IRES: Monitoring marine megafauna and coral reef communities using remote technologies

人类健康与海洋生态系统的完整和健康息息相关。例如，珊瑚礁创造了一个复杂的建筑，为25%的海洋生物提供了家园，赢得了海洋雨林的绰号。尽管珊瑚礁只占不到1%的海底面积，但它为人类提供了许多社会经济服务。它们是许多鱼类的家园，直接支持渔业，为生态旅游业的各个部门提供就业机会，许多居民生产具有巨大生物医学价值的各种化合物。珊瑚礁的健康取决于许多因素，包括其租户的健康，如鲨鱼和鲸鱼。这些生物通过其排泄物将营养物从营养丰富的纬度和深海带到营养贫乏的珊瑚礁，作为顶级捕食者，它们通过清除病鱼和保持鱼类群落的结构完整性来帮助维持鱼类种群。 了解珊瑚礁生态系统以及鲨鱼和鲸鱼种群如何受到环境和人类活动的影响，对于维护健康的海洋和地方经济至关重要。自主水下传感器、声学标签和无人驾驶飞行器等新型远程技术已成为海洋生物多样性监测的一个组成部分。在该项目的三个组中，学生将接受远程技术，水下现场方法和计算方法的培训。学生将制定独立的问题，共同解决使用该计划提供的领域和计算工具的研究主题。在该计划中获得的技能可转移到不同的工作领域，为美国学生未来的STEM工作做好准备。由于学生将生活在依赖于他们正在研究的海洋资源的社区，通过该计划的结束，他们也将有一个更好的了解社会公平和海洋保护的观点的多样性的重要性。这个IRES轨道I程序发生在哥斯达黎加的圣埃莱纳湾。该地区是一个独特的海洋区域，其特点是被称为"Papagayo Upgrades"的季节性上升，在信风季节将深层寒冷和营养丰富的水带到表面，推动该地区的高生产力和生物多样性。由于这些独特的海洋学和生物学特征，海湾是珊瑚礁，鲨鱼和鳐，座头鲸和几种海豚的重要栖息地。 该项目每年招收5名美国本科生和3名美国研究生，以及1 - 2名哥斯达黎加学生。每个学生将选择一个主题来开发他们的研究项目，为期6周的计划。学生还将参加与社区的外联活动，包括非政府组织，渔民，科学家和来自哥斯达黎加的学生。该计划的具体贡献包括：（1）量化不同人为压力下的珊瑚礁健康状况，并使用各种指标评估恢复工作;（2）确定鲨鱼群落下降的驱动因素;（3）研究人为水下噪音对海洋哺乳动物及其交流空间的影响;以及（4）通过提供研究经验和与哥斯达黎加科学家和倡导海洋保护工作的组织合作的机会，培养海洋生态学方面的多元化学生群体。到课程结束时，学生将掌握水肺潜水，珊瑚礁生物多样性清单的photomosaics，标记鲨鱼，被动声学监测，实验设计和统计数据分析的技能，同时生成有关圣埃莱纳湾海洋巨型动物和珊瑚礁社区的关键数据。这种真实的研究经验也将帮助学生培养信心，归属感，公平和社区的感觉。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Human health is tied to the integrity and health of marine ecosystems. For example, coral reefs create a complex architecture that provides home to 25% of all marine life earning their nickname as the rainforest of the ocean. Despite occupying less than 1% of the ocean floor, coral reef ecosystems provide many socio-economical services to humans. They are home to many fish species that directly support fisheries, provide jobs in various sectors of the ecotourism industry, and many inhabitants produce a diverse collection of chemical compounds of great biomedical value. Coral reefs health depend on many factors, including the health of its tenants, such as sharks and whales. These organisms bring nutrients from nutrient-rich latitudes and the deep to nutrient-poor coral reefs via their excrement, and as apex predators they help maintain fish stocks by removing sick fish and by keeping the structural integrity of the fish community. Understanding how coral reef ecosystems, and sharks and whales’ populations are impacted by environmental and anthropogenic activities is of fundamental importance in the maintenance of a healthy ocean and local economies. Novel remote technology such as autonomous underwater sensors, acoustic tags, and unmanned aerial vehicles, have become an integral component in marine biodiversity monitoring. Throughout the three cohorts of this project, students will receive training in remote technologies, underwater field methods, and computational approaches. Students will formulate independent questions that together address the research themes using the field and computational tools provided by the program. The skills acquired in this program are transferable to a diverse field of jobs preparing U.S. students for the STEM jobs of the future. Because students will be living in the communities that rely on the marine resources they are studying, by the end of the program they will also have a better understanding of the importance of social equity and diversity of perspectives in marine conservation. This IRES Track I program takes place in the Santa Elena Bay, Costa Rica. The area is a unique oceanographic region characterized by seasonal upwellings known as the “Papagayo Upwellings” which brings deep cold and nutrient rich water to the surface during the trade wind season, driving high productivity and biodiversity in the area. Because of these unique oceanographic and biological characteristics, the bay is a critical habitat for coral reefs, sharks and rays, humpback whales and several species of dolphins. This program will recruit 5 US undergraduates and 3 U.S. graduate students, and 1-2 Costa Rican students each year. Each student will select a theme to develop their research project for the 6-weeks of the program. Students will also participate in outreach activities with the community including NGOs, fishers, scientists, and students from Costa Rica. The specific contributions of this program include (1) quantify coral reef health under different anthropogenic pressures, and evaluate restoration efforts using various indicators; (2) identify drivers of decline on the shark community; (3) study the impact of anthropogenic underwater noise on marine mammals and their communicative space; and (4) train a diverse cohort group of students in marine ecology by providing research experience and opportunities to work with Costa Rican scientists and organizations championing marine conservation efforts. By the end of the program students will have acquired skills in scuba diving, photomosaics for coral reef biodiversity inventories, tagging sharks, passive acoustic monitoring, experimental design, and statistical data analysis while generating critical data on the marine megafauna and coral reef communities of Santa Elena Bay. This authentic research experience will also help students develop feelings of confidence, belonging, equity, and community.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.