IRES Track II: A Unique Opportunity for Graduate Training in Tropical Biodiversity Science

该项目将解决目前生物多样性研究人员短缺的问题。拟议中的高级研究所将为来自代表性不足群体的8名美国研究生提供为期3周的热带生物多样性实地培训，每三年进行一次。这些学生将被纳入由法国亚马逊生物多样性研究卓越中心（LabEx CEBA）支持的现有成功的实地培训计划，该中心在法属圭亚那的库鲁拥有最先进的基础设施。学生将与来自佛罗里达国际大学（FIU）和LabEx CEBA的研究人员一起工作，利用法属圭亚那广泛的永久实地研究地点和实验室。教师导师将指导学生的研究项目，其中包括该领域当前的前沿研究，重点关注三个不同的未被研究的群体——树木、节肢动物和真菌。学生们还将为佛罗里达国际大学热带项目的推广做出贡献，以加强迈阿密大都会地区学校、博物馆和植物园的K-12研究。因此，该项目将促进这24名科学家融入全球和当地的研究和教育网络。加速的全球变化凸显了记录和了解热带生物的迫切需要。作为对训练有素的生物生物学家短缺的回应，该项目旨在培养陆地热带生物多样性科学的下一代研究人员。该项目涉及四个相互补充的主题，以应对热带生物多样性研究中的挑战。首先，在热带生物多样性培训中，对主要生物类群分类学的基本理解在很大程度上被忽视了。我们将包括三个不同的未被充分研究的群体：树木、节肢动物和真菌的方法学抽样和编目。其次，生物多样性研究的一个新兴前沿涉及影响其分布、人口统计和对环境变化反应的物种功能策略的整合。使用相同的分类组，学生将学习在野外和实验室中最被接受的测量功能特征的方法。第三，大多数生物多样性专业的学生在进行统计分析和建模练习时，都没有考虑到支持他们的分类学假设的不确定性，或者用来描述物种分布和相互作用的生态参数。学生将学习结合分类学和功能生态学描述生物多样性的最新方法，加强他们开发和理解气候模型的能力，并利用这些信息预测未来的威胁。最后，对生物多样性科学家来说，将承认人类活动对热带生物多样性影响的社会因素整合起来是罕见但必要的。因此，学生将探索当地社区的多用途森林管理和再生农业的主题，以便了解管理决策不仅对热带生物多样性，而且对生计战略的影响。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。

This project will address the current shortage of organismal biodiversity researchers. The proposed Advanced Studies Institute will provide three weeks of field training in tropical biodiversity for eight US-based graduate students from underrepresented groups, in each of three years. These students will be integrated into an existing successful field training program supported by the French Excellence Center for the Study of Biodiversity in Amazonia (LabEx CEBA), with state-of-the-art infrastructure in Kourou, French Guiana. Students will work with researchers from Florida International University (FIU) and LabEx CEBA, taking advantage of extensive permanent field research sites and laboratories available in French Guiana. The faculty mentors will supervise student research projects with current cutting-edge research in the field, focusing on three diverse understudied groups - trees, arthropods and fungi. Students will also contribute to outreach led by the FIU Tropics program, to strengthen K-12 research in schools, museums and botanic gardens in the Miami metropolitan area. The project will thus foster the integration of these 24 scientists into both global and local research and education networks. Accelerating global changes highlight the urgent need to document and understand tropical organisms. As a response to the shortage of well-trained organismal biologists, this project aims to prepare the next generation of researchers in terrestrial tropical biodiversity science. The project addresses four complementary themes that respond to challenges in tropical biodiversity research. First, a fundamental understanding of the taxonomy of major groups of organisms is largely ignored in tropical biodiversity training. We will include the methodological sampling and cataloguing of three diverse understudied groups: trees, arthropods and fungi. Second, an emerging frontier in biodiversity studies involves the integration of species functional strategies that influence their distributions, demographies, and responses to environmental changes. Using the same taxonomic groups, students will learn the most accepted methods measuring functional traits in the field and in the lab. Third, most students in biodiversity science conduct statistical analyses and modeling exercises without incorporating the uncertainty underpinning their taxonomic hypotheses, or the ecological parameters used to describe species distributions and interactions. Students will learn the latest methods to describe biodiversity that integrate taxonomy and functional ecology, strengthen their capacity to develop and understand climatic models, and use this information to predict the future threats. Finally, it is rare but essential for biodiversity scientists to integrate a social component that acknowledges anthropogenic influences on tropical biodiversity. Accordingly, students will explore the themes of multiple use forest management and regenerative agriculture in local communities, so as to understand the consequences of management decisions not only for tropical biodiversity but also for livelihood strategies.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.