US-Chile Planning Visit: Ecological Forecasting of Intertidal Ecosystems in Chile

这项美国-智利计划访问计划将支持来自美国的四名高级研究人员和一名初级研究人员以及两名学生，他们将在南卡罗来纳大学哥伦比亚分校的Brian Helmuth博士的指导下，于2009年7月对智利进行计划访问。这次访问的主要目的是促进南卡罗来纳大学、哥伦比亚大学、加州大学圣巴巴拉分校、智利天主教大学和智利北卡罗来纳大学的研究人员之间的合作。在这项合作中，研究人员将开发和测试数学模型，以预测气候变化将如何影响海洋生物，特别是智利海岸线的潮间带生物。该小组将会见智利领先的海洋生态学家之一、智利天主教大学的塞尔吉奥·纳瓦雷特博士和智利北加州大学的生物物理耦合专家贝尔纳多·布罗伊特曼博士。在访问期间，研究人员将选择研究地点进行进一步分析，为他们的模型收集初步数据，并为未来的合作制定战略。调查人员计划向NSF和智利融资机构Fondecyt提交联合提案。访问将涉及一名职业早期研究人员和两名学生，一名研究生和一名本科生。它有可能在未来产生一系列关于南北半球海洋生物群落的比较研究，并将进一步加深我们对气候变化对沿海生态系统影响的了解。

This U.S - Chile Planning Visit proposal will support four senior and one junior researchers and two students from the U.S., under the direction of Dr. Brian Helmuth of University of South Carolina-Columbia, on a planning visit to Chile in July 2009. The primary goal of this visit is to develop a collaboration between researchers at University of South Carolina, Columbia, University of California-Santa Barbara, and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and Universidad Católica del Norte in Chile. In this collaboration, researchers will develop and test mathematical models for predicting how climate change will affect marine communities, specifically intertidal organisms along the Chilean coastline. The team will meet with Dr. Sergio Navarrete of Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, one of the leading marine ecologists in Chile, and Dr. Bernardo Broitman of Universidad Católica del Norte in Chile, an expert in biophysical coupling. During the visit, the researchers will select study sites for further analysis, collect preliminary data for their model, and a develop a strategy for future collaborations. The investigators plan to submit joint proposals to NSF and FONDECYT, the Chilean funding agency. The visit will involve one early-career researcher and two students, one graduate and one undergraduate. It has the potential to generate a series of future comparative studies on marine communities in the northern and southern hemispheres and will further our understanding of climate change effects on coastal ecosystems.