Planning Visit to Australia: Collaborative Study of Detritus-Based Food Webs

0427481McGlynn奖支持圣地亚哥大学生物系的Terrence McGlynn教授前往西澳大利亚州珀斯进行项目规划之旅。 McGlynn教授打算与珀斯的科廷理工大学环境生物学系的Jonathan Majer和Byron拉蒙教授以及其他人讨论和完善合作研究伙伴关系的细节。 研究者的共同兴趣是土壤养分在动物群落营养级联中的作用。此次访问的短期目标包括评估澳大利亚西南部潜在的实地研究地点，整合现有数据集并设计一系列实验。 McGlynn教授先前在哥斯达黎加的实地研究和他在澳大利亚的东道主的实地研究都发现了土壤养分对陆地动物群落密度的类似的强烈直接影响。 他们现在打算直接和间接地合作，以提高他们在不同生态系统中研究的效率和可比性。这次访问的第一个直接好处将是加强对NSF的计划研究提案，为McGlynn教授未来涉及澳大利亚实地和合作者的研究寻求资金。除此之外，获得此类资金的预期更广泛的好处将是为圣地亚哥大学的本科生提供国际曝光和研究经验，其中很大一部分来自代表性不足的群体。

0427481McGlynnThis award supports a project planning trip to Perth, Western Australia, for Professor Terrence McGlynn of the Department of Biology of the University of San Diego. Professor McGlynn intends to discuss and refine the details of a collaborative research partnership with Professors Jonathan Majer and Byron Lamont and others of the Department of Environmental Biology of Curtin University of Technology in Perth. The mutual interest of the investigators is the role of soil nutrients in trophic cascades in animal communities. The short term objectives of this visit include evaluating potential field research locations in Southwestern Australia, integrating existing data sets and designing a series of experiments. Professor McGlynn's prior field research in Costa Rica and that of his hosts in Australia have found similar strong direct effects of soil nutrients upon the density of a terrestrial faunal community. They now intend to collaborate directly and indirectly to increase the efficiency and comparability of their research in different ecosystems.The first direct benefit of the visit will be to strengthen a planned research proposal to NSF seeking funding for Professor McGlynn's future research involving Australian field sites and collaborators. Beyond this, the anticipated broader benefit of obtaining such funding will be to provide international exposure and research experience for undergraduate students at the University of San Diego, with a significant proportion of them from underrepresented groups.