REU SITE: Assessment and sustainable management of ecosystem at the nexus of food, energy, and water systems

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This REU Site award to the University of Arkansas, located in Fayetteville, AR, will support the training of 10 students for 10 weeks during the summers of 2021- 2023. It is anticipated that a total of 30 students, primarily identifying as American Indian and other under-represented groups, will be trained in the program; many of these students will come from schools with limited research opportunities. Students will participate in structured lectures combined with computer programming workshops using R, laboratory and field research. They will attend seminars and other events featuring professionals in sustainability fields, and cultural enrichment activities that emphasize the process of science, the ethic of sustainability, sustainability of food, water, and energy systems, and the cultural connections of ecology and sustainability with tribal traditions. Students will develop and complete an independent research project with the aid of their mentor(s), attend and present at a professional meeting, and complete a manuscript. Student program assessment will be completed using the online SALG URSSA tool. Students will be tracked after the program to determine their career paths using Facebook, LinkedIn, and other web resources. The objective of this REU program is to provide an integrated research experience focusing on sustainable management of ecosystem services at the nexus of food, energy, and water, primarily for American Indian undergraduates and those from other under-represented groups in STEM. The goal is for students and an interdisciplinary group of faculty mentors from three colleges to explore sustainable management of provisioning services across landscapes and cultural traditions. Research projects focus on effects of food and energy life cycles on water quantity and quality, integrated with tribal management of ecosystem services. Classroom activities include computer programming workshops, scientific communication, and cultural enrichment activities that emphasize the ethics and the cultural connections of ecology with tribal traditions. Undergraduate students who are interested in doing research about environmental systems or sustainability are encouraged to apply. More information about the program is available by visiting http://ecoreu.uark.edu, or by contacting the PI (Dr. Michelle Evans-White at mevanswh@uark.edu) or the co-PIs (Dr. Marty Matlock at matlock@uark.edu or Dr. Kusum Naithani at kusum@uark.edu).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.