Design for Upgrade of an Existing Biological Field Station for Conducting Collaborative Ecological Research in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

黄石生态研究中心（YERC）是一个非营利性的研究和教育组织，已有十年的运营历史，使用租赁设施已不足以支持其活动。该合同支持一个野外站规划工作，这将是一个多年过程的第一步，导致一个重要的生物野外站的进一步发展，提供进入大黄石生态系统（GYE）的通道。通过与使用或将使用该站的研究人员和教育工作者、外部科学顾问、联邦机构的区域代表和地方领导人的会议，规划工作将提供一个总体规划，确定YERC站的规划目标和支持这些规划目标所需的永久性设施。该实地考察站预计将成为实地教育机会的集集地，为密苏里州北部七个部落的美国原住民大学生以及该地区服务不足的农村美国人提供支持。GYE是温带工业化世界中最大的几乎完整的生态系统。由于其显著的地质性质，对GYE的研究可以在微观尺度（例如，地热水中的嗜热细菌）到生态系统尺度（例如，北部山脉的季节性麋鹿迁徙）的各个层面上取得重要发现。规划过程将包括确定驻地科学家和访问科学家与各级学生（k -博士后）之间课堂互动的设施范围。从2005年开始，适龄上大学的部落成员和蒙大拿州接受K-12教育的农村居民将可以通过一个单独资助的教育项目进入实地站。实地站规划过程的一个重要部分将是确定建筑和土地设计，以促进实地和教室之间的顺利过渡。

The Yellowstone Ecological Research Center (YERC) is a non-profit research and education organization that has a ten year history of operation using leased facilities that are no longer sufficient to support its activities. This award supports a field station planning effort that will be the initial step in a multi-year process leading to the further development of an important biological field station providing access to the greater Yellowstone ecosystem (GYE). Through meetings involving researchers and educators who use or will use the station, outside scientific advisors, regional representatives of federal agencies, and local leaders, the planning effort will provide a master plan that identifies programmatic goals for the YERC station and the permanent facilities needed to support those programmatic goals. The field station is expected to serve as a staging ground for field education opportunities that will support Native American college students from the seven upper Missouri tribes, plus underserved rural Americans from within the region. The GYE is the largest nearly intact ecosystem in the temperate, industrialized world. Because of its remarkable geological properties, research in the GYE can lead to important discoveries at levels ranging from the microscopic scale (e.g., thermophilic bacteria in hydrogeothermal waters) to the ecosystem scale (e.g., seasonal elk migrations in the Northern Range). The planning process will include scoping of facilities for classroom interactions between resident and visiting scientists with students at all levels (K-Postdoctoral). Beginning in 2005, college-aged tribal members and K-12 rural Montanans will have access to the Field Station through a separately funded education program. An important part of the field station planning process will be to define building and lands designs that facilitate smooth transitions between the field and the classroom.