Biocomplexity of Hydrological Service Payments and Watershed Sustainability in Mexico

OISE-0902019 PI：Heidi Asbjornsen美国-墨西哥规划访问建议将建立合作联系和实验设计的研究墨西哥的生物复杂性？的水文服务（PHS）计划的付款和流域可持续性的影响。 规划访问的一个关键目标是发展来自多个美国和墨西哥研究机构的研究人员之间的合作，包括爱荷华州州立大学、韦拉克鲁斯生态研究所、墨西哥国立自治大学、奥本大学、密歇根理工大学和墨西哥非政府组织SENDAS。 美国团队将包括7名美国研究人员和2名美国研究生。 这次计划访问的主人是来自墨西哥哈拉帕生态研究所的罗伯特曼森博士。 国际团队将开发跨学科研究，重点是以下两个中心目标：1。量化PHS政策对位于墨西哥三个不同地理文化区域的复制流域的耦合社会生态系统的每个维度的流域可持续性潜在关键指标的影响。制定一个可持续发展指数，以评估PHS政策对整个研究流域耦合社会生态系统的总体影响。从这次规划访问中开发的研究结果可能会大大有助于了解针对水文服务的经济激励措施如何与人类行为相结合，直接影响流域的可持续发展和生活质量。 综合流域可持续性指数的发展和测试将是特别有价值的科学与政策的联系，从而可能会通过应用在未来的PHS方案的改进和设计产生广泛的影响。 其他重要的广泛影响包括加强美国和墨西哥之间的国际合作以及对跨学科国际研究学生的培训。 该奖项由环境生物学部和国家科学基金会国际科学与工程办公室共同资助。

OISE-0902019PI: Heidi AsbjornsenThis U.S.-Mexico Planning Visit Proposal will establish the collaborative linkages and experimental design for research on the biocomplexity of Mexico?s Payments for Hydrological Services (PHS) programs and the implications for watershed sustainability. A key goal of the planning visit is to develop collaborations between researchers from multiple U.S. and Mexican research institutions, including Iowa State University, Institute of Ecology in Veracruz, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Auburn University, Michigan Technological University, and SENDAS, a Mexican NGO. The U.S. team will include seven U.S. researchers and two U.S. graduate students. The host for the planning visit is Dr. Robert Manson from the Institute of Ecology, in Xalapa, Mexico. The international team will develop interdisciplinary research focused on the following two central objectives:1. To quantify the effects of PHS policies on potential key indicators of watershed sustainability for each dimension of coupled social-ecological systems for replicated watersheds located in three contrasting geographic-cultural regions in Mexico.2. To develop a sustainability index for assessing the aggregate impact of PHS policies on coupled social-ecological systems across the study watersheds.The results of research developed from this planning visit may contribute significantly to the fundamental knowledge of how economic incentives targeting hydrological services are coupled to human actions to directly influence watershed sustainability and quality of life. The development and testing of aggregated watershed sustainability indices will be particularly valuable in linking science with policy and thus will likely have broad impacts through applications in the improvement and design of future PHS programs. Other important broad impacts include the strengthening of international collaboration between U.S. and Mexico and the training of students in interdisciplinary-international research. This award is jointly funded by the Division of Environmental Biology and the Office of International Science and Engineering of the National Science Foundation.