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The FY 2002 Budget Request for the Environmental
Biology (DEB) Subactivity is $111.74 million, an increase of $1.87
million, or 1.7 percent, over the FY 2001 Current Plan of $109.87
million.
(Millions of Dollars)
| |
FY
2000 Actual |
FY
2001
Current Plan |
FY
2002 Request |
Change |
| Amount |
Percent |
| Environmental
Biology Research Projects |
89.36
|
109.87
|
111.74
|
1.87
|
1.7% |
| Total,
Environmental Biology |
$89.36
|
$109.87
|
$111.74
|
$1.87
|
1.7% |
The Environmental Biology Subactivity (DEB) supports
fundamental research on the origins, functions, relationships, interactions,
and evolutionary history of populations, species, communities, and
ecosystems. Studies can occur in any natural or human-impacted biotic
system of the world, and can address the genealogical relationships
among plants, animals, and microbes; the flux of energy and materials
that sustain or degrade ecological communities; and the principles
or rules by which species function in ecosystems and evolve through
time.
Major activities supported by DEB utilize approaches
and tools developed through the genomics revolution. Genome Enabled
Science topics include the magnitude and role of biodiversity, both
at the genetic and organismal level, on ecosystem processes; evolution
and development; microbial ecology, the impacts of climate change
on living organisms and ecological systems; and assembly of the
Tree of Life. Other areas take advantage of recent advances in computation,
mathematics and modeling techniques to address biological complexity
using a Systems Biology approach. Research areas include modeling
ecosystem dynamics in real time, computational biology, and conservation
biology and restoration ecology. Basic research in ecology and evolution
is sustained through disciplinary programs, all of which are undergoing
long-term transformation as they incorporate new methods and tools
from genomics, computer science, and mathematics. The acquisition
and analysis of very large environmental datasets; organismal data
from field studies and natural history collections; and molecular
data from genomic sequencing all require new integrative approaches
and skills. National activities supported include the Center for
Ecological Analysis and Synthesis and the network of Long Term Ecological
Research (LTER) sites.
Example: Advances in DNA sequencing and in computational
algorithms for analyzing very large data sets are allowing researchers
to unravel the genealogy of green plants. Botanists and their
colleagues in the "Deep Green" consortium capitalized
on these new technologies to tackle the more than 350,000 species
of land plants and their green-algal relatives in large-scale
phylogenetic analyses. Notable results have included the identification
of the closest living relative of seed plants, a finding with
substantial economic value to agriculture since it will allow
us to determine how genes for important agronomic traits have
changed through time. For example, research from this project
revealed that the genes responsible for drought tolerance in flowering
plants re-evolved multiple times in many different plant groups
but originated from genes with this function in simple ancestral
plants. The ability to trace the change in DNA composition of
these genes and the impact of these changes on gene function through
assembly of the Tree of Life will allow us to identify which changes
have been most important in conferring important traits, such
as drought tolerance to plants and allow their adaptation to use
in activities valuable to humans.
The FY 2002 Budget Request includes funding in the following areas:
Biocomplexity in the Environment (BE):
Recognizing the expanding role that genomics plays in DEB sciences,
investigations that employ data from functional genomics research
to understand the fundamental ecological and evolutionary processes
that determine the nature and dynamics of the world's ecological
systems will be supported.
Genome-Enabled Science: This research capitalizes
on the many technological advances in genomics and applies them
to critical questions in biodiversity, evolution and ecology.
Support for research that contributes to determining the complete
genealogy of all living organisms, known as the Tree of Life Project,
will be increased. Related research, which uses genomics tools
to enhance our understanding of the biodiversity of lesser-known
groups in major biomes such as microorganisms, will also be supported.
Systems Biology: Investigations on complexity
in biological systems, especially those involving the interaction
of human and natural systems, and studies that integrate and synthesize
extant and new information to achieve a predictive understanding
of system behavior will be supported. In particular, the focus
will be on research related to changes in biodiversity, the structure
and function of ecological communities, and ecosystem processes,
such as biogeochemical cycling. Fundamental research, especially
studies on the evolutionary and ecological dynamics of invasive
species and on ecological restoration, will also be supported.
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