Collaborative Research: Integrated Training for Continental Ecology (ITCE): Bridging Scales and Systems with Isotopes

在研究生和博士后培训中提供创新的方法，包括在大陆生态学中出现的机会，是该项目的关键重点。来自20多所大学的32名教职员工将共同努力开发这样一个培训计划，以应对从地区到大陆的生态挑战。该方法将包括将稳定同位素与其他数据集和计算机模型相结合。稳定同位素在评估可伸缩的时间和空间数据流方面发挥着关键作用，并使潜在的过程和模式能够在空间和时间尺度上被确定和量化。要讨论的主要主题包括生态系统和大气之间的气体交换、动物迁徙、生态水文学以及光合作用的途径和对动物饮食的影响。该项目包括参与大学的四个培训内容：(1)通过为期两周的讲座和实验室课程进行多学科和多大学教学，第一个侧重于原理和实践，第二个侧重于将同位素、过程和模式、模型和尺度联系起来；(2)课程结束后扩展培训，研究生将通过访问和与其他大学的课程教师合作获得额外的培训并扩展他们的论文；(3)大学间博士后培训，重点是跨专题研究领域的建模和综合，如迁移、碳循环、水循环和扰动；以及(4)开发、集成和在网络上传播供他人使用的数据库、数据分析工具和培训模块。将通过重大科学会议之前的讲习班和主办机构的博士后参与来维持对这些群体的培训。学生还将在国家会议上组织会议，作为其专业发展的一部分。该项目将在五年内为150多名研究生和博士后提供培训和建立网络的机会，为未来几代生态学家利用从区域到大陆规模的生态学项目的现有和新的同位素数据流做好准备。招聘将强调妇女和任职人数不足的群体成员在这些机会中的多样性和包容性。教师开发的教学模块和网络产品将被纳入各自所在机构的课程。数据和模型综合工作将大大增加现有大型同位素数据集和生态研究界内外的数据分析工具的可及性，以进一步帮助发展大系统生物学学科。一个正式的评价框架将指导我们在该项目五年中的每一年改进我们的数据和教育产品。

Providing innovative approaches in graduate and postdoctoral training that encompass emerging opportunities in continental ecology is the critical focus of this project. Thirty-two faculty from nearly two dozen universities will combine efforts to develop such a training program that addresses ecological challenges at regional to continental scales. The approach will include the integration of stable isotopes with other datasets and computer models. Stable isotopes play a critical role in evaluating scalable temporal and spatial data streams and allow underlying processes and patterns to be identified and quantified across scales of space and time. Key themes to be addressed include gas exchange between ecosystems and the atmosphere, animal migration, ecohydrology, and pathways of photosynthesis and consequences for animal diets. The project includes four elements of training across the participating universities: (1) multidisciplinary and multi-university instruction through two week lecture and laboratory courses, with the first focusing on principles and practices and the second on linking isotopes, processes and patterns, modeling, and scaling; (2) extended hands on training after the courses, where graduate students will obtain additional training and expand their theses through visits and collaborations with course instructors at other universities; (3) inter-university postdoctoral training, focusing on modeling and syntheses across the thematic research areas of migration, carbon cycle, water cycle, and disturbance; and (4) developing, integrating, and disseminating over the web databases, data analysis tools, and training modules to be used by others. Training of cohorts will be sustained through workshops in advance of major scientific meetings and participation with postdocs at the host institutions. Students will also organize sessions at national meetings as a component of their professional development.This project will provide training and network building opportunities to more than 150 graduate students and postdocs over five years, preparing future generations of ecologists to use existing and new isotopic data streams from regional to continental scale ecology programs. Recruitment will emphasize diversity and inclusion of women and members of underrepresented groups in these opportunities. Teaching modules and web products developed by the instructors will be incorporated into courses at their respective home institutions. Data and model synthesis efforts will greatly increase the accessibility of existing large scale isotopic datasets and data analysis tools within and beyond the ecological research community to further help develop the discipline of macrosystem biology. A formal evaluation framework will guide the improvement of our data and educational products in each of the five years of this project.