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

这一国际学生研究体验(IRES)项目将吸引美国本科生在南部非洲国家斯威士兰进行实地生态和保护研究。该项目将利用指导、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的科学家合作，研究人类生计和农业生产需求与维护多样化和充满活力的生态系统的需要之间的结合，以使人类社区蓬勃发展。在斯威士兰的国际工作中，学生们将首先了解地区文化、自然历史、生态理论和研究技术。然后，学生们将利用他们的暑假进行独立研究项目。在项目过程中，学生研究项目将研究最近转换的农地可能如何改变野生动植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，这个项目将帮助我们了解如何维护生物多样性、健康的生态系统和人类的生计。此外，该计划将培养新一代科学家，他们将向当地和全球受众传播他们新发现的知识，并为应对地球上日益增长的保护挑战做好准备。全球保护努力必须拥抱农业景观，因为农业已经并将继续在塑造土地利用实践方面发挥主导作用。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了解有限？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重要假说是生境异质性假说。斯威士兰和美国科学家将与学生合作，了解异质性对动物群生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格局联系起来。第二批学生将测试在以农业为主的景观中驱动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。

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.