REU Site: Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions in a Changing Global Environment

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)资助的。全球变化的驱动因素，包括气温变暖、降水变化、大气二氧化碳和臭氧增加、活性氮沉积、入侵物种和栖息地丧失，正在影响所有生态系统。多个驱动因素往往协同作用；例如，全球变暖和大气氮沉积可能会促进入侵物种的传播。尽管这种生物圈-大气相互作用是全球变化生态学的重要组成部分，但人们对此还没有很好的理解。因此，重要的是培训年轻的研究人员来识别和实验地解决这些相互作用，以便他们最终能够帮助解决21世纪复杂的全球环境问题。该项目延续了密歇根大学生物站(UMBS)的本科生研究机会(REU)计划。学生体验一个真正跨学科的课程，专注于全球变化的生态和大气原因及后果。他们得到了在密歇根州立大学任教和进行研究的生态学家和大气科学家的广泛指导，他们沉浸在一个由资深研究人员、研究生和其他本科生组成的大型、互动和智力多样化的社区中。REU的学生受益于一批独特的科学家、设施和正在进行的专注于全球变化的实地研究。例如(1)UMBS森林碳循环研究计划，(2)氧化剂研究计划：光化学、排放和运输(PROPHET)，(3)关注二氧化碳升高对植物-草食动物相互作用的项目，(4)关注于测量生物圈-大气中碳、氮和挥发性有机化合物交换的项目，(5)关注入侵物种的项目。该方案通过密集指导的个人研究项目、关于生态学、大气化学、全球变化、实验设计和统计、职业道德和传播的一系列讲习班、每周生物圈-大气阅读小组以及参加密歇根大学商学院的研究研讨会，提供全面的培训。该计划强调学生积极参与高质量研究的所有阶段，从项目构思到结果展示。此外，积极的招聘做法导致妇女(60%)和代表性不足的少数群体(24%)参加了目前的UMBS REU SITE方案。招聘工作正在扩大，包括与代表不足的少数族裔服务机构的伙伴关系，在UMBS举行招聘活动，以及支持以前的REU学生担任该项目的学生大使。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Global change drivers, including warmer temperature, changing precipitation, increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide and ozone, deposition of reactive nitrogen, invasive species, and habitat loss, are affecting all ecological systems. Multiple drivers often act synergistically; e.g., global warming and atmospheric nitrogen deposition may facilitate the spread of invasive species. Such biosphere-atmosphere interactions are not well understood despite being crucial components of global change ecology. Therefore, it is important to train young researchers to identify and experimentally address these interactions in order that they ultimately are able to help solve the complex global environmental problems of the 21st Century. This project continues a Research Opportunities for Undergraduates (REU) program at the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS). Students experience a truly interdisciplinary program focused on the ecological and atmospheric causes and consequences of global change. They receive extensive mentoring from both ecologists and atmospheric scientists who teach and conduct research at UMBS, and they are immersed within a large, interactive and intellectually diverse community of senior researchers, graduate students and other undergraduate students. REU students benefit from a unique collection of scientists, facilities, and ongoing field studies focused on global change. Examples are (1) the UMBS Forest Carbon Cycle Research Program, (2) the Program for Research on Oxidants: PHotochemistry, Emissions, and Transport (PROPHET), (3) projects focused on elevated carbon dioxide effects on plant-herbivore interactions, (4) projects focused on measuring biosphere-atmosphere exchanges of carbon, nitrogen, and volatile organic compounds, and (5) projects focused on invasive species. The program provides comprehensive training via an intensively mentored individual research project, a series of workshops in ecology, atmospheric chemistry, global change, experimental design and statistics, professional ethics, and communication; a weekly biosphere-atmosphere reading group; and attendance at UMBS research seminars. The program emphasizes active participation by students in all phases of high quality research, from project conception through presentation of results. In addition, aggressive recruiting practices have resulted in the participation of women (60%) and underrepresented minorities (24%) in the current UMBS REU Site Program. Recruitment efforts are being expanded to include partnerships with underrepresented minority-serving institutions, a recruiting event at UMBS, and support for prior REU students to act as student ambassadors for the program.