NSF Award Abstract - #0083422| NSF Award Abstract - #0083422 |
AWSFL008-DS3 |
| NSF Org | DEB |
| Latest Amendment Date | August 22, 2002 |
| Award Number | 0083422 |
| Award Instrument | Continuing grant |
| Program Manager |
Alan James Tessier DEB DIVISION OF ENVIRONMENTAL BIOLOGY BIO DIRECT FOR BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES |
| Start Date | October 1, 2000 |
| Expires | September 30, 2005 (Estimated) |
| Expected Total Amount | $2500000 (Estimated) |
| Investigator |
James H. Brown jhbrown@unm.edu (Principal Investigator current) Bruce T. Milne (Co-Principal Investigator current) Geoffrey B. West (Co-Principal Investigator current) |
| Sponsor |
University of New Mexico MSC05 3370 Albuquerque, NM 871310001 505/277-2256 |
| NSF Program | 1182 ECOLOGY |
| Field Application |
0512004 Analytical Procedures 0313000 Regional & Environmental |
| Program Reference Code | 1366,9150,9169,9263,EGCH, |
0083422 Brown Underlying the diversity of life and the complexity of ecology is order that reflects the operation of fundamental physical and biological processes. Scaling relationships are emergent quantitative features of biodiversity. Some of them appear to be universal, occurring in virtually all taxa of organisms and kinds of environments. They are patterns of structure or dynamics that are self-similar or fractal-like over many orders of magnitude. They can be described mathematically by power functions. They allow extrapolation and prediction over a wide range of scales., They offer clues to underlying mechanisms that powerfully constrain biodiversity. This research will use the interplay of mathematical models and empirical measurements to elucidate the physical and biological principles that determine how the life history, abundance, distribution, and species richness of organisms scale with body size, space, and time. The program of research and education activities involves: (1) collaborations among physicists, mathematicians, geologists/hydrologists, biologists and ecologists, (2) interactions among scientists from seven institutions, (3) cooperation between the University of New Mexico, the Santa Fe Institute, and Los Alamos National Laboratory, and (4) interdisciplinary training for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.
