RTG: Linking Levels of Ecological Organization

9602252这个奖项更新支持的研究培训小组在连接层次的生态组织在密歇根州立大学的凯洛格生物站。 在授予期间，随着其他资金来源的确定，NSF的支持将逐步取消。 学院目前有来自5个系的8名成员。 授予的资金将为研究生提供助学金，用于受训人员前往其他机构进行密歇根州无法提供的专门培训，并将其他研究和学术机构的调查人员带到凯洛格站参加研讨会和讲习班。 在最初5年的资助期间，开设了一些生态学基础和应用方面的新课程。 其中一些现在已经成为大学生态学和进化研究生培训的标准要素。 除了该奖项提供的资金外，机构和其他资源还有助于将该计划扩展到包括小学和高中学生的参与，并且为REU网站活动提供的单独NSF奖项支持本科生在夏季的参与。 培养能够跨越生态组织层次解决研究问题的科学家的需求是重要的，而且还在不断增长。 全球变化和维持生物多样性的问题联合收割机结合在一起，使这种培训日益重要。 该计划将提供这样的培训，利用研究人员的技术和概念，他们在基因，个体生物，种群，社区，生态系统或整个景观的水平上解决各种进化和生态问题。

9602252 This award renews support for a Research Training Group in Linking Levels of Ecological Organization at the Kellogg Biological Station of Michigan State University. During the period of the award, NSF support will be gradually phased out as other sources of funding are identified. The faculty group currently has 8 members drawn from 5 departments. The funds awarded will provide stipends for graduate students, for trainee travel to other institutions for specialized training not available at Michigan State, and to bring investigators from other research and academic institutions to the Kellogg Station for seminars and workshops. During the initial 5 years of funding, a number of new courses in both basic and applied aspects of ecology. Several of these have now become a standard element of graduate training in ecology and evolution at the University. In addition to the funds provided by this award, institutional and other resources help extend the program to include the participation of elementary and high school students, and a separate NSF award for an REU-site activity supports the participation of undergraduate students during the summer. The need to train scientists who can attack research problems across levels of ecological organization is significant and growing. The problems of global change and of maintenance of biological diversity combine to make such training increasingly important. This program will provide such training, taking advantage of the techniques and concepts of researchers who address a variety of evolutionary and ecological problems at the level of genes, individual organisms, populations, communities, ecosystems or entire landscapes.