Integrating Spatial and Temporal Variability in Ecology Laboratories

整合生态实验室的时空变化

• 批准号: 9850868
• 负责人: Timothy Ehlinger
• 金额: $ 4.78万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1998
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1998-08-01 至 2001-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9850868&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Integrating; Spatial; Temporal; Variability; Ecology

Field research is fundamentally different from typical laboratory research. The data that students need to collect often exhibit stochastic variation or daily and seasonal trends. Taking a 'snapshot" on a single day at a single time is often of little use beyond simple demonstration of a technique. In addition, the environments of interest are usually some distance from campus. The goal of this project is to enhance Ecology laboratories and allow students to observe, question, hypothesize, design, and research real-world ecological problems . This will be accomplished by the incorporation of computerized environmental monitoring equipment into existing laboratory exercises. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Department of Biological Sciences possesses advanced laboratory facilities on campus, and has access to a wonderful variety of field sites through the UWM Center for Great Lakes Studies and UWM Field Station. However, we are severely handicapped in our abilities to carry out meaningful field laboratories with undergraduates because of out-dated or non-existent environmental measurement and monitoring equipment. Furthermore, in order to fully implement a research-based approach to teaching ecology laboratories, we must acquire the flexibility to gather data on a greater variety of spatial and temporal scales. We do not presently possess the equipment to collect the appropriate types of data to allow students to both ask and then attempt to answer meaningful scientific questions in our ecology labs. Instrumentation requested includes 16 terrestrial microclimate recording stations, 6 stream water chemistry multiprobes, and computer systems to access and analyze the data collected by these units. This equipment will allow students to follow up on initial observations early in the semester by asking and testing ecological hypotheses during the rest of the term. In addition to being used y other courses at UWM the data and project descriptions will be available on the class web site for use by other universities and high schools.

实地研究与典型的实验室研究有着根本的不同。学生需要收集的数据通常表现为随机变化或每日和季节性趋势。在某一天的某一时间拍摄“快照”，除了简单地演示一种技术之外，通常没有什么用处。此外，感兴趣的环境通常离校园有一段距离。本计划的目标是加强生态学实验室，让学生观察、质疑、假设、设计和研究现实世界的生态问题。这将通过将计算机化的环境监测设备纳入现有的实验室工作来实现。威斯康星大学密尔沃基分校生物科学系在校园内拥有先进的实验室设施，并可通过威斯康星大学密尔沃基分校大湖研究中心和威斯康星大学密尔沃基分校野外站访问各种各样的野外站点。然而，由于过时或不存在的环境测量和监测设备，我们在与本科生进行有意义的实地实验室方面受到严重阻碍。此外，为了全面实施以研究为基础的生态学实验教学方法，我们必须获得在更大的空间和时间尺度上收集数据的灵活性。我们目前没有设备来收集适当类型的数据，以允许学生在我们的生态实验室中提出并尝试回答有意义的科学问题。所要求的仪器包括16个陆地小气候记录站，6个水流化学多探针，以及用于访问和分析这些装置收集的数据的计算机系统。这个设备将允许学生在学期的早期通过询问和测试生态假设来跟进最初的观察。除了在威斯康星大学的其他课程中使用外，数据和项目描述将在课程网站上提供，供其他大学和高中使用。