NSF’s Biodiversity program aims to use integrative and innovative approaches to fill the most substantial gaps in our understanding of the diversity of life on Earth. This solicitation targets three fundamental dimensions of biodiversity:
- Genetic diversity, which includes but is not limited to: nucleotide sequence diversity at neutral or coding loci or genomic (proteomic, transcriptomic) diversity
- Taxonomic/phylogenetic diversity, which refers to evolutionary lineages at and above the level of the population
- Functional diversity, which includes but is not limited to: aspects of ecosystem function such as energy flow, material cycling, ecological resilience, and the role of key innovations in the generation and maintenance of biodiversity
The program focuses on the areas where the three dimensions overlap and on ways to fill large gaps in our understanding. Potential projects can include, but are not limited to:
- The integrated roles of the three dimensions of biodiversity in: community or ecosystem resilience, sustainability, or productivity;
- Maintenance of symbioses and symbionts
- Genetic/phylogenetic diversification enabled by natural selection on novel traits, food web and community stability, particularly with respect to environmental thresholds and alternate stable states
- Feedbacks between biotic and abiotic change
- Community invasibility and community collapse
- Ecological response to anthropogenic disturbances including climate change; carbon, nitrogen, and other biogeochemical cycles
- Rates of evolution
- Relationships between spatial scale and the three targeted dimensions.
The U.S.-China Collaborative Research Projects, U.S.-Sao Paulo Collaborative Research Projects and NSF-NASA Partnership for Dimensions of Biodiversity will all contribute funding to this program. Research awards will be up to five years duration and up to a total of $2,000,000 for individual or collaborative projects. Applications are due May 6, 2013. For more information, see the link below: