New Technologies for expanding the scale of research at the Mpala Research Center

技术正在改变环境研究的规模和范围。就像智能手机和社交媒体改变了人们互动和获取新闻的方式一样，图像处理、GPS卫星和无线动物追踪器以及DNA和稳定同位素分析工具方面的突破正在鼓励科学家以新的方式解决旧的生态和环境问题，并设计新的研究，提出和回答几年前还不可想象的问题。在肯尼亚中部22,000公顷的姆帕拉研究中心，来自十几所美国大学和研究所的美国科学家在NSF和NIH的14项拨款的支持下，在过去5年中发表了197篇论文，研究了20,000平方公里半干旱生态系统的生态，该生态系统维持着肯尼亚第二多样化的野生动物，并支持商业牧场主、牧民和农民的生计，他们与这种野生动物共享这一景观。这是一个模型系统，支持在美国大陆难以进行的大规模实验。此外，姆帕拉研究中心，特别是设想的新的现代化实验室，继续充当教育实验室，向美国各种族和各行各业的本科生和研究生传授如何研究真正的、重要的、相关的和变革性的科学。此外，他们与来自肯尼亚和世界各地的学生、教师和PI的互动提供了多样化的视角，使他们能够在不同的文化中工作。通过这种方式，姆帕拉正在培养下一代环境领导人，他们中的一些人将从事科学工作，但另一些人将塑造科学政策。在姆帕拉，研究通常侧重于生物地球化学以及生态系统中动植物的种群、群落和行为动态。但是，尽管这项研究到目前为止一直很强劲，但DNA和遗传分析技术的进步将改变科学，使人们能够更深入地研究饮食、组成食物网的动物物种的竞争和互惠关系，以及跨越广阔空间和时间尺度的物种的种群遗传学。稳定同位素分析工具方面的类似进展将使人们能够对生态系统的功能进行新的和更详细的调查，更仔细地检查驱动和限制光合作用的植物以及影响其运动的动物的用水情况，栖息地的利用和总体决策，以及包括我们的人类祖先在内的许多灭绝物种的古生态。这些新工具还将提供重要的洞察，了解野生动物与人类之间潜在的相互作用，从而有助于减少伴随着人类人口增长和扩张而产生的冲突。为了开展这项研究，必须购买新的分析工具，并建造一座新的“干净”建筑，将设备与肯尼亚中部严酷、多尘和炎热的热带气候要素隔离开来。这一新设施将推动NSF和NIH支持的科学家及其学生发现塑造环境模式和过程的新规则，这些规则在这些新技术进步出现之前是不可能研究的。在肯尼亚，生物多样性很高，土地被人和野生动物共享，很容易适用于类似的生态系统、物种和在美国西部和西南部各州发现的问题。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Technology is transforming the scale and scope of environmental research. Just as smartphones and social media have transformed the way people interact and acquire their news, breakthroughs in image processing, GPS satellite and wireless animal trackers as well as DNA and stable isotope analytical tools are emboldening scientist to solve old ecological and environmental problems in new ways and to design new studies that ask and answer questions that were inconceivable only a few years ago. At the 22,000 ha Mpala Research Center in central Kenya, US scientists from over a dozen US universities and Institutes supported by 14 NSF and NIH grants, resulting in 197 publications in the last 5 years, study the ecology of a 20,000 Km2 semi-arid ecosystem that sustains the second most diverse array of wildlife in Kenya as well as supporting livelihoods of commercial ranchers, pastoral herders and farmers who share the landscape with this wildlife. It is a model system that supports large scale experiments that are difficult to do within the continental US. Moreover, the Mpala, Research Center, especially with the new modern lab envisioned, continues to serve as an educational laboratory that teaches US undergraduate and graduate students of all ethnicities and walks of life how do real, important, relevant and transformative science. In addition, their interactions with students, faculty and PIs from Kenya and around the world provide a diversity of perspectives that will make them broader scientists able to work within different cultures. In this way, Mpala is training the next generation of environmental leaders, some of whom will practice science, but others of whom will shape science policy. At Mpala, research generally focuses on the biogeochemistry as well as the population, community and behavioral dynamics of the animals and plants inhabiting the ecosystem. But as strong as the research has been to date, advances in DNA and genetical analytical techniques will transform science, allowing more in depth looks at the diets, the competitive and mutualistic relationships of animal species comprising food webs as well as the population genetics of species spread across expansive spatial and temporal scales. Similar advances in stable isotope analytical tools will enable novel and more detailed investigations into the functioning of the ecosystem, closer examination of water use by plants that drive and limit photosynthesis as well as those of animals that shape their movements, habitat uses and overall decision-making, and the paleoecology of many extinct species, including our human ancestors. These new tools will also provide important insights underlying interactions among wildlife and people, thus helping reduce conflict that accompanies human population growth and expansion. In order to carry out this research, the new analytical tools must be purchased and a new 'clean' building that isolates the equipment form the harsh, dusty and hot tropical climatic elements of central Kenya must be constructed. This new facility will propel the NSF and NIH supported scientists and their students to uncover new rules shaping environmental patterns and processes that were impossible to study before the emergence of these new technological advances. What is learned in Kenya where biodiversity is high and the land is shared between people and wildlife easily applies to similar ecosystems, species and problems found in the western and southwestern states in the US.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.