Belmont Forum Collaborative Research: Climate change, pollinator declines and the human diet

该奖项为参与由55个国家通过贝尔蒙特论坛发起的全球变化研究项目的美国研究人员提供支持。贝尔蒙特论坛是一个研究资助组织的联盟，致力于支持跨学科方法来应对全球环境变化的挑战和机遇。它的目的是通过协调和调动国际资源，加速提供最迫切需要的国际研究，以消除可持续发展的关键障碍。每个伙伴国在一个联盟中为它们的研究人员提供资金，以减轻对跨越国际边界的资金的需求。这种方法有助于有效利用国家资源，支持对全球相关主题的优秀研究，最好通过多国方法解决，同时认识到全球挑战需要全球解决方案。伙伴机构在这一合作研究行动中共同努力，提供了支持，以培养由自然（包括气候）、卫生和社会科学家以及来自全球各地的利益攸关方组成的全球跨学科研究团队，以增进对气候、环境和健康途径的了解，从而保护和促进健康。这些项目将为气候变化和变异对健康的影响提供重要的新认识；1)食物的质量/数量，2)长期暴露于热量和湿度的增加/变化，3)一系列传染病的分布和发病率的变化以及新病原体的出现。该奖项为美国研究人员在至少三个参与国的合作伙伴组成的联盟中合作提供支持，以增加我们对气候、环境和健康之间复杂联系和途径的认识，帮助解决社会面临的复杂挑战。微型民意调查旨在发展对尼泊尔环境变化对传粉昆虫群落和作物生产及恢复力的影响的多学科理解。传粉媒介的减少预计会对人类健康产生负面影响，因为昆虫授粉作物中维生素A和叶酸等关键微量营养素会从饮食中流失。预计这种“隐性饥饿”将造成重大的全球健康负担。传粉媒介的丧失对发展中国家造成了不成比例的损害，因为它们对产量下降的抵御能力较弱，而且更依赖依赖传粉媒介的小规模作物中的微量营养素。通过增加对富含微量营养素的水果、蔬菜和豆类的获取，使饮食多样化，可能是一个长期、可持续的解决办法。该项目将确定提供关键微量营养素的作物和这些富含微量营养素的作物的主要传粉媒介；调查对主要作物传粉媒介的影响及其对作物生产和微量营养素摄入的影响；并测试富含微量营养素作物昆虫授粉的恢复力。该项目将与当地研究人员和社区组织合作开展研究并传播研究结果，以帮助决策者制定应对这一挑战的可能解决方案。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 award provides support to U.S. researchers participating in a project competitively selected by a 55-country initiative on global change research through the Belmont Forum. The Belmont Forum is a consortium of research funding organizations focused on support for transdisciplinary approaches to global environmental change challenges and opportunities. It aims to accelerate delivery of the international research most urgently needed to remove critical barriers to sustainability by aligning and mobilizing international resources. Each partner country provides funding for their researchers within a consortium to alleviate the need for funds to cross international borders. This approach facilitates effective leveraging of national resources to support excellent research on topics of global relevance best tackled through a multinational approach, recognizing that global challenges need global solutions.Working together in this Collaborative Research Action, the partner agencies have provided support to foster global transdisciplinary research teams of natural (including climate), health and social scientists and stakeholders from across the globe to improve understanding of climate, environment and health pathways to protect and promote health. The projects will provide crucial new understanding into the health implications arising from the impacts of climate change and variability on; 1) the quality/quantity of food, 2) chronic exposure to increases/changes in heat and humidity and 3) changes in the distribution and incidence of a range of infectious diseases and emergence of novel pathogens. This award provides support for the U.S. researchers to cooperate in consortia that consist of partners from at least three of the participating countries to increase our knowledge of the complex linkages and pathways between the climate, environment and health to help solve complex challenges that face societies. The Micro-Poll seeks to develop a multidisciplinary understanding the impact of environmental change on pollinator communities and crop production and resilience in Nepal. Pollinator decline is predicted to have negative impacts on human health as key micronutrients in insect pollinated crops such as vitamin A and folate are lost from the diet. This “hidden hunger” is predicted to cause significant global health burdens. Pollinator loss disproportionately harms developing countries, as they are both less resilient to yield drops and more reliant on the micronutrients found in small-scale pollinator-dependent crops. Diversifying the diet by increasing access to micronutrient-rich fruits, vegetables and legumes may provide a long term, sustainable solution. The project will identify the crops providing key micronutrients and the dominant pollinators of these micronutrient-rich crops; investigate impact of change on key crop pollinators and the ensuing impact on crop production and micronutrient intake; and test the resilience of the insect pollination of micronutrient-rich crops. The project will work with local researchers and community organizations to carry-out the research and disseminate the findings to help decision-makers develop possible solutions to this challenge.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.