RCN: An Ecosystem Research Cooperative for Northeastern North America

该奖项将支持东北生态系统研究合作组织（NERC）的进一步发展，NERC是美国东北部和加拿大东部生态系统研究人员的基层科学组织。NERC致力于综合区域研究，并向决策者和公众传播知识。成立仅2.5年，NERC已发展成为一个重要和有前途的网络，在科学界得到广泛支持。国家环境研究中心的研究人员建立了任务小组，通过确定关键的研究问题、开发数据库、解释区域模式以及提出建议和出版物来调查东北地区的重要环境问题。NERC计划增加所代表学科的数量和它所服务的科学界的广度。它将刺激现有任务小组之间的互动，并启动一项外联计划，帮助向公众和决策者传播科学信息。目标是使NERC充分发挥其潜力，成为一个独特的组织，致力于综合整个区域特定地点的信息，并积极交流这些知识。NERC将对生态系统研究界产生广泛的影响，因为它侧重于区域尺度的科学和对许多地点信息的综合。NERC还将影响政策领域，因为它将把积极传播科学知识作为首要目标。

This award will support further development of the Northeastern Ecosystem Research Cooperative (NERC), which is a grass-roots scientific organization of ecosystem researchers in the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada. The NERC is dedicated to integrative regional research and dissemination of knowledge to policy makers and the public. In existence for only 2.5 years, the NERC has developed into a vital and promising network with broad support within the scientific community. NERC researchers have established task groups that are investigating important environmental issues in the Northeast by identifying key research questions, developing databases, interpreting regional patterns, and producing proposals and publications. The NERC plans to increase the number of disciplines represented and the breadth of the scientific community that it serves. It will stimulate interactions among existing task groups, and initiate an outreach program that will help disseminate scientific information to the public and policy makers. A goal is to have the NERC reach its full potential as a unique organization dedicated to synthesizing site-specific information from throughout the region and actively communicating that knowledge. The NERC will have broad impacts on the ecosystem research community through its focus on regional-scale science and synthesis of information from many sites. The NERC will also impact the policy arena because it will make active dissemination of scientific knowledge a primary goal.