IRES: RUI Undergraduate research on sustainable harvesting in a coral reef ecosystems

该项目将为主修STEM学科的美国本科生提供为期三年的国际研究体验。来自不同区域人口的学生将被招募为夏季队列，参加一个关于捕鱼对伯利兹海岸外偏远珊瑚礁生态系统的影响的密集和身临其境的研究项目。每个暑期班将由至少四名学生组成，他们将在六周的时间里参加预备研讨会、旅行和合作工作。学生将作为一个小组进行合作，但将在现有长期生态研究的特定方面进行研究，以了解目标珊瑚礁物种的生态以及商业捕鱼对其种群的影响。这项国际研究活动将与关于当前海洋养护问题、生态实地方法、分析捕捞数据的量化技术以及中美洲和加勒比区域渔业的社会经济的密集教学相结合。全面的学习体验将为学生提供独特的见解，为海洋保护应用生态科学。这项研究的学术价值旨在了解、预测和防止过度捕捞。过度捕捞继续困扰着珊瑚礁养护工作，由于缺乏关于关键物种的生活史数据和量化评估模型，有效的管理受到阻碍。一群本科生将合作对伯利兹一处孤立的珊瑚礁上的多物种渔业进行综合研究。在野生动物保护协会格洛夫礁海洋研究站专业研究人员的指导下，每个学生将收集特定项目的数据，该项目旨在确定种群动态和渔业对一系列关键的商业价值珊瑚礁物种的影响。学生将学习珊瑚礁苗圃栖息地的招募方面，捕捞和保护区主要栖息地的种群规模结构，珊瑚礁栖息地之间的扩散动态，以及通过检查渔获量来研究捕鱼产量和渔民偏好。出发前，学生将接受关于海洋保护科学、海洋生态方法、用于数据分析的统计和数学建模以及文化敏感性的广泛培训。在国际研究经验之后，学生将接受数据分析方面的指导，并将被期望在科学会议上展示结果。数据还将被纳入对这一珊瑚礁渔业的新预测模型。然后，美国研究人员将完成该生态系统的混合系统动力学/基于个体的模型的开发，并进行进一步的保护评估。

This project will facilitate a three-year international research experience for U.S. undergraduates majoring in STEM disciplines. Students from a diverse regional population will be recruited as summer cohorts to participate in an intensive and immersive research project on fishing impacts on a remote coral reef ecosystem off the coast of Belize. Each summer cohort will consist of a minimum of four students who will attend preparatory seminars, travel, and work collaboratively over a six-week period. Students will cooperate as a group but will conduct research on a specific aspect of existing long-term ecological studies to understand the ecology of target reef species and the impacts of commercial fishing on their populations. This international research activity will be coupled with intensive instruction on current marine conservation issues, ecological field methods, quantitative techniques for analyzing harvesting data, and the socio-economics of fishing of the Central America and Caribbean region. The comprehensive learning experience will provide students with unique insights into applied ecological science for marine conservation. The intellectual merits of this research are aimed at understanding, predicting, and preventing overfishing. Overfishing continues to plague coral reef conservation efforts, and effective management is hampered by the lack of life history data on key species and quantitative assessment models. Cohorts of undergraduate students will collaborate on a comprehensive study of a multi-species fishery on an isolated coral reef in Belize. Under the mentorship of professional researchers at the Wildlife Conservation Society's Glover's Reef Marine Research Station, each student will collect data on a specific project designed to determine population dynamics and fishing impacts on a suite of key commercially-valuable reef species. Students will study aspects of recruitment to reef nursery habitats, population size structure in primary habitats in fished and protected regions, and dispersal dynamics among reef habitats, as well as fishing yields and fisher preferences by examining catches. Prior to departure, students will receive broad training in marine conservation science, marine ecological methods, statistical and mathematical modeling for data analysis, and cultural sensitivity. After the international research experience, students will be mentored in data analysis and will be expected to present results at scientific conferences. Data also will be incorporated into a new predictive model for this reef fishery. The U.S. researchers will then complete development of a hybrid systems-dynamics/individual-based model for this ecosystem and for further conservation assessment.