RaMP - Understanding and Preserving Tropical BioDiversity on a Changing Planet

“加速热带生物多样性”是一项雄心勃勃的多层次指导和培训计划，由全球可持续发展学者计划（GSS）和巴拿马史密森尼热带研究所（STRI）合作成立。该项目确定并支持对维持地球生物多样性充满热情的年轻学者，并将他们与专注于热带生物多样性对全球变化的响应的前沿综合研究机会联系起来。加速热带生物多样性是建立在需要建立一个更多样化的学者群体的基础上的，他们具有不同的观点，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识别和支持来自传统上代表性不足的群体的有才华的个人，通过全球变化研究培训扩大参与的机会，改善整个研究社区的指导实践，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以前所未有的速度发生着变化，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，因为世界上80%的生物多样性都分布在那里，大多数人类居住在那里，目前的模型预测，气候引起的环境变化最大。我们理解、预测和管理生物、群落和生态系统如何应对环境变化的能力将决定我们星球上多样性的可持续性。“加速热带生物多样性”旨在为对热带生物、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。该项目招募并支持一个多元化的全国大专毕业生网络，这些网络反映了受全球变化影响不成比例且在科学和政策制定中代表性不足的社区的观点和经验。该项目将为期三年、基于群体的研究经验联系在一起。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项目。培训和研究项目将在最先进的现场和实验室设施中进行，这些设施遍布巴拿马的各种热带景观和海景。“加速热带生物多样性”将把STRI的资深科学家、博士后和研究生与研究员联系起来。研究员将参与GSS的导师、校友和支持性项目网络。STRI的导师将围绕指导形成一个实践社区，并记录他们的指导如何作为项目的功能而改变。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。

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.