Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biological Informatics for FY 2005

本行动资助2005年度美国国家科学基金会生物信息学博士后研究奖学金。该奖学金支持生物学与信息、计算、数学和统计科学交叉领域的博士后研究和培训。该研究金的目标是向青年科学家提供培训，为从事生物信息学方面的研究和教育相结合的职业做准备。越来越需要在所有职业级别上进行生物信息学培训，预期通过这些研究金培训的研究员将在培训未来工作人员方面发挥重要作用。该研究金的研究和培训计划题为“气候和土地利用变化对北美蝴蝶分布的影响”。全球生物多样性的下降和物种范围的变化是人类活动广泛影响的有力证据，但揭示模式和确定根本原因的挑战是艰巨的，而且很少有大规模的长期数据集。7月4日蝴蝶计数是一个全国性的项目，在过去的30年里发展壮大，目前每年有超过500个地点在北美由志愿者组成的网络进行监测。该项目利用这些数据来确定整个北美蝴蝶物种分布是否普遍下降或范围转移，以及是否有某些物种群体似乎特别容易受到环境变化的影响。除了研究的价值之外，奖学金还允许研究员扩展她的跨学科专业知识，同时建立新的技能，并与生物信息学和计算生物学领域的研究人员建立伙伴关系，从而为她在空间生态学和保护方面的独立研究做好准备。此外，该奖学金还提供开发最佳方式，将这些类型的结果传达给决策者和公众。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biological Informatics for FY 2005. The fellowship supports research and training at the postdoctoral level at the intersection of biology and the informational, computational, mathematical, and statistical sciences. The goal of the fellowship is to provide training to a young scientist in preparation for a career in biological informatics in which research and education will be integrated. There is an increasing need for training in biological informatics at all occupational levels, and it is expected that Fellows trained through these fellowships will play important roles in training the future workforce.The research and training plan for this fellowship is entitled "Changes in North American butterfly distributions in response to climate and land-use change." Global biodiversity declines and shifts in species' ranges are strong evidence of the widespread impacts of human activity, but the challenges of uncovering patterns and determining root causes are daunting, and large-scale, long-term data sets rarely exist. The 4th of July Butterfly Counts is a nationwide program that has grown over the past 30 years so that currently over 500 sites in North America are monitored each year by a network of volunteers. This project uses these data to determine if there are any general declines or range shifts in butterfly species distributions throughout North America and if there are certain groups of species that seem especially vulnerable to environmental changes.In addition to the value of the research, the fellowship permits the Fellow to expand her interdisciplinary expertise while building new skills and developing partnerships with researchers in the fields of bioinformatics and computational biology, thus preparing her for independent research in spatial ecology and conservation. Additionally, the fellowship provides for developing the best ways to communicate these types of results to policy makers and the general public.