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，正使科学家们有勇气以新的方式解决旧的生态和环境问题，并设计新的研究，提出和回答仅仅几年前不可想象的问题。在肯尼亚中部2.2万公顷的姆帕拉研究中心，来自十多所美国大学和研究所的美国科学家在14项美国国家科学基金会和美国国立卫生研究院的资助下，在过去的5年里发表了197篇论文，研究了一个2万平方公里的半干旱生态系统的生态学，这个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，他们与野生动物共享景观。这是一个模式系统，支持在美国大陆难以进行的大规模实验。此外，Mpala研究中心，特别是设想的新的现代化实验室，继续作为一个教育实验室，教美国本科生和研究生如何做真正的，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，这将使他们成为能够在不同文化中工作的更广泛的科学家。通过这种方式，Mpala正在培养下一代环境领袖，其中一些人将从事科学实践，但另一些人将制定科学政策。在Mpala，研究主要集中在生物地球化学以及栖息在生态系统中的动物和植物的种群、群落和行为动态。但是，就像迄今为止的研究成果一样，DNA和基因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、构成食物网的动物物种之间的竞争和互惠关系，以及跨越广阔时空尺度的物种种群遗传学。稳定同位素分析工具的类似进步将使人们能够对生态系统的功能进行新颖而更详细的调查，更深入地研究驱动和限制光合作用的植物的用水情况，以及影响其运动、栖息地利用和总体决策的动物的用水情况，以及许多灭绝物种（包括我们的人类祖先）的古生态学。这些新工具还将为野生动物与人类之间的相互作用提供重要见解，从而有助于减少伴随着人口增长和扩张的冲突。为了开展这项研究，必须购买新的分析工具，并且必须建造一个新的“清洁”建筑，将设备与肯尼亚中部恶劣、多尘和炎热的热带气候因素隔离开来。这个新设施将推动NSF和NIH支持的科学家和他们的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。肯尼亚的生物多样性很高，土地由人类和野生动物共享，在肯尼亚学到的东西很容易适用于美国西部和西南部各州发现的类似生态系统、物种和问题。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.