RaMP: Understanding Nature and Los Angeles Biodiversity (UNLAB) through Museum Collections and Field-based Research

通过博物馆收藏和实地研究了解自然和洛杉矶生物多样性（UNLAB）的学士学位后指导计划将促进生物多样性研究、指导、专业发展和丰富学员的教育。洛杉矶县自然历史博物馆将主办和指导UNLAB学员的研究项目，重点是在不断变化的地球背景下的南加州生物多样性。研究将在三个相关的轨道上调查这一主题：人类之前的生物多样性；人类引入、移除或改变地理位置的生物多样性；以及生物多样性对人类的反应。项目将包括现代物种和化石，陆地和海洋物种，动物和植物，为学员提供广泛的见解和丰富的经验。学员指导下的研究结果将对当地的保护和管理以及对人类如何更广泛地塑造生物多样性的理解产生影响。导师和UNLAB在自然历史博物馆和整个大洛杉矶地区的专业人士扩展网络将培养学员在许多不同的STEM职业机会中的信心和能力。将UNLAB设在公共博物馆将使学员能够发展广泛的科学和交流技能，他们可以应用于继续接受正规教育或选择自己的职业。全面了解人为变化对地球生物多样性的影响需要跨越古生物学、历史和现代时间尺度的研究。UNLAB学员的研究项目在分类上是多样化的，以收集为基础的，并且有目的地多样化。他们使用遗传学和基因组学、形态计量学、社区科学以及行为、形态、动物和空间分析来解决生物对人为干扰的反应。研究成果与土地利用决策以及理解生物同质化和物种引进、动植物群落变化、灭绝、物种破碎化和城市进化等现象有关。UNLAB学员项目的多样性和相互关联的性质将允许在队列内进行协作并取得广泛相关的成果。UNLAB将在包容、多样性、公平和准入框架下提供指导，并将着重发展专业技能，以补充传统上强调的研究技能。因此，UNLAB及其“人为变化时代的生物多样性”主题将帮助学员（科学家、分析师和教育工作者）为必须应对地球变化后果的STEM劳动力做好准备。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。

The postbaccalaureate mentoring program Understanding Nature and Los Angeles Biodiversity through Museum Collections and Field-based Research (UNLAB) will facilitate biodiversity research, mentorship, professional development, and educational enrichment for mentees. The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County will host and mentor UNLAB mentees in research projects focused on Southern California biodiversity in the context of a changing planet. Research will investigate this theme within three related tracks: biodiversity before humans; biodiversity introduced, removed, or geographically changed by humans; and biodiversity responses to humans. Projects will include modern species and fossils, those on land and in the ocean, and both animals and plants, providing broad-ranging insights and varied experiences for mentees. Results from mentees' guided research will have implications for local conservation and management as well as for understanding how humans shape biodiversity more broadly. Mentors and UNLAB’s extended network of professionals at the Natural History Museum and throughout the greater Los Angeles area will foster mentee confidence and competence in a number of different STEM career opportunities. Basing UNLAB in a public museum setting will allow mentees to develop a broad range of scientific and communication skills that they can apply to continuing their formal education or the career of their choice.A comprehensive understanding of the consequences of anthropogenic change on Earth’s biodiversity requires research that spans paleontological, historical, and modern timescales. UNLAB mentee research projects are taxonomically diverse, collections-based, and purposefully varied. They address biotic responses to anthropogenic disturbances using genetics and genomics, morphometrics, community science as well as behavioral, morphological, faunal, and spatial analyses. Research outcomes are relevant to land use decisions as well as to understanding the phenomena of biotic homogenization and species introduction, floral and faunal community change, extinction, species fragmentation, and urban evolution. The variety and interconnected nature of UNLAB mentee projects will allow for within-cohort collaboration and broadly relevant results. UNLAB will provide mentorship under an inclusion, diversity, equity, and access framework, and will keenly focus on developing professional skills that complement traditionally emphasized research skills. Thus, UNLAB and its theme of biodiversity in a time of anthropogenic change will prepare mentees - as scientists, analysts, and educators - for a STEM workforce that must contend with the consequences of a changing planet.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.