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

热带森林对地球的运行至关重要，它储存了一半的陆地生物量和碳，吸收了四分之一的人类碳排放，有助于稳定气候和水循环，从而为社会提供了基本服务。全球变化，包括砍伐森林、森林退化以及气候和大气变化，正在极大地影响热带雨林。这些变化将如何影响未来的热带森林仍然是高度不确定的。该AccelNet项目建立了一个热带森林研究网络的全球联盟，旨在加快研究和培训，以提高对热带森林如何发挥作用的了解，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(热带森林科学联盟)包括11个热带森林研究网络，管理56个国家的11 656个森林研究地块，将通过面对面讲习班、虚拟会议、公共网络研讨会以及国际研究金和实习进行协调。通过利用各个网络中广泛和互补的知识和资源，热带森林研究中心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，以更全面地了解热带森林如何为一个健康、功能正常的地球做出贡献。了解热带森林的多样性、结构、功能和动态涉及生物地理学、生态学、遥感和建模等多个领域。尽管在不同的空间和时间尺度上运作，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。国际热带森林论坛将纳入这些科学领域，以便为以下方面提供重要的见解：(1)森林多样性和分布，解决分类学问题，增进对热带乔木物种生态学和进化的了解；(2)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；(3)利用遥感扩大对森林生物量、多样性和动态的地面观测，以对森林进行全球评估；(4)通过改进基于过程的知识和基准数据，预测热带森林的结构和功能，以开发和测试地球系统模型。这一多网络科学和培训计划将促进科学综合和创新、科学和国际网络方面的能力建设以及分析和生物信息学工具的开发。通过加速科学研究和扩大国际合作能力，ITFSA将在基础和应用两方面改变全球范围内对热带森林的理解，为公众和政策制定者提供科学知识。通过国际网络对网络合作加速研究(AccelNet)计划旨在加快科学发现的进程，并为多团队国际合作培养下一代美国研究人员。AccelNet计划支持美国研究网络和海外互补网络之间的战略联系，这些网络将利用研究和教育资源来应对需要大量国际协调努力的重大科学挑战。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。

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.