Catalyst Project: Diversity of ecosystem services provisioning in coastal socio-ecological systems

催化剂项目支持历史悠久的黑人学院和大学致力于建立教职员工的研究能力，以加强科学、技术、工程和数学本科教育和研究。预计该奖项将进一步提高教职员工的研究能力，并改善该机构的研究和教学。特拉华州立大学的这个项目将研究沿海生态系统的生态系统服务。本科生以研究人员的身份参与这个项目。生态系统服务，或人类从生态系统中获得的利益，是保护和恢复投资的重要理由。然而，过去的研究在如何评估以及何时预期服务之间的协同效应和权衡方面存在冲突。此外，很少有研究考察沿海社会生态系统中的这些关系。该项目旨在对特拉华州沿海生态系统提供的一系列服务进行量化测绘，包括观鸟、海滩使用、公园使用、划船等文化服务；渔业等供应服务；以及减缓洪水和生物多样性保护等监管和支持服务。将根据生物多样性指数建立服务提供总量和服务提供多样性的空间模型，并在多个空间尺度上进行比较。此外，还将使用多元统计方法，在不同土地用途的空间尺度上确定和检查服务捆绑包或不同的共现服务组。该项目将为评估生态系统服务的共同提供提供一个一般框架，该项目将提供对高度重视的沿海生态系统的服务提供的评估。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。

Catalyst Projects provide support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities to work towards establishing research capacity of faculty to strengthen science, technology, engineering and mathematics undergraduate education and research. It is expected that the award will further the faculty member's research capability, and improve research and teaching at the institution. This project at Delaware State University will study ecosystem services for coastal ecosystems. Undergraduate students participate in this project as researchers. Ecosystem services, or the benefits that humans receive from ecosystems, are an important justification for conservation and restoration investments. However, past studies are conflicted regarding how to assess and when to expect synergies and tradeoffs among services. Further, few studies have examined these relationships in coastal socioecological systems. This project aims to quantitatively map a broad suite of services provided by Delaware's coastal ecosystems, including cultural services such as birding use, beach use, park use, boating; provisioning services, such as fisheries; and regulating and supporting services such as flood mitigation and biodiversity preservation. Spatial models for the total service delivery and diversity of service delivery will be developed based on biodiversity indices and compared at multiple spatial scales. In addition, service bundles or distinct groups of co-occurring services will be identified and examined across spatial scales and with different land uses using multivariate statistics. The project will contribute a general framework to evaluate the co-delivery of ecosystem services, and the project will provide an assessment of the delivery of services in highly valued coastal ecosystems.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.