IRES: Track I: Andean-Amazonian Watershed Experience: Exploring Sustainability of Mountain Ecosystems in Ecuador (AWESOME)

该IRES项目由国际科学与工程办公室（OISE）和水文科学计划（GEO/EAR）共同资助。第1部分：非技术描述。随着我们的世界变得日益全球化和相互联系，为美国学生提供参与国际研究和文化交流的机会，对于培养一支具有全球意识、有能力应对未来挑战的熟练劳动力至关重要。与水有关的全球问题尤其如此，因为缺乏可靠和清洁的水供应来支持不断增长的人口是当今世界上最紧迫的环境和社会问题之一。该研究所支持一个面向美国本科生和研究生的国际项目，即“安第斯-亚马逊流域体验：探索厄瓜多尔山地生态系统的可持续性”（AWESOME）。该项目在厄瓜多尔的安第斯-亚马逊地区进行，该地区目前正在经历一系列与水有关的问题，以及旨在寻找解决方案的各种政策反应，因此为学生参与国际研究提供了理想的环境。AWESOME将在三年内支持18名美国学生在上安第斯-亚马逊地区的两个地点进行为期两个月的个人研究项目：Paute流域的高山paramo和Napo流域的雨林。学生将得到来自三所厄瓜多尔合作机构——昆卡大学、亚马逊地区大学和阿祖韦大学——的教师导师和来自不同学科的UNH教师导师的支持。两个队列体验，一个流域导览和一个综合研讨会（各10天），将向学生介绍不同自然生态系统和人类社区的水资源科学和政策，培养他们的系统思维和跨学科分析能力，并帮助他们将自己的研究概念化，作为复杂和相互关联的世界的一部分。第2部分：技术描述。解决全球与水相关的挑战需要未来的领导者对流域可持续性和复杂的社会生态水文系统（SEHS）的科学有深刻的理解，并有能力将这种理解应用于使用跨学科方法制定有效的政策解决方案。AWESOME的目标是：(1)提供国际研究经验，增强学生对耦合SEHS响应各种全球变化驱动因素的复杂动态的理解；(2)研究基于科学的政策，以提高流域可持续性。学生研究项目将集中在六个主题上：1)水文调节——从树叶到流域；2)生物地球化学循环—水质和碳储量；3)生物多样性-生物相互作用与流域功能；4)社会动态和社区弹性；5)水基金的经济生态权衡；6)水政策。主题统一在分水岭可持续性的概念框架下，该框架结合了SEHS中人类和生物物理系统之间复杂的相互作用和反馈。这一概念模型以自然-人类耦合系统动力学、流域可持续性、社区恢复力和跨学科研究等理论为基础，为指导AWESOME体验提供了强大的知识框架。学生将参加跨学科和跨文化的研究团队，并与不同的流域参与者进行跨学科的讨论，这将支持他们发展和完善流域可持续发展的心理模型。通过利用厄瓜多尔和美国教师和合作学术机构之间正在进行的研究合作，我们的研究团队将提供独特的和变革性的国际研究经验，这将对学生的个人和职业轨迹产生影响。AWESOME将为围绕SEHS和流域可持续性的国际研究和体验式学习创造一个创新模式，对美国、厄瓜多尔和其他国家之间的教育项目产生广泛影响。通过与当地流域行动者建立伙伴关系和相互作用，将在综合讲习班和学生报告中分享和讨论研究成果及其对水资源政策的影响。将通过NH国际研讨会系列组织一次研讨会，以突出这一令人敬畏的经历，美国和厄瓜多尔的学生和研究人员将发表演讲并促进讨论，这些内容将通过网络研讨会广泛传播。将开发教学方法，利用国际研究机会，在培养学术、专业和个人成长的同时，加强学生对流域可持续性问题的学习。最后，这个IRES将创建国际研究合作和交流项目，这些项目将在AWESOME项目任期结束后持续下去。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 IRES project is co-funded by Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE) and Hydrologic Sciences programs (GEO/EAR). Part 1: Nontechnical description. As our world becomes increasingly globalized and interconnected, providing opportunities for U.S. students to engage in international research and cultural exchange is essential to creating a globally aware and skilled workforce capable of tackling the challenges of the future. This is especially true for global issues related to water, given that the scarcity of reliable and clean water supplies to support growing human populations is one of the world’s most pressing environmental and social issues today. This IRES supports an international program for U.S. undergraduate and graduate students, the “Andean-Amazonian Watershed Experience: Exploring Sustainability of Mountain Ecosystems in Ecuador” (AWESOME). The program takes place in the Andean-Amazonian region of Ecuador, which is currently experiencing a range of water-related issues along with a diversity of policy responses aimed at finding solutions, and thus provides an ideal landscape for engaging students in international research experiences. AWESOME will support 18 U.S. students over three years to conduct individual research projects over two months at two sites in the upper Andean-Amazonian region: alpine paramo in the Paute watershed, and rainforest in the Napo watershed. Students will be supported by faculty mentors from three collaborating Ecuadorian institutions, theUniversity of Cuenca, the Regional University of Amazonia, and the University of Azuay, and UNH faculty mentors from diverse disciplines. Two cohort experiences, an orientation watershed tour and a synthesis workshop (10 days each), will introduce students to water resource science and policy across diverse natural ecosystems and human communities, foster their capacity for systems-thinking and interdisciplinary analysis, and help them to conceptualize their own research as part of a complex and interconnected world.Part 2: Technical description. Addressing global water-related challenge requires that future leaders have a strong understanding of the science of watershed sustainability and complex socioecohydrological systems (SEHS), and the ability to apply that understanding to developing effective policy solutions using transdisciplinary approaches. The goals of AWESOME are to, (1) provide an international research experience that enhances student understanding of the complex dynamics of coupled SEHS in response to diverse global change drivers, and (2) investigate science-based policies for improving watershed sustainability. Student research projects will focus on six themes: 1) hydrologic regulation–from leaves to watersheds; 2) biogeochemical cycles—water quality and carbon storage; 3) biodiversity–biotic interactions and watershed functions; 4) social dynamics andcommunity resilience; 5) economic-ecological tradeoffs of water funds, and 6) water policy. Themes are unified under a conceptual framework of watershed sustainability that incorporates the complex interactions and feedbacks between the human and biophysical systems within SEHS. This conceptual model is grounded in the theories of coupled natural-human systems dynamics, watershed sustainability, community resilience, and inter/transdisciplinary research, providing a strong intellectual framework for guiding the AWESOME experience. Students will participate in interdisciplinary and intercultural research teams and engage in transdisciplinary discussions with diverse watershed actors, which will support their development and refinement of mental models of watershed sustainability. By leveraging ongoing research collaborations between Ecuadorian and U.S. faculty and partner academic institutions, our research team will offer a unique and transformative international research experience that will have an impact on students’ personal and professional trajectories. AWESOME will result in an innovative model for international research and experiential learning around SEHS and watershed sustainability, with broad impacts on educational programs between the U.S., Ecuador, and beyond. Through established partnerships and interactions with local watershed actors, research results and their implications for water resource policy will be shared and discussed at a synthesis workshop and in student reports. A seminar will be organized through the NH International Seminar Series to highlight the AWESOME experience, with U.S. and Ecuadorian students and researchers giving presentations and facilitating discussions, which will be widely disseminated via a webinar. Pedagogical approaches will be developed for using international research opportunities to enhance student learning regarding issues of watershed sustainability while cultivating academic, professional, and personal growth. Finally, this IRES will create international research collaborations and exchange programs that will be sustained beyond the tenure of the AWESOME program.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.