NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2019: Leaky Landscapes: Using Arctic catchments to assess ecosystem 'openness'

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2019, Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The project seeks to understand the connection between land and aquatic ecosystems in a warming Arctic. This scientific challenge has been identified by the international community and Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) field stations in the Arctic. The Arctic ecosystem is being altered rapidly and systematically as a result of the changing climate. One critical element of change is permafrost thaw, which allows previously trapped nutrients to 'leak' in Arctic landscapes, although there is little agreement about the ultimate fate of the leaked material. To fill this knowledge gap, the project will use continuous and geographically extensive monitoring of river water quality to reveal landscape features that influence nutrient release from land to streams. In addition, the fellow will enhance public awareness of unique but globally-significant Arctic ecosystems through the use of technology to bridge the field to classroom gap. Hosted at Michigan State University, the fellow will work in partnership with the Arctic LTER at Toolik Field Station and Kellogg Biological Station LTER.The postdoctoral fellow will use existing and planned LTER data collection to integrate Arctic ecological understanding at the plot and watershed-scales. The project will create a number of research products with broad interest to hydrologists, ecologists, and biogeochemists, including: 1) Analyses of synoptic and continuous data of catchment hydrology and hydrochemistry that have not yet been applied to the Arctic, and 2) Improved fundamental understanding of Arctic ecosystem 'hotspots' for nutrient fluxes. Further, the research is integrated with an education plan aimed at increasing participation of under-represented groups in Arctic research in three stages: 1) Developing K-12 lesson plans in partnership with Kellogg Biological Station Teacher Training Workshops, 2) Publishing these teaching plans as open-source Data Nuggets, and 3) Reaching K-12 classrooms through the free and broad-reaching 'Skype a Scientist' program. The project will expand current efforts at Michigan State University and the Arctic LTER aimed at understanding hydrochemical fate and transport, and will directly link to the Kellogg Biological Station LTER's outreach mission.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.