AccelNet: International Tropical Forest Science Alliance (ITFSA): A global multi-network science and training

热带森林对地球的功能至关重要，通过储存一半的陆地生物量和碳，吸收四分之一的人为碳排放，并帮助稳定气候和水循环，为社会提供基本服务。全球变化，包括砍伐森林、森林退化、气候和大气变化，正在极大地影响热带森林。这些变化将如何影响未来的热带森林仍然高度不确定。“加速网络”项目建立了一个热带森林研究网络全球联盟，旨在加快所需的研究和培训，以增进对热带森林功能的了解，并预测它们将如何应对和影响未来的全球变化。国际热带森林科学联盟（ITFSA）包括11个热带森林研究网络，管理着56个国家的11656个森林研究地块，这些网络将通过面对面的研讨会、虚拟会议、公共网络研讨会以及国际奖学金和实习进行协调。通过利用各个网络内广泛和互补性的知识和资源，热带森林服务体系将迅速推进热带森林科学，开发数据管理和分析工具，并帮助培养具有全球网络和跨学科科学技能的新一代科学家，以便更全面地了解热带森林如何有助于健康和运转的地球。了解热带森林的多样性、结构、功能和动态涉及多个领域，包括生物地理学、生态学、遥感和建模。尽管在不同的空间和时间尺度上开展工作，但所有这些领域的进展都取决于对全球热带森林的长期实地观测。ITFSA将整合这些科学领域，为以下方面提供重要见解：(i)通过解决分类学问题和提高对热带树种生态和进化的理解，实现森林多样性和分布；通过对大量长期人口数据集的综合分析，推动热带森林动态；利用遥感扩大对森林生物量、多样性和动态的地面观测，以提供全球森林评估；（iv）通过改进基于过程的知识和开发和测试地球系统模型的基准数据来预测热带森林的结构和功能。这个多网络科学和培训计划将促进科学综合和创新，科学和国际网络的能力建设，以及分析和生物信息学工具的发展。通过加速科学发展和扩大国际合作能力，ITFSA将从基础和应用两方面改变全球对热带森林的认识，从而促进公众和决策者的科学知识。通过国际网络对网络合作加速研究（AccelNet）计划旨在加速科学发现的进程，并为下一代美国研究人员进行多团队国际合作做好准备。AccelNet项目支持美国研究网络与国外互补网络之间的战略联系，将利用研究和教育资源来应对需要重大国际协调努力的重大科学挑战。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。

Tropical forests are vital to the functioning of Earth, providing essential services to society by storing half of all terrestrial biomass and carbon, absorbing a quarter of human-caused carbon emissions, and helping to stabilize climate and water cycles. Global changes, including deforestation, forest degradation, and climatic and atmospheric changes, are greatly affecting tropical forests. How these changes will impact tropical forests in the future remains highly uncertain. This AccelNet project establishes a global alliance of tropical forest research networks designed to accelerate the research and training that are needed to improve understanding of how tropical forests function and to predict how they will respond to and influence future global changes. The International Tropical Forest Science Alliance (ITFSA) includes 11 tropical forest research networks that manage 11,656 forest research plots in 56 countries that will coordinate through in-person workshops, virtual meetings, public webinars, and international fellowships and internships. By leveraging the vast and complementary knowledge and resources within the individual networks, ITFSA will rapidly advance tropical forest science, develop data management and analysis tools, and help build a new generation of scientists with the global networking and interdisciplinary science skills required to achieve a more complete understanding of how tropical forests contribute to a healthy, functioning Earth.Understanding the diversity, structure, functioning, and dynamics of tropical forests involves multiple domains including biogeography, ecology, remote sensing, and modeling. Despite operating at different spatial and temporal scales, progress in all these areas depends on long-term, field-based observations of tropical forests across the globe. The ITFSA will integrate these science domains to provide critical insights into: (i) forest diversity and distributions by resolving taxonomic issues and providing improved understanding of the ecology and evolution of tropical tree species; (ii) drivers of tropical forest dynamics through synthetic analyses of vast long-term demographic datasets; (iii) scaling-up ground-based observations of forest biomass, diversity, and dynamics with remote sensing to provide a global assessment of forests; and (iv) predicting tropical forest structure and function through improved process-based knowledge and benchmark data for developing and testing Earth System Models. This multi-network science and training program will foster science synthesis and innovation, capacity-building in science and international networking, and the development of analytical and bioinformatics tools. By accelerating science and expanding capacity for international collaboration, ITFSA will transform global-scale understanding of tropical forests in both fundamental and applied ways that will advance scientific knowledge for the public and policy makers.The Accelerating Research through International Network-to-Network Collaborations (AccelNet) program is designed to accelerate the process of scientific discovery and prepare the next generation of U.S. researchers for multiteam international collaborations. The AccelNet program supports strategic linkages among U.S. research networks and complementary networks abroad that will leverage research and educational resources to tackle grand scientific challenges that require significant coordinated international efforts.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.