Four Specialized Pieces of Equipment to Enhance and Expand Research at the La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica

杜克大学和热带研究组织获得了一笔赠款，用于购买四套专门的科学设备，这些设备将加强哥斯达黎加La Selva生物站的研究。具体的研究将受益于这些仪器的获取，包括土壤微生物的固氮作用，植物的化学和系统发育多样性在食草动物群落和食草动物结构中的影响，凤梨类的微生物多样性和半翅目和伯霍尔德氏菌之间的共生关系，以及两栖动物的衰退。La Selva由热带研究组织（OTS）拥有和运营，OTS是一个由杜克大学（Duke University）近60所大学、学院和研究机构组成的非营利性联盟；它成立于1963年，在热带地区的教育、研究和负责任的自然资源利用方面发挥领导作用。OTS在哥斯达黎加设有三个生物研究站。La Selva是三个站点中最大的一个（由3900英亩的热带潮湿森林和扰动土地组成），被认为是热带地区最具科学生产力的野外站点之一。很少有研究站能像La Selva一样，同时拥有多样化的热带森林环境和复杂的研究能力，正是这种独特的环境和基础设施，加上近50年研究的长期数据集，使这个位于两个主要大陆之间大陆桥上的研究站变得如此重要。新设备将使该站保持在研究的前沿，并消除了将样品运送到国外进行分析的需要。它将成倍增加目前在该站进行的广泛研究项目的机会，开辟新的研究领域，并扩大研究人员和学生在未来十年在偏远的热带低地雨林工作时可以提出的令人兴奋的问题。在过去的10年里，每年到La Selva的工作人员和游客（研究人员，研究助理，生态游客）的数量在28,000到36,000之间变化。每年，来自美国的学院和大学的超过115个由教师主导的课程的学生利用拉塞尔瓦的森林和实验室作为他们课程的一部分。此外，每年，OTS本身运行大约15个研究生和本科课程，并为来自非r1研究型大学和科学中代表性不足的群体的学生提供为期10周的本科生现场研究体验（REU）计划。事实上，在过去的五年里，所有参加OTS教育项目的美国本科生中，有24%来自STEM学科中代表性不足的群体。该站赞助了几个关于热带生态毒理学、多营养相互作用多样性、生物信息学和数据库的工作组。它主办了许多涉及世界各地科学家的多机构合作和研讨会。因此，所要求的设备将为学生和研究人员提供丰富的教育，持久的研究经验，并有可能导致热带野外生物学的新发现。更多信息请访问以下网站：http://www.ots.ac.cr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=163&Itemid=348

Duke University and the Organization for Tropical Studies have been awarded a grant to purchase four pieces of specialized scientific equipment that will enhance research at the La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica. Specific research that will benefit from the acquisition of these instruments include nitrogen fixation by soil microorganisms, effects of chemical and phylogenetic diversity of plants in the structure of herbivore community and herbivory, microbial diversity in tank bromeliads and mutualistic associations between hemiptera and Burholderia bacteria, and amphibian decline.La Selva is owned and operated by the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS), a non-profit consortium of nearly sixty universities, colleges, and research institutions located at Duke University; it was founded in 1963 to provide leadership in education, research, and the responsible use of natural resources in the tropics. OTS maintains three biological research stations in Costa Rica. La Selva, the largest of the three (comprised of 3900 acres of tropical wet forests and disturbs lands), has been recognized as one of the most scientifically productive field stations in the tropics. Few research stations have access to both diverse tropical forest settings and sophisticated research capabilities as La Selva, and it is this unique setting and infrastructure, combined with long-term data sets from nearly fifty years of research, that makes this station situated along the land-bridge between two major continents, so important. The new equipment will enable the station to remain at the forefront of research and eliminate the need to transport samples abroad for analysis. It will enhance exponentially opportunities for the wide array of research projects currently taking place at the station, open new lines of research, and expand the exciting questions researchers and students can ask in the decade ahead while working in a remote tropical lowland rain forest. Over the last 10 years, the number of staff and visitors (researchers, research assistants, eco-tourists) to La Selva has varied between ~ 28 and 36 thousand a year. Annually, students from more than 115 faculty-led courses from colleges and universities from the United States utilize La Selva's forests and laboratories as part of their curriculum. In addition, each year, OTS itself runs approximately 15 graduate and undergraduate courses and a ten-week site-based research experience for undergraduates (REU) program for students from non-R1 research universities and groups under-represented in the sciences. In fact, over the last five years, 24% of all U.S. undergraduates in the OTS education programs are from under-represented groups in the STEM disciplines. The station has sponsored several working groups on tropical ecotoxicology, multi-trophic interaction diversity, and bioinformatics and databases. It has hosted a number of multi-institutional collaborations and workshops that involve scientists from all over the world. Therefore, the requested equipment will provide an enriching educational, long-lasting research experience for students and researchers, and potentially lead to new discoveries in tropical field biology. For more information please visit the following website: http://www.ots.ac.cr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=163&Itemid=348