US-Costa Rica Tropical Ecology Mentorship Program of Southern California: Diversification and International Training of Undergraduates in Field Ecology

这个为期三年的奖项，根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助，将支持本科生，研究生和K-12教师在热带雨林环境中进行国际合作研究。 在PI和哥斯达黎加生态学家Marcelo Ardón博士和Javier Espeleta博士的联合指导下，参与者将在夏季花费8周时间调查有关营养水平之间能量和营养转移的当代假设。 项目将包括陆生昆虫对溪流食物网的影响、物种多样性对落叶分解的影响、对食草动物造成的叶面积损失的跟踪以及落叶分解在碳循环中的作用。 这些实验将与热带研究组织的Liana Babbar博士合作，在哥斯达黎加的La Selva生物保护区进行。 三个参与者队列中的每一个都将包括至少一名研究生，四名本科生和一名市中心高中生物教师。 这些团体还将加入几个研究新兵（来自代表性不足的群体的有才华的学生，他们无法承诺整个夏天，但将受益于科学研究）和一名公民科学家（来自科学政策背景的学生，他们同样将受益于实践研究经验）。

This three-year award, funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5), will support undergraduate students, graduate students, and K-12 teachers in doing international collaborative research in a tropical rainforest setting. Under the joint mentorship of the PIs and Costa Rican ecologists Dr. Marcelo Ardón and Dr. Javier Espeleta, participants will spend 8 weeks in the summer investigating contemporary hypotheses regarding the transfer of energy and nutrients across trophic levels. Projects will include the impact of terrestrial insects on stream foodwebs, the effects of species diversity on leaf litter breakdown, the tracking of leaf area loss to herbivores, and the role of leaf litter decomposition in the carbon cycle. These experiments will take place at La Selva Biological Reserve in Costa Rica, in cooperation with Dr. Liana Babbar of the Organization for Tropical Studies. Each of the three participant cohorts will include at least one graduate student, four undergraduate students, and an inner-city high school biology teacher. The groups will also be joined by several research recruits (talented students from underrepresented groups who are unable to commit for a full summer, but would benefit from exposure to scientific research) and a citizen scientist (student from a science policy background who would similarly benefit from a hands-on research experience).