Belmont Forum Collaborative Research: ARMS to reefs: A new tool to restore coral reef biodiversity, fisheries yields, and human health in Madagascar

该奖项为参与一个由55个国家发起的全球变化研究计划通过贝尔蒙特论坛竞争性选定的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联盟，专注于支持以跨学科方法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，加速开展最迫切需要的国际研究，以消除对可持续性的关键障碍。每个伙伴国都在一个联合体内为其研究人员提供资金，以减轻跨越国际边界的资金需求。这一办法有助于有效利用国家资源，支持对具有全球相关性的专题进行出色的研究，最好是通过多国办法来解决，同时认识到全球挑战需要全球解决办法。该项目侧重于珊瑚礁--地球上最有价值的生态系统之一，正在以惊人的速度消失。这种损失威胁着人类的生命，因为珊瑚礁提供了食物、收入和海岸线保护。全世界都在努力恢复珊瑚礁，结果好坏参半。该项目使用了一种新的方法来重建珊瑚礁生态系统，方法是建造人工珊瑚礁，并在它们身上种植来自健康珊瑚礁的生物群。该项目将在马达加斯加西南部的拉诺贝湾进行，那里有32公里长的海岸线，有13个村庄，人口不断增加，营养不良的速度越来越快，主要是过度捕捞造成的。主要目标是重建健康的珊瑚礁生态系统，增加马达加斯加的渔获量，以减少世界上最贫穷国家营养不良的发生率。该项目的所有方面都将涉及当地科学家和渔民。该项目将利用尖端工具，包括环境DNA条形码、渔民支持的渔业活动全球定位系统跟踪，以及广泛的人类健康和福祉数据收集，以全面将生态系统健康与人类健康联系起来。该项目将为其他珊瑚礁恢复项目提供全面的蓝图，方法是彻底测试一项新技术，创造衡量成功的工具，为人类健康数据收集协议提供一个描述生态系统的指南。总体而言，该项目将极大地促进海洋资源的公平和可持续利用，并将应对全球变化造成的威胁，所有这些都将通过一种工具，可以应用于任何发现珊瑚礁生态系统的地方。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。

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.This project focuses on coral reefs – one of the most valuable ecosystems on the planet that are being lost at an alarming rate. This loss threatens human lives because coral reefs provide food, income, and shoreline protection. Efforts are underway worldwide to rehabilitate reefs, with mixed success. This project uses a novel approach to rebuild coral reef ecosystems by building artificial reefs and seeding them with biota from healthy coral reefs. The project will be carried out in Ranobe Bay in southwest Madagascar which contains 32 kilometers of coastline with 13 villages, increasing populations, and growing rates of malnutrition largely caused by overfishing. The primary goal is to rebuild healthy coral reef ecosystems and increase fisheries catch in Madagascar to reduce the incidence of malnutrition in the most impoverished country in the world. All aspects of the project will involve local scientists and fishers. The project will utilize cutting edge tools, including environmental DNA barcoding, fisher supported GPS tracking of fisheries activities, and extensive human health and well-being data collection to comprehensively connect ecosystem health to human health. This project will provide a comprehensive blueprint for other coral reef restoration projects by thoroughly testing a new technology, creating tools to measure success, providing a guide describing the ecosystem to human health data collection protocols. Overall, this project will greatly enhance the equitable and sustainable use of marine resources and will respond to a threat caused by global change, all with a tool that can be applied anywhere coral reef ecosystems are found.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.