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的短缺问题。拟议中的高级研究所将为8名来自代表性不足群体的美国研究生提供为期三周的热带生物多样性实地培训，每三年一次。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。学生们将与佛罗里达国际大学(FIU)和Labex ceba的研究人员合作，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，结合该领域当前的尖端研究，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FIU热带项目领导的推广活动做出贡献，以加强迈阿密大都市区学校、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地方研究和教育网络。全球变化的加速突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学家短缺的回应，该项目旨在为陆地热带生物多样性科学的下一代研究人员做准备。该项目涉及应对热带生物多样性研究挑战的四个相辅相成的主题。首先，热带生物多样性培训在很大程度上忽视了对主要生物群体的分类学的基本理解。我们将包括三个不同的未被研究的群体的方法论抽样和编目：树木、节肢动物和真菌。第二，生物多样性研究的一个新兴前沿涉及物种功能策略的整合，这些策略影响它们的分布、人口统计和对环境变化的反应。使用相同的分类学分组，学生将学习在野外和实验室中测量功能特征的最被接受的方法。第三，大多数生物多样性科学的学生在进行统计分析和建模练习时，没有纳入支持他们的分类假说的不确定性，也没有纳入用于描述物种分布和相互作用的生态参数。学生将学习描述生物多样性的最新方法，将分类学和功能生态学结合起来，加强他们开发和理解气候模型的能力，并使用这些信息来预测未来的威胁。最后，对于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的影响的社会因素纳入其中是罕见的，但也是必不可少的。因此，学生们将探索多用途森林管理和当地社区再生农业的主题，以了解管理决策不仅对热带生物多样性，而且对生计战略的后果。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。

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.