FSML: Institutional Planning to Upgrade Laboratory Facilities at a Tropical Rainforest Research Station

拉诺马法纳生物站位于马达加斯加东南部的拉诺马法纳国家公园(RNP)。该空间站由纽约州立大学和石溪分校下属的热带环境保护研究所(ICTE)运营。马达加斯加国家公园管理局(ANGAP)将该车站的财产租赁给ICTE和塔那那利佛大学，租期为99年。自1989年空间站建成以来，已有100多名教职员工和近两倍的学生在RNP进行了研究，其中大多数来自美国大学。马达加斯加是一个超级多样性的国家，是世界上动植物物种最多的五个国家之一。拉诺马法纳国家公园是马达加伤疤生物多样性最高的地方之一。拉诺马法纳生物站(RBS)是马达加斯加热带雨林中唯一的主要生物研究站。马达加斯加的许多动植物是当地特有的，许多分类群是现存的谱系的代表，通常只存在于化石记录中的地球其他地方。因此，RNP的雨林与新热带、非洲和亚洲一些研究较好的热带雨林遗址相比是一个极好的对比。拉诺马法纳国家公园保护着4.15万公顷的热带雨林，其中一半是原始的。10年前，当研究人员开始关注该地区时，公园的生物多样性几乎是未知的。在苏格兰皇家银行工作的头10年，大部分研究工作都致力于系统主义者的基本工作。然而，在哺乳动物和鸟类的行为生态学以及重要的群落动态，如种子传播、授粉、捕食和物候等方面也进行了大量的研究。这一大堆信息是在一个既没有电也没有自来水的生物站收集的。这些数据大多来自基于观测的现场研究，因为样本和数据的处理和分析受到原始实验室设施的严重限制。该项目将使苏格兰皇家银行的学员能够进行必要的全面规划，以升级苏格兰皇家银行的实验室和生活设施。这一规划赠款的结果将是一份报告，详细说明如何最好地扩大研究设施，以容纳长期研究人员，使用以技术为导向的方法，利用现有和正在开发的研究技术。水生生态学家、系统学家、行为生态学家、社区生态学家和保护生物学家将参与规划生物站升级，以便他们能够提高他们收集的数据的质量和数量。

Ranomafana Biological Station is located in Ranomafana National Park(RNP) in southeast Madagascar. The station is operated by the Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environrnents (ICTE)affiliated with the State University of New York and Stony Brook. The station property has been leased to ICTE and the University of Antananarivo for 99 years by the Association Nationale pour la Gestiondes Aires Protegees (ANGAP), the park service of Madagascar. Over one hundred faculty-level researchers and nearly twice that nurnber of students, most from US universities, have conducted research at RNPsince the station was built in 1989. Madagascar is a megadiversity country, one of the five countries in the world that contain the most species of plants and animals. Ranomafana National Park is one of the highest biodiversity sites in Madaga'scar. The Ranomafana Biological Station (RBS) is the only major biological research station in the rain forest of sites Madagascar. Much of the flora and fauna of Madagascar is endemic and many taxa are living representatives of lineages usually existing elsewhere on earth only in the fossil record. Therefore the rain forest at RNP serves as an excellent comparison to some of the better-studied rain forest sites in the neotropics, Africa and Asia. The Ranomafana National Park protects 41,500 ha of rain forest, half of it pristine. The biodiversity of the park was virtually unknown when researchers started focussing on the area 10 years ago. Much of the research effort during the first 10 years at the RBS has been devoted to the essential work of systematists. However, considerable research has also been conducted on behavioral ecology of mamrnals and birds and important community dynamics such as seed-dispersal, pollination, predation and phenology. This large body of information has been collected at a biological station that has neither electricity nor running water. Most of these data come from observation-based fi eld research because processing and analysis of sarnples and data are severely restricted by the primitive laboratory facilities. This project will allow the RBS leardership to carry out the comprehensive planning necessary to upgrade the laboratory and living facilities at the RBS. The results of this planning grant will be a report that details how best to expand the research facilities to accomrnodate long-term researchers using technically-oriented methods that take advantage of existing and developing research technology. Aquatic ecologists, systematists, behavioral ecologists, community ecologists, and conservation biologists will participate in planning the biological station upgrade so that they can improve the quality and quantity of data they collect.