US-Costa Rica Tropical Ecology Mentorship Program of Southern California: Diversification and International Training of Undergraduates in Field Ecology

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This three-year award, funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5), will support undergraduate students, graduate students, and K-12 teachers in doing international collaborative research in a tropical rainforest setting. Under the joint mentorship of the PIs and Costa Rican ecologists Dr. Marcelo Ardón and Dr. Javier Espeleta, participants will spend 8 weeks in the summer investigating contemporary hypotheses regarding the transfer of energy and nutrients across trophic levels. Projects will include the impact of terrestrial insects on stream foodwebs, the effects of species diversity on leaf litter breakdown, the tracking of leaf area loss to herbivores, and the role of leaf litter decomposition in the carbon cycle. These experiments will take place at La Selva Biological Reserve in Costa Rica, in cooperation with Dr. Liana Babbar of the Organization for Tropical Studies. Each of the three participant cohorts will include at least one graduate student, four undergraduate students, and an inner-city high school biology teacher. The groups will also be joined by several research recruits (talented students from underrepresented groups who are unable to commit for a full summer, but would benefit from exposure to scientific research) and a citizen scientist (student from a science policy background who would similarly benefit from a hands-on research experience).