Facilities to Enhance Research and Teaching at the University of Kansas Field Station

堪萨斯大学获得了一笔赠款，用于改善堪萨斯大学野外站（KUFS）的设施。该站点为东部落叶林和高草草原生物群落之间的过渡带提供了研究和公共教育的机会。该奖项下的设施建设是KUFS逐步实现的更大愿景的一部分，在这个愿景中，该站将吸引更多来自世界各地的学生和教职员工，以环保原则为灵感，使用世界一流的设施。这些资金将用于建造一个实验温室-介生世界-公共花园设施，该设施将支持传统的介生世界研究，使用实验测试系统，代表小型实验室系统和自然世界之间的中间步骤，满足一般生态工作空间的需求，并提供KUFS目前不存在的全年植物护理和繁殖能力。此外，将为不断增长的站点用户社区建造风暴避难所，考虑到KUFS的天气条件，这是一个重要的安全功能。改善库务局的设施有助达致四项重要的长远目标。首先，它将改善个体研究者研究可以在多个空间尺度和多个实验控制水平上探索生态问题的环境。第二，它将进一步促进多研究者、跨学科的研究项目。第三，它将为未来的扩张奠定基础，以纳入重要的能源效率和可持续性概念。第四，它将增强KUFS？对诸如国家生态观测站网络（http://neoninc.org）和生物复杂性知识网络（http://knb.ecoinformatics.org/index.jsp）等大型网络的贡献。KUFS的活动包括广泛的教学、公共宣传和研究项目，目标人群从大学生到小学生，以及普通公众。KUFS的研究为该地区的生态系统提供了广泛的知识基础，并促进了数十名学生和研究人员的发展。拟议的设施将有助于库fs的发展：1)改善研究基础设施，以促进生态组织水平（即社区、人口和生态系统）与桥梁空间尺度（即实验室、中观和实地研究）之间的联系；2)为本科生和研究生的教育提供一个更好的平台。重要的是，设施的改善将有助于KUFS成为区域和国家规模的科学和教育之间的纽带。欲了解更多有关该站的信息，请访问网站http://www.kufs.ku.edu/。

The University of Kansas is awarded a grant to improve facilities at the University of Kansas Field Station (KUFS). The station provides opportunities for research and public education along the ecotone between the eastern deciduous forest and the tallgrass prairie biomes. Construction of the facilities under this award is part of a larger vision of the KUFS to be fulfilled incrementally, in which the station will attract a greater diversity of students and faculty members from around the globe to world-class facilities inspired by environmentally sound principles. The funds will be used to construct an experimental greenhouse-mesocosm-common garden facility that will support classical mesocosm research, using experimental test systems representing an intermediate step between small laboratory systems and the natural world, serve general ecology workspace needs, and provide the capacity for year-round plant care and propagation that does not currently exist at KUFS. In addition, storm shelters will be constructed for the growing community of site users, an important safety feature given the weather conditions found at KUFS. Enhancement of the facilities at KUFS will help satisfy four critical long-term objectives. First, it will improve the setting where individual-investigator research can explore ecological questions at multiple spatial scales and multiple levels of experimental control. Second, it will further facilitate multi-investigator, interdisciplinary research projects. Third, it will lay the groundwork for future expansions to incorporate significant energy efficiency and sustainability concepts. Fourth, it will augment KUFS? contributions to large-scale networks such as the National Ecological Observatory Network (http://neoninc.org) and the Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (http://knb.ecoinformatics.org/index.jsp). KUFS activities encompass a broad array of teaching, public outreach, and research programs, targeting populations ranging from university students to school children, as well as the general public. Research at KUFS has provided a broad base of knowledge about ecotonal ecosystems in the region, and has fostered the development of scores of students and researchers. The proposed facilities will aid in the development of the KUFS mission by 1) improving research infrastructure in a way that promotes linkages between ecological levels of organization (i.e. communities, populations, and ecosystems) and bridges spatial scales (i.e. laboratory, mesocosm, and field studies); and 2) providing an enhanced platform on which to base undergraduate and graduate education. Importantly, improved facilities will help KUFS serve as a link between regional and national-scale science and education. For more information about the station, please visit the website at http://www.kufs.ku.edu/.