Biocomplexity of Hydrological Service Payments and Watershed Sustainability in Mexico

OISE-0902019PI：Heidi Asbjornsen此次美墨规划访问提案将为墨西哥生物复杂性研究建立协作联系和实验设计-S水文服务付款项目及其对流域可持续发展的影响。这次计划访问的一个关键目标是发展来自美国和墨西哥多个研究机构的研究人员之间的合作，包括爱荷华州立大学、韦拉克鲁斯生态研究所、墨西哥国立自治大学、奥本大学、密歇根理工大学和墨西哥非政府组织SENDAS。美国团队将包括七名美国研究人员和两名美国研究生。这次计划访问的东道主是墨西哥哈拉帕生态研究所的罗伯特·曼森博士。国际小组将围绕以下两个核心目标开展跨学科研究：1.量化小灵通政策对位于墨西哥三个不同地理-文化区域的重复流域的社会-生态耦合系统每个维度的潜在关键流域可持续性指标的影响。开发一个可持续发展指数，用于评估小灵通政策对整个研究流域社会-生态耦合系统的综合影响。这次规划访问所产生的研究结果可能有助于基本了解以水文服务为目标的经济激励措施如何与人类行动相结合，直接影响流域的可持续性和生活质量。综合流域可持续性指数的开发和测试在将科学与政策联系起来方面将特别有价值，因此很可能通过在改进和设计未来的小灵通方案方面的应用产生广泛的影响。其他重要的广泛影响包括加强美国和墨西哥之间的国际合作，以及培训学生进行跨学科-国际研究。该奖项由国家科学基金会环境生物学分部和国际科学与工程办公室联合资助。

OISE-0902019PI: Heidi AsbjornsenThis U.S.-Mexico Planning Visit Proposal will establish the collaborative linkages and experimental design for research on the biocomplexity of Mexico?s Payments for Hydrological Services (PHS) programs and the implications for watershed sustainability. A key goal of the planning visit is to develop collaborations between researchers from multiple U.S. and Mexican research institutions, including Iowa State University, Institute of Ecology in Veracruz, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Auburn University, Michigan Technological University, and SENDAS, a Mexican NGO. The U.S. team will include seven U.S. researchers and two U.S. graduate students. The host for the planning visit is Dr. Robert Manson from the Institute of Ecology, in Xalapa, Mexico. The international team will develop interdisciplinary research focused on the following two central objectives:1. To quantify the effects of PHS policies on potential key indicators of watershed sustainability for each dimension of coupled social-ecological systems for replicated watersheds located in three contrasting geographic-cultural regions in Mexico.2. To develop a sustainability index for assessing the aggregate impact of PHS policies on coupled social-ecological systems across the study watersheds.The results of research developed from this planning visit may contribute significantly to the fundamental knowledge of how economic incentives targeting hydrological services are coupled to human actions to directly influence watershed sustainability and quality of life. The development and testing of aggregated watershed sustainability indices will be particularly valuable in linking science with policy and thus will likely have broad impacts through applications in the improvement and design of future PHS programs. Other important broad impacts include the strengthening of international collaboration between U.S. and Mexico and the training of students in interdisciplinary-international research. This award is jointly funded by the Division of Environmental Biology and the Office of International Science and Engineering of the National Science Foundation.