Recipient Organization
KANSAS STATE UNIV
(N/A)
MANHATTAN,KS 66506
Performing Department
Biology
Non Technical Summary
Research in plant biodiversity and the plant specimen resources enabling and enhancing research (i.e., the K-State Herbarium) have notably broad impacts. Plant biodiversity research (encompassing both plant systematics and population and community processes that generate and maintain biodiversity) is fundamental to work in the broad plant sciences, and the proposed research contributes to our knowledge of aspects of plant diversity and the and the processes that generate and maintain plant biodiversity in natural systems. The K-State Herbarium in particular serves as a crucial resource: it is a research natural history museum of over 180,000 preserved plant specimens dating from the 1800s to today. This project maintains and enhances the K-State Herbarium (www.k-state.edu/herbarium), including both physical plant specimens and digital resources. Furthermore, this project enables research on plant diversity and polyploidy, plant taxonomy, and population and community dynamics of plants and animals (particularly plants in the Great Plains region).
Animal Health Component
20%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
80%
Applied
20%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
1. This project will maintain and enhance the K-State Herbarium, a research natural history collection of ca. 180,000 dried plant specimens used for research and extension.2. This project will advance research on polyploidy and plant diversity and increase understanding of taxonomy of various plant groups.3. This project will increase our understanding of population and community dynamics of plants and animals, particularly of plants in the Great Plains region.
Project Methods
1. This project will maintain and enhance the K-State Herbarium, a research natural history collection of ca. 180,000 dried plant specimens used for research and extension.2. This project will advance research on polyploidy and plant diversity and increase understanding of taxonomy of various plant groups.3. This project will increase our understanding of population and community dynamics of plants and animals, particularly of plants in the Great Plains region.Objective 1. Maintain and enhance the K-State Herbarium, a research natural history collection of ca. 180,000 dried plant specimens used for research and extension. Statement of the problem or knowledge gap. The K-State Herbarium is a significant collection comprising specimens from throughout the world but with well-documented strengths in the flora of the Great Plains, historical specimens from North America, and material of relevance to agriculture in the Midwest. Maintenance and continued enhancement are needed to ensure resources for understanding plant diversity, particularly in the Great Plains region. Summary of previous work/literature review and how this project will address the knowledge gap. The nature and value of herbarium specimens in general and K-State Herbarium specimens in particular (Prather et al. 2004; Woods et al. 2005) have been documented. The Herbarium is open to researchers and the public by appointment, and digitized data are freely available and accessible via the web. Research methods/experimental procedures. Work advancing the resources of the Herbarium includes field collection of specimens; mounting, repair and accessioning of specimens; and digitization, maintenance and improvement of accessibility of databased information.Objective 2. Advance research on polyploidy and plant diversity and increase understanding of taxonomy of various plant groups. Statement of the problem or knowledge gap. Polyploidy is an important phenomenon in plant evolution (Soltis et al. 2014; and many crop species and problematic weeds are polyploids; Hancock 2012), yet there remain many open questions with respect to the implications of polyploidy for plant diversity. Furthermore, there are many gaps in our knowledge of the taxonomy and flora of North America, and much cryptic taxonomic diversity has gone unrecognized. Summary of previous work/literature review and how this project will address the knowledge gap. Recent reviews (Barker et al. 2016; Soltis et al. 2016) highlight questions about the influence of polyploidy across biological, genetic, morphological, ecological and physiological dimensions. We have established the genus Phlox (Polemoniaceae) as an excellent research subject for study of polyploidy and diversity (e.g., Fehlberg and Ferguson 2012; Worcester et al. 2012; Chansler et al. 2016; Ladner et al. 2017). More broadly, our research group has advanced taxonomic work through description of new species (e.g., Floden et al. 2012; Mayfield 2013; Ferguson et al. 2015) and taxonomic treatments (e.g., Ferguson 2013; Mayfield 2016). Research methods/experimental procedures. This work includes laboratory-based research (phylogenetic, population genetic and cytogenetic work) and intensive herbarium study of specimens from across geographical distributions, informed by field study and, in many cases, data from laboratory investigation (e.g., on genetic diversity and relationships).Objective 3. Increase understanding of population and community dynamics of plants and animals, particularly of plants in the Great Plains region. Statement of the problem or knowledge gap. Populations are affected by multiple stressors, including abiotic drivers such as climate or fire, as well as biotic stressors such as predators or herbivores. In spite of substantial research effort describing the impacts of both abiotic and biotic drivers on population dynamics of plants and animals, we are limited in our ability to predict the effects of multiple drivers in a changing climate. In particular, it is difficult to predict the sum impact of multiple drivers when both abiotic and biotic conditions are changing with climate change, and when different drivers can interact with one another (e.g., drought renders plants more susceptible to herbivores). Summary of previous work/literature review and how this project will address the knowledge gap. Our research group has advanced our understanding of how both climate conditions and biotic conditions independently affect population dynamics (Louthan et al. 2013, 2014, Morris et al. 2019), as well as the particular mechanisms that generate these responses (Louthan et al. 2019). We have also conducted work on how multiple drivers interact with one another to influence population dynamics (Louthan et al. 2018). Future work in the Konza LTER will aim to quantify how key abiotic and biotic drivers in the Great Plains system jointly impact future population dynamics and resultant biodiversity patterns . Research methods/experimental procedures. Population and community ecology includes observational and experimental field and greenhouse work, as well as construction of mathematical models using these data. These models aim to predict future population dynamics and disentangle the mechanisms for such responses.