Development of NSF Biological Integration Institute: Terrestrial Responses to Emerging Environments through Time, Integrated from Moments to Eons (TREETIME)
Lead Institution: The Morton Arboretum, Center for Tree Science
Workshop Contacts:
Project Coordinator: Dr. Andrea Brennan (abrennan@mortonarb.org)
Director of CTS: Dr. Chuck Cannon (ccannon@mortonarb.org)
Background
The Center for Tree Science (CTS) at The Morton Arboretum is a hub for independent and innovative research centered on trees and the role they play in globally diverse environments. As part of Science and Conservation at the Arboretum, CTS’s goals are to: 1) conduct and communicate research addressing the key challenges facing trees; 2) build and motivate collaborative scientific communities and shared research resources; and 3) inspire and enable leaders through an integrated mentorship program. In September 2020, we were awarded funding from the National Science Foundation to design a Biological Integration Institute (BII) with the intent of submitting a proposal in January 2022 under the theme of Terrestrial Responses to Emerging Environments through Time, Integrated from Moments to Eons (TREETIME).
Institutes must include diverse investigative teams at all levels of leadership; include a robust and integrated education and training component with inherent dedication to broadening participation; and with public access and timely release of project outputs. As of April 2021, researchers from CTS are forming an interdisciplinary, collaborative team of scientists to co-generate research questions and activities, including education and outreach opportunities, that will be supported through a 5-year, $12.5 million grant, that has potential of extension for an additional 5 years. Awards are made as a cooperative agreement with the lead organization and with collaborators funded through subawards, contracts, and participant support.
As an independent, nonprofit organization, The Morton Arboretum has a responsibility to serve the public good. This responsibility is best informed by including diverse perspectives at all levels, including the design, execution, and application of our scientific research. Interested collaborators must share this commitment and positively contribute to advancing inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility at The Morton Arboretum and in their scientific discipline.
Research Theme (primary contacts: Dr. Christy Rollinson; Dr. Luke McCormack)
TREETIME is centered on temporal dynamics of plants, particularly trees, in terrestrial ecosystems using phenology and the timing of events to describe how plants evolve, grow, and interact with their surrounding communities and environments. Trees will be a model group for our institute because their long lifespans enable individual plants to respond to and record the integrated effects of changing, emerging, and novel short- and long-term conditions through time. Our research will cross temporal and spatial scales to describe how short-lived events, such as leaf out or subseasonal stress, have impacts that take decades to centuries to manifest, such as speciation or biospheric feedbacks. We will study the responses of trees as well as the organisms and ecosystems that interact with them in a variety of environments across the wildland to urban spectrum. We envision our research focused on increasing depth and connection among the following three nodes:
Evolutionary adaptation to environmental variability and change among individuals, populations, species, and clades
Temporal cues and mechanisms for tradeoffs in resource usage, limitation, and provisioning
Timing and change in organismal interactions and ecosystem feedbacks
Education and Engagement (primary contacts: Dr. Meghan Midgley; Dr. Sean Hoban)
In addition to leveraging The Morton Arboretum’s existing Learning and Engagement resources and expertise, TREETIME seeks to develop innovative models for broadening participation and training in STEM across age, education, and career pathways. Leveraging existing infrastructure and resources of CTS’s Integrative Mentorship Program, potential programs include undergraduate and graduate fellowships, an on-site short-course on TREETIME concepts & methods, and integrative use of Citizen Science for research and public engagement. We will develop annual assessment plans for all education, training, and outreach activities to determine TREETIME’s effectiveness and impact.
Data and Technology Integration (primary contacts: Dr. Andrew Hipp; Dr. Jake Miesbauer)
TREETIME BII will support, collect, manage, and integrate a wide array of data types and collection methods ranging “from chainsaws to chain reactions” from resources at the Arboretum and beyond. We will build upon existing Arboretum expertise in collections and document management and develop collaborations with federally-funded infrastructure projects such as NEON, USA National Phenology Network, Cyverse, and iDigBio to lower the technical hurdle for integrating data and information necessary for transdisciplinary research.