RaMP - Understanding and Preserving Tropical BioDiversity on a Changing Planet

RAMP-UP热带生物多样性是一个雄心勃勃的、多层次的指导和培训计划，由全球可持续发展学者计划(GSS)和位于巴拿马的史密森热带研究所(STRI)合作形成。该计划确定并支持热衷于维持地球生物多样性的年轻学者，并将他们与专注于热带生物多样性对全球变化反应的尖端综合研究机会联系起来。增强热带生物多样性的基础是需要建立一个由具有不同观点的学者组成的更多样化的社区，以帮助解决诸如土地利用变化、生物多样性丧失和气候变化等挑战。该计划的重点是需要积极主动地从传统上代表性不足的群体中发现和支持有才华的个人，通过全球变化研究培训和改善研究社区的指导实践来扩大参与的机会，以及我们的科学劳动力持续专业发展的好处。地球的景观和海景正在以前所未有的速度发生变化，威胁着生物多样性和生态系统服务的维持。这些担忧在热带地区尤为紧迫，那里发现了世界80%的生物多样性，那里是大多数人类生活的地方，目前的模型预测那里的气候导致了最大的环境变化。我们理解、预测和管理生物体、群落和生态系统如何应对环境变化的能力将决定我们这个星球上生物多样性的可持续性。RAMP-UP热带生物多样性试图为对热带生物、群落和生态系统如何应对环境变化的研究感兴趣的新兴生物学家建立一个变革性的培训计划。该计划招募并支持一个多样化的全国毕业后网络，这些网络反映了受全球变化影响特别大、在科学和政策制定中代表性不足的社区的观点和经验。该项目连接了三个为期一年的基于队列的研究经验。每年，提升计划将招收12名研究员加入STRI的热带生物多样性研究计划。培训和研究项目将在巴拿马不同的热带景观和海景中嵌入的最先进的现场和实验室设施中进行。加强热带生物多样性将把STRI高级科学家、博士后和研究生与研究员联系起来。研究员将参与由导师、校友和支持性方案编制组成的GSS网络。STRI导师将围绕导师形成一个实践社区，并记录他们的导师如何作为项目的一项职能发生变化。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。

RaMP-UP Tropical BioDiversity is an ambitious, multi-level mentoring and training program formed through a partnership between the Global Sustainability Scholars Program (GSS) and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panamá. The program identifies and supports young scholars with a passion for sustaining a biodiverse planet and connects them to cutting-edge, integrative research opportunities focused on the response of tropical biodiversity to global change. RaMP-UP Tropical BioDiversity is built upon the need to build a more diverse community of scholars with varying perspectives to help solve challenges such as land use change, biodiversity loss, and climate change. The program focuses on the need to be proactive in identifying and supporting talented individuals from traditionally underrepresented groups, the opportunity for broadening participation through training in global change research and improving mentoring practices across research communities, and the benefits of continued professional development in our scientific workforce. The earth’s landscapes and seascapes are undergoing a transformation at an unprecedented rate, threatening biodiversity and the maintenance of ecosystem services. These concerns are especially pressing in the tropics, where 80% of the world's biodiversity is found, where most humans live, and where current models predict the greatest climate induced environmental change. Our ability to understand, predict, and manage how organisms, communities, and ecosystems respond to environmental changes will determine the sustainability of diversity on our planet. RaMP-UP Tropical BioDiversity seeks to build a transformative training program for rising biologists interested in research focused on how tropical organisms, communities, and ecosystems respond to environmental change. This program recruits and supports a diverse national network of postbaccalaureate that reflect perspectives and experiences of the communities disproportionately affected by global change impacts and under-represented in science and policy making. The program connects three, year-long, cohort-based research experiences. Each year, the RaMP-UP program will matriculate 12 Fellows to join tropical biodiversity research programs at STRI. Trainings and research projects will be conducted within state-of-the-art field and lab facilities embedded throughout Panama’s diverse tropical landscapes and seascapes. RaMP-UP Tropical BioDiversity will connect STRI senior scientists, postdocs and graduate students with Fellows. Fellows will engage with the GSS network of mentors, alumni and supportive programming. STRI mentors will form a community of practice around mentoring, and document how their mentoring changed as a function of the program.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.