REU Site: Aquatic Chemical Ecology at Georgia Tech

该奖项为佐治亚理工学院本科生研究经验（REU）项目提供了新的资金。该项目每年将为9名学生提供为期10周的暑期研究项目。学生将进行关于水生化学生态学的独立研究项目。化学线索介导了多种重要的生态过程，包括种间和种内竞争、捕食者-猎物、宿主-寄生虫和互惠相互作用。这些线索被生物体用来寻找食物、躲避捕食者、选择配偶、形成群体、发起合作行为、构建社会等级和选择合适的环境。化学信号似乎在水生环境中特别重要，在那里视觉和听觉信号的传递往往受到阻碍。化学介导的相互作用在个体、种群、群落和生态系统水平上具有生态和进化后果。该计划将强调跨学科研究作为解决复杂问题的工具，并促进对化学介导过程在基础和应用研究中的重要性的认识。招聘重点将放在非博士学位授予机构的学生和少数民族学生身上。

This award provides renewed funding for a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at Georgia Institute of Technology. The program will support nine students per year during a ten week summer research program. Students will conduct independent research projects on aquatic chemical ecology. Chemical cues mediate a variety of critical ecological processes, including inter- and intraspecific competition, predator-prey, host-parasite, and mutualistic interactions. These cues are used by organisms to locate food, evade predators, select mates, form aggregations, launch cooperative behaviors, construct social hierarchies, and choose suitable environments. Chemical signaling appears to be especially important in aquatic environments, where visual and auditory transmission of signals is often impeded. Chemically-mediated interactions have ecological and evolutionary consequences at the individual, population, community, and ecosystem levels. The program will stress interdisciplinary research as a tool to solve complex problems and promote an appreciation for the importance of chemically-mediated processes in basic and applied research. Recruiting will focus on students from non-PhD granting institutions and minority students.