Planning Grant:: Developing a strategic plan and infrastructure needs for the Laguna Bacalar Field Station, Bacalar Mexico

该项目将制定计划，在位于伯利兹以北30公里的尤卡坦半岛南部、拉古纳巴克塞特海岸的墨西哥巴克塞特建立一个国际教育和研究实地站及海洋实验室。 拉古纳巴克塞特位于一个全球独特的生态和考古复杂和环境敏感的走廊，连接陆地，淡水，河口和海洋系统，并已广泛居住的人类，可以追溯到玛雅人，超过3000年。作为墨西哥第二大天然湖，这个原始的系统也位于主要由席卷尤卡坦半岛的旅游业驱动的重大生态变化和社会经济力量的门口。Bacterium走廊包含高度动态和多样的区域地下水流系统、高生长和低生长的热带森林、密集的淡水和海洋红树林、活跃的湖底泉水和深的天然井天坑、河口以及长达1000公里的中美洲珊瑚礁的独特边缘礁区。 科学界几乎不知道，拉古纳还包含世界上最大和最广泛的活叠层石复合体，许多人认为这是地球上最早的生命形式之一的活生生的例子。 这一生态系统也是我们这个时代面临的巨大挑战之一--理解和管理人类活动与脆弱的环境系统之间的相互作用。建立一个国际公认的外地站不仅将为科学界服务，而且还将为可持续发展提供数据、信息和了解，并为来自世界各地的研究和研究人员提供经济利益。在技术、研究和教育领域加强当地经济的机会很少，但在更广泛的背景下，这种机会是影响墨西哥和美国的持续就业力量的核心。本项目将启动和促进规划在墨西哥金塔纳罗奥的拉古纳巴克塞特建立一个国际教育和研究外地站。这项规划将是由威斯康星大学密尔沃基分校淡水科学学院（SFS）、墨西哥切图马尔的El Colegio de la Frontera Sur（ECOSUR）、墨西哥国立自治大学生态研究所和墨西哥自治市巴塞里亚市共同努力的结果。目标是征求各种科学家、野外台站管理人员、教育工作者和墨西哥政府团体（市、州、联邦领导人，国家水资源委员会（CONAGUA）的任务是确定科学需要和机会，概述一个强有力的研究议程，确保实施野外台站发展的最佳规划做法，并确定为具有不同背景的专业人员提供广泛可用设施的基本要求。该站将为来自一系列机构的科学界提供服务，这些机构的共同兴趣是研究水和自然资源领域的本地和国际挑战，包括科学与政策、经济和社会结构的界面研究，其中有很强的教育成分，STEM项目，墨西哥COBACH高中项目。 将通过使各工作组参与有针对性的产出来实现外地站规划目标：召开一次国际专题讨论会，总结以前完成的研究，确定新的研究领域，并举行促进规划会议，以制定外地站今后的方向;为区域外行和土著玛雅人举办互动式研讨会;并向成功的生物野外站和海洋实验室（FSML）主任和管理人员征求关于站管理、预算和使用政策的建议和反馈。

This project will lay plans for development of an international, educational and research field station and marine laboratory in Bacalar, Mexico, located in the southern Yucatan Peninsula 30 km north of Belize on the shores of Laguna Bacalar. Laguna Bacalar lies within a globally unique ecological and archeological complex and environmentally sensitive corridor that connects terrestrial, freshwater, estuarine, and marine systems, and that has been extensively inhabited by humans, dating back to the Mayans, for well over 3000 years. As Mexico's second largest natural lake, this pristine system also lies at the doorstep of major ecological changes and socio-economic forces driven largely by tourism that are sweeping the Yucatan Peninsula. The Bacalar corridor contains highly dynamic and diverse regional groundwater flow regimes, high and low growth tropical forests, dense freshwater and marine mangrove forests, active sublacustrine springs and deep cenote sinkholes, estuaries, and unique fringing reef areas of the 1000 km long Mesoamerican barrier coral reef. Virtually unknown to the scientific community, the Laguna also contains the world's largest and most extensive living stromatolite complex, considered by many as living examples of one of the earliest life forms on earth. This ecosystem also epitomizes one of the great challenges of our time - understanding and managing the interactions between human activity and vulnerable environmental systems. Establishment of an internationally recognized field station will not only serve the scientific community, but will also provide the data, information and understanding for sustainable development as well as the economic benefit of hosting research and researchers from around the world. Opportunities to enhance the local economy in the areas of technology, research and education have been rare, but in a broader context such opportunities are at the heart of the ongoing employment forces affecting Mexico and the U.S.This project will initiate and facilitate planning the establishment of an international education and research field station located on Laguna Bacalar, Quintana Roo, Mexico. This planning will be a collaborative effort by the School of Freshwater Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (SFS); El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) at Chetumal, MX; the Institute of Ecology, UNAM; and the Municipio Bacalar, MX. The goal is to solicit input from a variety of scientists, field station managers, educators, and Mexican governmental groups (municipal, state, federal leaders e.g., Comisión Nacional del Agua (CONAGUA)) to delineate scientific needs and opportunities, to outline a robust research agenda, to assure the implementation of the best planning practices for field station development, and to identify the basic requirements for a broadly available facility for professionals with diverse backgrounds. The station will serve the scientific communities from an array of institutions with the common interest of studying local to international challenges in the field of water and natural resources, including interface studies of science with policy, economics, and social structure with a strong educational component e.g., STEM programs, Mexican COBACH high school programs. The field station planning goals will be achieved by engaging working groups with targeted outputs: by convening an international symposium to summarize research previously accomplished, to identify new research frontiers, and to conduct facilitated planning sessions to develop field station future directions; by conducting interactive seminars for regional lay persons and the indigenous Maya; and by soliciting advice and feedback from successful Biological Field Stations and Marine Laboratories (FSML) directors and managers on station management, budgeting, and use policies.