IRES: Changing Landscapes, Biodiversity, and Ecosystem Function in an African Global Biodiversity Hotspot in Swaziland

IRES：斯威士兰非洲全球生物多样性热点地区不断变化的景观、生物多样性和生态系统功能

• 批准号: 1459882
• 负责人: Robert McCleery
• 金额: $ 25万
• 依托单位: University of Florida
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2019-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1459882&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: IRES; Changing; Landscapes; Biodiversity; Ecosystem

This International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) project will engage U.S. undergraduate students in field-based ecology and conservation research in the southern Africa country of Swaziland. The project will use mentoring, teamwork and innovative research to train students to address some of the planet's most pressing conservation issues. Students will work with American and African scientists to study the integration of human livelihoods and needs for agricultural production with the need to maintain the diverse and vigorous ecosystems that allow human communities to thrive. Working internationally in Swaziland, students will first gain an understanding of regional cultures, natural history, ecological theory and research techniques. Students will then spend their summer conducting independent research projects. Over the course of the project student research projects will examine how recently converted agricultural lands may alter wildlife communities and the health of entire ecosystems. As global biodiversity continues to decline and agricultural landscapes increase, this project will help us understand how to maintain biodiversity, healthy ecosystems, and human livelihoods. Additionally, the program will produce a new generation of scientists who will spread their newly found knowledge to local and global audiences and be well prepared to face our planet's growing conservation challenges.Global conservation efforts must embrace agricultural landscapes, because agriculture has and will continue to play a dominant role in shaping land-use practices. Nonetheless, there is only a limited understanding of how agricultural landscapes alter biodiversity and ecosystems? ability to provide resources for humans (ecosystem services). One major hypothesis for balancing agricultural production with biodiversity and ecosystem functioning is the habitat heterogeneity hypothesis. Swazi and American scientists will work with students to understand the role of heterogeneity on faunal biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. One cohort of students will relate variation in the distribution of faunal communities to patterns in landscape heterogeneity. A second cohort of students will test the mechanisms that drive faunal community changes in agriculturally dominated landscapes. A final cohort of students will examine how landscape heterogeneity and faunal communities influence ecosystem functions.

这个国际学生研究经验（IRES）项目将使美国本科生在斯威士兰南部非洲国家进行实地生态和保护研究。该项目将使用指导，团队合作和创新研究来培训学生解决地球上一些最紧迫的保护问题。学生将与美国和非洲科学家合作，研究人类生计和农业生产需求的整合，以保持使人类社区蓬勃发展的多样化和充满活力的生态系统。在斯威士兰国际工作，学生将首先获得区域文化，自然历史，生态理论和研究技术的理解。然后，学生将在整个夏天进行独立的研究项目。在该项目的过程中，学生的研究项目将研究最近转换的农业用地如何改变野生动物群落和整个生态系统的健康。随着全球生物多样性的持续下降和农业景观的增加，该项目将帮助我们了解如何保持生物多样性，健康的生态系统和人类生计。此外，该计划将培养新一代的科学家，他们将向当地和全球受众传播他们新发现的知识，并做好充分准备，以面对我们这个星球日益增长的保护挑战。全球保护工作必须包括农业景观，因为农业已经并将继续在塑造土地使用实践中发挥主导作用。尽管如此，人们对农业景观如何改变生物多样性和生态系统的理解有限。为人类提供资源的能力（生态系统服务）。平衡农业生产与生物多样性和生态系统功能的一个主要假设是生境异质性假设。斯威士兰和美国科学家将与学生合作，了解异质性对动物多样性和生态系统功能的作用。一组学生将把动物群落分布的变化与景观异质性的模式联系起来。第二批学生将测试驱动农业主导景观中动物群落变化的机制。最后一批学生将研究景观异质性和动物群落如何影响生态系统功能。