CAREER: Assessing effects of ecosystem fragmentation using novel metrics of trophic structure as part of a broad educational outreach program

这一职业建议将实施一个学术计划，优先考虑科学和教育的直接整合。该项目围绕三个目标构建：1。通过发展研究食物网结构在种群和群落范围内的新方法，为水生生态系统破碎化的影响提供新的见解；2 .通过一系列基层潮溪修复项目，积极吸引学生和公众参与，并利用生态系统尺度的操作，将生态概念的假设驱动测试与实践学习经验相结合；为学生和公众提供独特的教育机会，强调在科学领域代表性不足的少数民族的机会。该项目将采用最近提出的基于稳定同位素的指标作为一种工具，可以揭示对生物体的独特见解。营养生态位，以及它们所在的食物网的特征。在本建议中，这些指标在种群和群落水平上的应用被应用于水生生态系统破碎化的研究。生态系统破碎化被认为是全球生物多样性丧失及其相关生态系统功能侵蚀的核心原因之一，但这方面的研究大多集中在陆地生态系统上。在巴哈马，潮溪生态系统的破碎现象很普遍，可能对生物多样性和生态系统功能产生巨大影响。在一个极其多样化的合作伙伴团队中，该提案概述了对碎片化影响的广泛检查，包括应用新的基于稳定同位素的指标。项目的基层性质（即当地人进行主要部分的修复和相关的科学研究）为当地公民和学生提供了一个独特的实践学习经验的机会，除了扩大数据收集的范围。该项目的最终结果将是为理解水生生态系统破碎化的影响提供一个更广泛的概念基础，以及一套新的工具，可用于测试核心生态理论和评估其他人为影响的影响。

This CAREER proposal will put into place an academic program that prioritizes the direct integration of science and education. The project is structured around three goals: 1. To provide new insights into the effects of aquatic ecosystem fragmentation through the development of novel approaches to study the population- and community-wide aspects of food web structure, 2. To actively engage students and the public through a series of grassroots tidal creek restoration projects, and to use ecosystem-scale manipulations to integrate hypothesis-driven testing of ecological concepts with hands-on learning experiences, and 3. To provide unique educational opportunities for students and the general public, emphasizing opportunities for minorities underrepresented in scientific fields. This project will incorporate recently proposed stable isotope-based metrics as a tool that may reveal unique insights into an organisms? trophic niches, as well as characteristics of the food webs in which they are embedded. In this proposal, the application of these metrics, at both population- and community- levels, is applied in the study of aquatic ecosystem fragmentation. Ecosystem fragmentation is regarded as one of the core causes of global biodiversity loss and the associated erosion of ecosystem function, but most of the research in this area has focused primarily on terrestrial ecosystems. In the Bahamas, fragmentation of tidal creek ecosystems is widespread and can have drastic impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem function. With an extremely diverse team of collaborating partners, this proposal outlines an extensive examination of the effects of fragmentation, including application of the new stable isotope-based metrics. The grassroots nature of the project (i.e., local people carry out major parts of the restoration and associated scientific research) provides a unique opportunity for hands-on learning experiences for local citizens and students, in addition to expanding the scope of data to be collected. The end result of this project will be a broader conceptual basis for understanding the effects of aquatic ecosystem fragmentation, as well as a novel set of tools that can be used to test core ecological theory and assess the effects of other anthropogenic impacts.