WORKSHOP: EXPLORING NEW DIMENSIONS OF FOREST ECOSYSTEMS WITH STRUCTURAL DIVERSITY

科学家们早就知道生物多样性和生态系统结构对森林很重要。然而，这些概念大多是孤立研究的。这导致人们对它们之间的关系以及它们与森林功能的关系了解有限。由于遥感和计算机科学的进步，现在可以很容易地测量森林的物理结构。“结构多样性”一词描述了复杂生态系统中结构和生物多样性的结合，这是几十年来生态学研究的成果。结构多样性估计生态系统中物种的生态位空间，它可能比生物多样性与生态系统功能联系更紧密。资金将支持一个旨在推进结构多样性和森林生态系统功能科学的讲习班。该小组将确定紧迫的新研究问题，并综合生物学的两个领域：生物多样性和生态系统结构的遥感。研讨会将使用来自国家生态观测站网络（NEON）的数据。招募早期职业和代表性不足的少数民族科学家将增加在科学研究中采用NEON数据。这将解决2018年NEON社区参与评估报告中的一个关键需求。它还通过接触现有用户和扩大未来使用来响应NEON战略计划。结构多样性在生态学研究中的应用受到其理论框架不完善和缺乏优先研究问题的限制。该研讨会由巴特尔和NEON公司合作举办，将探讨基础问题，确定关键知识差距，并优先考虑这一新领域的未来方向。本次研讨会的目标是：1)建立“结构多样性”的跨学科共识定义；2)确定未来五年要解决的关于结构多样性及其与生态过程的关系的关键研究问题，以及填补这些问题所需的知识空白；3)为早期职业科学家提供培训，使用NEON遥感数据产品测量结构多样性。讲习班将汇集具有森林生态学跨学科观点的科学家和来自代表性不足群体的科学家，以进一步增加其影响。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。

Scientists have long known that biodiversity and ecosystem structure are important for forests. However, these concepts are mostly studied in isolation. This has resulted in a limited understanding of how they relate to each other and to forest function. Forest physical structure can now be easily measured because of advances in remote sensing and computer science. The term 'structural diversity' describes the combination of structure and biodiversity within complex ecosystems, capitalizing on decades of ecology research. Structural diversity estimates niche space for species in ecosystems, and it may link more closely to ecosystem function than biodiversity. Funding will support a workshop designed to advance the science on structural diversity and forest ecosystem function. The group will identify urgent, new research questions and synthesize two areas of biology: biodiversity and remote sensing of ecosystem structure. The workshop will use data from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). Recruitment of early career and underrepresented minority scientists will increase adoption of NEON data in scientific research. This will address a critical need from the 2018 NEON Community Engagement Assessment Report. It also responds to the NEON Strategic Plan by reaching current users and expanding future use.The application of structural diversity within ecological research is limited by its underdeveloped theoretical framework and a lack of prioritized research questions. This workshop, held in partnership with Battelle and NEON, Inc., will explore foundational questions, identify key knowledge gaps, and prioritize future directions for this new field. The goals of this workshop are to 1) establish an interdisciplinary consensus definition of 'structural diversity', 2) identify key research questions about structural diversity and its relationship to ecological processes to be addressed in the next five years and the knowledge gaps needed to be filled to answer these questions, 3) provide training for early career scientists to measure structural diversity using NEON remote sensing data products. The workshop will bring together scientists with interdisciplinary perspectives of forest ecology and from underrepresented groups to further increase its impact.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.