Facilities Improvements for the Prescott College Kino Bay Center for Cultural and Ecological Studies

基诺湾文化和生态研究中心成立于1991年，是普雷斯科特学院在墨西哥加利福尼亚州海湾索诺兰海岸的野外站点。该奖项将使该中心能够升级设施，以便更好地支持本科生教育和培训、实地研究、保护活动以及当地的能力建设和外联计划。该中心独一无二地准备将科学家、资源经理、学生和社区成员聚集在一起，进行有效和创造性的合作，以解决该地区复杂的研究和保护优先事项。该中心提供无与伦比的进入海湾东部米德里夫岛地区的机会，并直接有助于了解当地生态系统和人口，以及管理和保护脆弱的岛屿生态系统，支持世界著名的地方性种群和海鸟筑巢地区。在过去5年中，外地站的使用量大幅增加，目前超过4 000个用户日。该中心对区域研究和保护项目的参与以及来访研究人员的需求已经超出了它为这一群体提供足够的住宿、办公室和长椅空间的能力。该奖项将通过翻新现有建筑，扩建公共浴室和淋浴综合体，以及洗衣房，并增加一栋不起眼的访问研究员宿舍楼来解决这一缺陷。此外，丙烷气体热水器将改装为太阳能系统，以努力更环保和经济可持续。这些活动遵循的是由NSF FSML规划拨款(1998)资助的战略计划中首次阐明的计划，该计划涉及计划、研究优先事项、设备需求和物理工厂开发。

Established in 1991, The Kino Bay Center for Cultural and Ecological Studies is Prescott College's field station on the Sonoran coast of the Gulf of California, Mexico. This award will allow the Center to upgrade facilities in order to better support undergraduate education and training, field research, conservation activities, and local capacity-building and outreach programs. The Center is uniquely poised to bring scientists, resource managers, students, and community members together in effective and creative collaboration to address complex research and conservation priorities in the region. The Center offers unparalleled access to the eastern Midriff Island Region of the Gulf, and directly contributes to the understanding of local ecosystems and populations, as well as the management and preservation of fragile island ecosystems supporting world-renowned endemic populations and seabird nesting areas. Use of the field station has increased dramatically over the past 5 years to a current level of over 4,000 user-days. The Center's involvement with regional research and conservation projects and demand from visiting researchers has outstripped its ability to provide adequate lodging, office, and bench space for this constituency. This award will address this shortcoming by renovating existing buildings, expanding the communal bathroom and shower complex, and laundry room, and adding a modest visiting researcher dorm building. In addition propane gas water heaters will be converted to solar systems in an effort to be more environmentally friendly and economically sustainable. These activities follow a plan that was first articulated in a strategic plan, funded by an NSF FSML Planning Grant (1998), which addressed programs, research priorities, equipment needs, and physical plant development.