Design for Upgrade of an Existing Biological Field Station for Conducting Collaborative Ecological Research in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

黄石生态研究中心(YERC)是一个非营利性的研究和教育组织，有十年的运营历史，使用租赁的设施不再足以支持其活动。该奖项支持野外空间站的规划工作，这将是多年进程的第一步，从而进一步发展一个重要的生物野外空间站，提供进入大黄石生态系统(GYE)的通道。通过让使用或将使用空间站的研究人员和教育工作者、外部科学顾问、联邦机构的地区代表和地方领导人参加的会议，规划工作将提供一个总体规划，确定YERC站点的规划目标以及支持这些规划目标所需的永久设施。野战站预计将成为田野教育机会的集结地，这些机会将支持来自密苏里州七个上游部落的美国原住民大学生，以及该地区服务不足的美国农村人。Gye是温带工业化世界中最大、几乎完好无损的生态系统。由于其显著的地质特性，对Gye的研究可以导致从微观尺度(例如，热水中的嗜热菌)到生态系统尺度(例如，北部山脉的季节性麋鹿迁徙)的重要发现。规划过程将包括确定常驻科学家和访问科学家与各级学生(K-博士后)进行课堂互动的设施范围。从2005年开始，大学年龄的部落成员和蒙大拿州的K-12农村人将可以通过一个单独资助的教育计划进入野战站。外地站点规划过程的一个重要部分将是确定建筑和土地设计，以促进外地和教室之间的平稳过渡。

The Yellowstone Ecological Research Center (YERC) is a non-profit research and education organization that has a ten year history of operation using leased facilities that are no longer sufficient to support its activities. This award supports a field station planning effort that will be the initial step in a multi-year process leading to the further development of an important biological field station providing access to the greater Yellowstone ecosystem (GYE). Through meetings involving researchers and educators who use or will use the station, outside scientific advisors, regional representatives of federal agencies, and local leaders, the planning effort will provide a master plan that identifies programmatic goals for the YERC station and the permanent facilities needed to support those programmatic goals. The field station is expected to serve as a staging ground for field education opportunities that will support Native American college students from the seven upper Missouri tribes, plus underserved rural Americans from within the region. The GYE is the largest nearly intact ecosystem in the temperate, industrialized world. Because of its remarkable geological properties, research in the GYE can lead to important discoveries at levels ranging from the microscopic scale (e.g., thermophilic bacteria in hydrogeothermal waters) to the ecosystem scale (e.g., seasonal elk migrations in the Northern Range). The planning process will include scoping of facilities for classroom interactions between resident and visiting scientists with students at all levels (K-Postdoctoral). Beginning in 2005, college-aged tribal members and K-12 rural Montanans will have access to the Field Station through a separately funded education program. An important part of the field station planning process will be to define building and lands designs that facilitate smooth transitions between the field and the classroom.