IRES Track II: Systems-based transdisciplinary approaches to coral reef science and conservation

珊瑚礁是标志性的生态系统，为全世界数百万人提供商品和服务，并支持巨大的生物多样性。现代珊瑚礁科学涵盖了广泛的科学领域，包括生物学、地质学、化学和物理学，需要跨学科的努力来了解这些复杂的生态系统，以及它们将如何应对当地和全球的人为变化。我们的目标是激励下一代科学家在不同的科学学科之间建立桥梁，以获得对珊瑚礁生态系统的跨学科理解。为了实现这一目标，我们将在澳大利亚提供一系列的三个高级科学研究所（ASI），以促进必要的合作环境，以解决珊瑚礁科学和保护社区现有和紧急的需求。我们将根据为地球系统科学开发的方法对这些研究生水平的课程进行建模，这些方法结合了传统学科，以建立对地球作为一个复杂和自适应系统的整体理解。通过整合来自珊瑚礁科学各个学科的国内外专家团队，这些ASIs将有助于解决目前跨学科研究人员的短缺问题，这些研究人员有能力处理珊瑚礁和其他海洋生态系统面临的复杂问题。通过这些ASIs的培训将通过提高美国海洋科学研究生的STEM教育质量来解决具体和可衡量的社会需求，最终提高公共环境政策的科学和技术可用性。一个关键的优先事项将是从传统上代表性不足的群体（女性、残疾人和少数民族）中招募美国研究生，以促进STEM研究领域的多样性和公平性。通过实现这些目标，我们将提高美国STEM教育项目在国际市场上的竞争力，促进美国和澳大利亚在研究和教育方面的国际伙伴关系，并增强美国在STEM行业、机构和学术界的劳动力。鉴于气候变化和其他人为因素给珊瑚礁及其赖以生存的群落带来的前所未有的压力，迫切需要在陆地和海洋生态系统边缘采取积极主动的管理和新技术，以抵消这些生态系统的退化。作为对广泛训练的跨学科珊瑚礁科学家短缺的回应，澳大利亚昆士兰州北部的这些ASI讲习班将开发一种基于系统的方法，以针对与珊瑚礁科学和保护相关的一系列学科的学生培训。学生将有独特的机会与一系列领域的专家互动，包括但不限于生态学、生物地球化学、生理学、动物行为、分子生物学和环境社会科学。学生将首先在阿瑟顿高原的野外研究学院（SFS）热带雨林研究中心（CRS）学习社会生态弹性和人为对自然系统的影响（7天），这是世界上唯一一个陆地和海洋联合国教科文组织世界遗产交汇的地方（丹特里雨林和大堡礁）。然后，小组将前往蜥蜴岛研究站（LIRS），这是大堡礁北部最先进的岛屿研究设施（14天），在那里，学生们将从美国和澳大利亚珊瑚礁科学家的不同群体中学习和指导独立的研究项目。通过讲座、课堂作业、实地体验和独立项目，这些ASIs将吸引学生进行动手研究，培养对珊瑚礁生态系统的跨学科理解。这个开创性的项目将教会学生整体性方法如何在解决人类对生态系统影响的同时，为他们解决下一个大的科学问题做好准备。国际位置将为学生提供宝贵的网络和专业发展，拓宽学生的职业机会。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。

Coral reefs are iconic ecosystems that provide goods and services to millions of people worldwide and support tremendous biodiversity. Modern coral reef science encompasses broad scientific fields, including biology, geology, chemistry, and physics, necessitating a cross-disciplinary effort to understand these complex ecosystems and how they will respond to local and global anthropogenic change. Our goal is to inspire the next generation of scientists to bridge diverse scientific disciplines to gain a transdisciplinary understanding of coral reef ecosystems. To reach this goal, we will offer a series of three Advanced Science Institutes (ASI) in Australia that will foster the collaborative environment necessary to address the existing and emergent needs of the coral reef scientific and conservation communities. We will model these graduate-level courses after approaches developed for Earth Systems science, which combine traditional disciplines to build a holistic understanding of Earth as a complex and adaptive system. By incorporating a team of domestic and international experts from various disciplines in coral reef science, these ASIs will help to address the current shortage in transdisciplinary researchers equipped to deal with the complex problems facing coral reefs and other marine ecosystems. Training through these ASIs will address specific and measurable societal needs by improving the quality of STEM education for U.S.-based, marine science graduate students, ultimately enhancing the science and technology available to inform public environmental policy. A key priority will be to recruit U.S.-based graduate students from traditionally underrepresented groups (women, persons with disabilities, and minorities) to promote diversity and equity in STEM research fields. By meeting these goals, we will increase the competitiveness of American STEM education programs in the international market, foster international partnerships in research and education between the U.S. and Australia, and enhance the American workforce in STEM industry, agency, and academia.Given the unprecedented pressure from climate change and other anthropogenic stressors that coral reefs and the communities that depend on them face, proactive management and novel techniques at the margins of terrestrial and marine ecosystems are urgently needed to counteract the degradation of these ecosystems. As a response to the shortage of broadly trained, transdisciplinary coral reef scientists, these ASI workshops in far-north Queensland, Australia will develop a systems-based approach to target student training in a range of disciplines related to coral reef science and conservation. Students will have the unique opportunity to interact with experts in a range of fields, including, but not limited to, ecology, biogeochemistry, physiology, animal behavior, molecular biology, and environmental social science. Students will first learn about socio-ecological resilience and anthropogenic impacts on natural systems at the School for Field Studies (SFS), Centre for Rainforest Studies (CRS) in the Atherton Tablelands (7 days), the only place in the world where land and ocean-based UNESCO World Heritage Sites meet (Daintree Rainforest and Great Barrier Reef). The group will then travel to the Lizard Island Research Station (LIRS), a state-of-the-art, island-based research facility in the northern Great Barrier Reef (14 days), where students will learn from and be guided through independent research projects by a diverse group of American and Australian coral reef scientists. Through lectures, class work, field immersions, and independent projects, these ASIs will engage students in hands-on research that fosters a transdisciplinary understanding of coral reef ecosystems. This pioneering program will teach students how holistic approaches are critical to addressing human impacts on ecosystems while preparing them to address the next big-picture scientific problems. The international location will provide students with valuable networking and professional development, broadening the students´ career opportunities.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.