REU Site: Eco-Hydrology Of A Tropical Montane Cloud Forest

本科生的这一研究经验将为本科生提供一个机会，培养在设计，执行和传播原始研究的基本技能，这些研究量化了热带山地云雾林流域的水文和地球化学通量。 学生将在哥斯达黎加中部圣伊西德罗附近新建的德克萨斯A M Soltis研究和教育中心的教师指导下进行实地和实验室研究。 REU网站将为学生提供一个独特的国际机会，让他们沉浸在积极的调查和研究实践中：（1）多尺度气候反馈和气候变化，（2）通过树冠的水文气象转移，（3）水文路径和通量，以及（4）碳和水的化学循环。 学生将通过区域和国家招聘和广告计划进行选择，该计划针对的是学校中代表性不足的群体，国际实地研究的机会有限。 在科学方法的基础上，教师导师将帮助学生开发研究问题，并使用先进的现场和实验室设备收集和分析丰富的数据集。 参与的学生将加入大气科学，生态系统科学与管理，环境和水资源工程和地理学的多学科教师，统一关注热带山地云雾林流域内的水文和地球化学通量。 虽然人们普遍认为云雾森林植被对云水的拦截很重要，但对拦截的水量、水文路径和对地球化学循环的影响仍然知之甚少。 由于云雾森林位于哥斯达黎加大部分流域的源头，学生研究的结果将量化云雾森林对下游水资源可用性的作用。 在这方面，学生主导的研究将提供急需的基线信息，以认识云雾森林对区域水文和地球化学循环的重要性。 在REU计划的长度，学生将有助于一个更广泛的项目，考虑气候和土地覆盖变化对云雾林水文的影响，通过在成熟，不成熟，最近记录和完全清除地区的实地实验。 这种理解水平对于预测云雾森林对气候变化和区域土地利用变化的影响和反应至关重要。 REU的成果将包括在主要研究期刊上发表师生联合出版物，在美国和哥斯达黎加大学的主办机构举办研讨会，以及评估国际实地经验成功的研究。

This Research Experience for Undergraduates will provide undergraduate students with an opportunity to develop essential skills in the design, execution and dissemination of original research that quantifies the hydrologic and biogeochemical fluxes in the watershed of a tropical montane cloud forest. Students will work on field and laboratory research under the guidance of faculty mentors at the newly constructed Texas A&M Soltis Center for Research and Education near San Isidro in central Costa Rica. The REU site will provide a unique international opportunity for students to be immersed in the practice of active inquiry and research on: (1) multi-scale climate feedbacks and climate change, (2) hydro-meteorological transfers through the canopy, (3) hydrologic pathways and fluxes, and (4) biogechemical cycling of carbon and water. Students will be selected through a regional and national recruitment and advertising plan that targets underrepresented groups at schools with limited opportunities for international field research. With grounding in the scientific method, faculty mentors will assist students in developing research questions, and to collect and analyze rich data sets using sophisticated field and laboratory equipment. Participating students will join a multidisciplinary faculty from Atmospheric Science, Ecosystem Science and Management, Environmental and Water Resources Engineering and Geography with a unifying focus on the hydrology and biogeochemical fluxes within a watershed of a tropical montane cloud forest. While it is generally accepted that cloud forest vegetation is important to the interception of cloud-water, the quantity of water intercepted, the hydrologic pathways and the impact on biogeochemical cycles remain poorly understood. Since cloud forests are in the headwaters of most watersheds in Costa Rica, the results of the student research will quantify the role of cloud forests on downstream water availability. In this respect, the student-led research will provide much needed baseline information to recognize the importance of cloud forests to regional hydrology and biogeochemical cycling. Over the length of the REU program, students will contribute to a broader project to consider the impact of climate and land-cover change on cloud forest hydrology through field experiments in the mature, immature, recently logged and completely cleared areas. This level of understanding is critical to predicting the impact and response of cloud forests to a changing climate and regional land-use change. The outcomes of the REU will include joint faculty-student publications in leading research journals, seminars at host institutions in the United States and at the University of Costa Rica, and studies to assess the success of international field experiences.