Constructing a Long-Term Ecological Research Program at the NTS: Building on Past EPSCoR Success to Create a Scientific Center of Excellence in Nevada

9871942科尔曼在NTS建立一个长期的生态研究计划为了使内华达州的大学系统具有世界级的竞争力，一个全国公认的专家小组建议内华达州：（1）发展国家卓越中心，基于科学实力，独特性，可资助性，和与国家的长期科学计划的一致性和（2）利用内华达州试验场（NTS）的独特机会。专家们还明确指出，内华达州的全球环境变化计划（NevGEC）是一个潜在的目标地区。目前的项目符合这些建议，并将增加必要的实验基础设施和遥感技术，以综合调查沙漠生态系统的潜在长期变化，增加降水，增加氮沉降，以及生活在沙漠土壤表面的微生物结皮的退化，以持续研究二氧化碳浓度升高对完整沙漠生态系统的影响位于NTS的内华达州沙漠面设施（NDFF）。该项目将：（1）有助于巩固内华达州的卓越科学中心，从而可能对内华达州的研究竞争力产生非常积极的短期影响;（2）使整个州受益，因为NevGEC计划是内华达州三个主要研究机构之间的独特合作;（3）解决一个对内华达州和世界具有重要生态意义的问题，（4）在NTS上建立一个世界级的研究设施，该设施对内华达州的长期经济发展至关重要。

9871942 Coleman Constructing a Long-Term Ecological Research Program at the NTS In order to move Nevada s university system to a world-class level of competitiveness, a panel of nationally recognized experts has recommended that the State of Nevada: (1) develop state centers of excellence, based on scientific strength, uniqueness, fundability, and consistency with the state s long-range science plan and (2) exploit the unique opportunities of the Nevada Test Site (NTS). The experts also explicitly identified Nevada s Global Environmental Change Program (NevGEC) as a potential target area. The current project is consistent with these recommendations and will add the experimental infrastructure and remote sensing technology necessary to integrate investigations of potential long-term changes of a desert ecosystem to increased precipitation, increased nitrogen deposition, and degradation of a microbiotic crust that lives on the surface of desert soil to ongoing work on the effects of elevated CO2 on an intact desert ecosystem at the Nevada Desert Face Facility (NDFF) on the NTS. This project will: (1) help solidify a scientific center of excellence in Nevada and thus potentially have a very positive short-term impact on Nevada s research competitiveness; (2) benefit the entire state as the NevGEC Program is a unique collaboration between the three main research institutions in Nevada; (3) address an issue of ecological importance to Nevada and to the world, and (4) create a world-class research facility on the NTS, a site that is critical to Nevada s long-term economic development.