UF Biology faculty Stuart McDaniel and José Miguel Ponciano (with scientists from Northern Arizona University and University of Colorado) were awarded an NSF Dimensions of Biodiversity grant to study the effect of moss diversity on nitrogen-fixing microbes in the Alaskan arctic. McDaniel, Ponciano and their colleagues plan to use the moss-microbe interactions to understand of how biodiversity influences ecosystem function in a changing climate. Mosses and their associated microbes make critical contributions to ecological processes in the boreal and tundra ecosystems. However, many aspects of these communities are poorly understood, in particular how genetic changes in response to climate change will influences ecosystem function. The team plans to use genomic and stable isotope analyses combined with long term ecological experiments to test for associations between genetic variation and rates of nitrogen fixation in order to model the influence of climate change on high northern latitude biodiversity and ecosystem function.
