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。现代珊瑚礁科学涵盖广泛的科学领域，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弥合不同的科学学科，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的三个高级科学研究所（ASI），这将促进必要的合作环境，以满足珊瑚礁科学和保护界的现有和紧急需求。我们将在为地球系统科学开发的方法之后模拟这些研究生课程，这些方法将联合收割机传统学科结合起来，以建立对地球作为一个复杂和适应性系统的整体理解。通过吸收来自珊瑚礁科学各学科的国内和国际专家组成的一个小组，这些珊瑚礁研究所将有助于解决目前缺乏能够处理珊瑚礁和其他海洋生态系统所面临的复杂问题的跨学科研究人员的问题。通过这些ASI的培训将通过提高美国STEM教育的质量来解决具体和可衡量的社会需求。海洋科学研究生，最终加强现有的科学和技术，为公共环境政策提供信息。一个关键的优先事项将是招募美国-来自传统上代表性不足的群体（妇女，残疾人和少数民族）的研究生，以促进STEM研究领域的多样性和公平。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之间在研究和教育方面的国际伙伴关系，并加强美国STEM行业、机构和学术界的劳动力。迫切需要在陆地和海洋生态系统的边缘采取积极主动的管理和新技术，以遏制这些生态系统的退化。作为对缺乏受过广泛训练的跨学科珊瑚礁科学家的一种反应，意大利空间局在澳大利亚远北昆士兰州举办的这些讲习班将制定一种系统办法，以针对与珊瑚礁科学和养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，生物化学，生理学，动物行为学，分子生物学和环境社会科学。学生将首先在阿瑟顿高原（7天）的实地研究学院（SFS），雨林研究中心（CRS）了解社会生态恢复力和人类活动对自然系统的影响，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（Daintree雨林和大堡礁）相遇的地方。然后，该小组将前往吕宋岛研究站（LIRS），这是一个位于大堡礁北方的最先进的岛屿研究设施（14天），学生将在那里学习并通过由美国和澳大利亚珊瑚礁科学家组成的多元化小组进行独立研究项目的指导。通过讲座，课堂作业，实地沉浸和独立项目，这些ASIs将让学生参与实践研究，促进对珊瑚礁生态系统的跨学科理解。这个开创性的计划将教学生如何整体的方法是至关重要的，以解决人类对生态系统的影响，同时准备他们解决下一个大画面的科学问题。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并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，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.