF and the NSF of Switzerland (SNSF) that enables a collaboration between U.S. and Swiss plant scientists and ecologists. This international team will examine the effects of rising VPD across vast distances and time scales using a cutting-edge combination of experiments, observations, and computer models. Not only will the project answer important scientific questions and advance fundamental knowledge about limited forest resources, it will also improve the ability of the U.S. and Switzerland to model, predict, and manage those resources. The scientists will utilize artificial intelligence (AI) approaches in their computer models, and will contribute to the U.S. AI national priority area by training the next generation of researchers in these techniques. By partnering internationally, U.S. researchers will gain access to unique resources, including a forest experiment in Switzerland that manipulates atmosphere and soil moisture, providing benefits to science and society in both countries.
SCALE-UP will leverage state-of-the-art controlled seedling experiments, the first in-vivo VPD and soil drought manipulation in a mature forest, globally distributed tree growth datasets across dozens of species at various time resolutions, and mechanistic and scalable models ideally suited for understanding VPD impacts and underlying processes. The approach will thus link experimental insights, large data analyses, and mechanistic model simulations across scales — from minutes to decades, from individual leaves to entire ecosystems, and from seedlings to mature trees. By combining these cutting-edge and cross-scale approaches, SCALE-UP will unravel (1) the mechanisms underlying the diversity of VPD impacts across species on gas exchange, growth, mortality, and ecosystem-scale carbon and water fluxes, (2) the interaction of these responses with soil drought, (3) the potential for acclimation to rising VPD and its role in mitigating impacts of extreme events, and (4) the development of mechanistic insights and predictive models to understand and project VPD effects on forests at multiple scales. The project will
Istituzione: University of Iowa
Sede: IOWA CITY, IA
PI: Matthew Dannenberg
Settori: Biological Sciences
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