Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

There are two projects in my NSERC Discovery Grant. The first project investigates the functional diversity of root-associated mycorrhizal fungi at an alpine site in Jasper National Park, and at an arctic site in Wright Pass on the norther border of Yukon and the NWT. We are trying to determine how experimental warming (to simulate the effects of global warming) affects the beneficial mycorrhizal fungi and bacteria associated with the roots of tundra plants. We are amplifying DNA from the microorganisms and subjecting it to ""DNA fingerprinting"" protocols to identify the types of fungi present and how they are responding to the warming treatments. We will also set up experiments to look at how removal and addition of key plant species affects the diversity and types of mycorrhizal fungi on the remaining plants. The second project examines the functional diversity of mycorrhiza-mediated carbon and nitrogen transformations. Although the term ""mycorrhiza"" specifically refers to the association between fungi and plant roots, we know that there are also many different types of bacteria occurring on and within the mycorrhizas that may be involved in carbon- and nitrogen cycling. These nutrient-cycling processes ultimately determine if nutrients will be available or limiting to arctic plants. We are interested in the different activities associated with different types of mycorrhizas, and we use functional genes that code for key enzymes that mediate the different processes as a way to study them. These experiments will provide insights into how root-associated microbial communities will respond to future climate change scenarios. If arctic plants respond to warming by allocating more carbon to their root systems, and it is confirmed that root-associated microbial communities are responding by increasing their biomass, then this could be an important negative feedback loop offsetting the effects of climate change.