Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in BIological Informatics for FY 2006

本行动资助2006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。这项研究和培训计划的题目是“海带森林斑块对物种多样性的影响及其对保护区设计的影响”。了解空间生境结构对物种分布和多样性的影响是理解陆地和海洋系统多样性机制和提出保护策略的核心问题。本研究使用陆地景观生态学的工具来确定生境形状和连通性如何影响海带森林的物种多样性和组成，生活史特征是否可以预测生物的反应，以及海洋和陆地群落的反应是否存在共性。这一博士后研究经历将使研究员能够学习最新的生物信息学工具，并进一步加强她在空间统计和计算生物学方面的培训。此外，该研究金将提供经验，以便与决策者和一般公众交流研究结果。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biological Informatics for FY 2006. 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 "Impacts of kelp forest patchiness on species diversity and implications for reserve design." Understanding the impact of spatial habitat structure on species distributions and diversity is a central question for understanding mechanisms of diversity and proposing conservation strategies in both terrestrial and marine systems. This research uses tools from terrestrial landscape ecology to determine how habitat shape and connectivity affect species diversity and composition in kelp forests, if life history traits can predict organism response, and if there are generalities between marine and terrestrial community responses.This postdoctoral fellowship experience will allow the Fellow to learn the latest bioinformatics tools and further her training in spatial statistics and computational biology. In addition, the fellowship will provide experience for communicating the findings with policy makers and the general public.