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

IRES Track II：基于系统的跨学科方法进行珊瑚礁科学和保护

• 批准号: 2328190
• 负责人: Tyler Cyronak
• 金额: $ 36.93万
• 依托单位: Georgia Southern University Research and Service Foundation, Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-01-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2328190&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: IRES; Track; II; Systems; based

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.

珊瑚礁是标志性的生态系统，可为全球数百万人提供商品和服务，并支持巨大的生物多样性。现代珊瑚礁科学包括广泛的科学领域，包括生物学，地质，化学和物理学，是了解跨学科的努力，以了解这些复杂的生态系统以及它们将如何应对本地和全球人为变化。我们的目标是激发下一代科学家，弥合潜水员科学学科，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一系列高级科学学院（ASI），以促进满足珊瑚礁科学和保护社区现有和新兴需求所需的协作环境。在为地球系统科学开发的方法之后，我们将对这些研究生级别的课程进行建模，该课程结合了传统学科，以整体对地球作为复杂和适应性系统的整体理解。通过将来自珊瑚礁科学各个学科的国内和国际专家组成的团队，这些ASIS将有助于解决跨学科研究人员的当前短缺，该研究人员能够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进行培训将通过改善美国海洋科学研究生的STEM教育质量来满足特定和可衡量的社会需求，最终增强可用于公共环境政策的科学和技术。一个关键的优先事项是招募来自传统上代表性不足的群体（妇女，残疾人和少数民族）的美国研究生，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教育计划在国际市场中的竞争力，促进国际在美国和澳大利亚之间的研究和教育方面的伙伴关系，并增强美国在STEM行业，代理和学术界的美国劳动力，从而赋予了气候变化和其他人类疾病的压力，这些压力依赖于他们的居住和社区，并依赖于他们的管理，并依赖于他们的管理和新颖的技术，而这是他们的管理和新颖的技术。迫切需要生态系统来抵消这些生态系统的降解。这些在受过广泛的跨学科珊瑚礁科学家中，这些在澳大利亚昆士兰州的ASI研讨会将开发一种基于系统的方法，以针对与珊瑚礁科学和保护有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。学生将首先了解有关田间研究学校（SFS），Atherton Tablelands（7天）的野战研究中心（SFS）对自然系统的社会生态复原力和人为影响，这是世界上唯一的土地和基于海洋的UNESCO世界遗产的地方（Daintree Raintree Rainforest和Great Barrier Reef）。然后，该小组将前往北部大堡礁（14天）的最先进的岛屿研究机构蜥蜴岛研究站（LIRS），在那里，学生将由美国和澳大利亚珊瑚礁科学家的潜水小组学习并通过独立的研究项目来学习和指导。通过讲座，班级工作，现场沉浸和独立项目，这些ASIS将吸引学生进行动手研究，从而促进对珊瑚礁生态系统的跨学科理解。该开创性计划将教学学生在准备人类对生态系统的影响的同时准备解决下一个大型科学问题的同时，整体方法对于解决人类对生态系统的影响至关重要。国际地点将为学生提供宝贵的网络和专业发展，从而扩大学生的职业机会。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准来评估被认为是宝贵的支持。