Center of Forest Ecosystem Assessment (CFEA)

阿拉巴马州师范大学将启动一个森林生态系统评估中心（CFEA），作为一个为期5年的科学技术卓越中心（CREST：第二阶段）。该中心更新了先前的一个项目，资助为HRD-0420541。Al-AMU是少数拥有自然资源和环境科学博士课程的传统黑人学院和大学（HBCU）之一，这个CREST项目的更新将有助于最大限度地提高NSF？美国对长期生态研究的投资，以及增加少数民族在自然资源行业的存在。CFEA第二阶段的目标是加强和扩大Al-AMU的努力，使其成为南坎伯兰地区森林生态系统生态学和评估的主要研究中心，培养未来的自然资源科学家，特别是来自目前在科学领域代表性不足的群体的科学家，扩大长期气候变化研究的时空数据库。加强教师能力和机构内部和机构间的合作，使CFEA在未来能够自我维持。长期的森林生态系统研究和评估可以提供重要的生态学见解，对改善生态系统和自然资源的管理至关重要。潜在的研究主题是系统地和协同地研究森林干扰与森林生态系统动态之间的关系，在时间尺度上从即时到长期反应，在空间尺度上从个体遗传组成到景观格局和过程，在非生物水平上从碳、氮、磷到生态系统过程，如碳平衡和储存，在生物层面，从个体野生动物行为到生物多样性，群落动态和生态系统服务。中心下设三个子课题：(1)生态群落响应与动态；(2)生态系统功能与过程；(3)人地耦合动态。参与者将强调跨学科和跨学科的协同作用，继续提高单个教师的研究生产力，并扩大自然资源科学中历史上代表性不足的学生的存在。该中心将以CFEA第一个资助期的成果为基础，研究从分子到区域尺度上发生的森林干扰与生态系统动态之间的关系。该研究将进一步提高人们对环境和气候变化下干扰生态学的认识，对森林经营、恢复生态学和保护生物学等学科的发展具有重要意义。这项工作将涉及从联邦到地方社区的许多机构。调查人员及其学生将有机会进行罕见的大规模野外生态实验，其结果将对森林生态系统管理实践产生直接影响。AMU在培养代表性不足的少数族裔学生，特别是非洲裔美国人，从事STEM职业，包括高等学位教育方面有着良好的记录。在过去的五年多时间里，CFEA有25名教师（少数民族占60%以上），35名研究生（20名硕士和7名博士，少数民族占70%以上），100名本科生和35名高中生参与了研究。该项目的继续将大大有助于增加为社会服务的自然资源科学家的种族多样性。该项目将支持历史悠久的黑人学院或大学中第一个专业认可的林业项目，以及HBCU中为数不多的自然资源和环境科学博士项目之一。更新项目将涉及到社区和高中的大量宣传，以提高招聘和公众对环境问题的认识，特别是在南坎伯兰高原地区，包括阿拉巴马州，佐治亚州和田纳西州的部分地区。与联邦和地方机构以及私人土地所有者的合作将有利于研究工作，为CFEA建立未来的可持续性，并有助于促进生态可持续的资源管理实践。

Alabama A&M University in Normal, Alabama will initiate a Center for Forest Ecosystem Assessment (CFEA) as a 5-year Center for Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST: Phase II). The Center renews a previous project, funded as HRD-0420541. Al-AMU is one of the few Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) with a doctoral program in natural resources and environmental sciences, and the renewal of this CREST program will serve to maximize NSF?s investment in long term ecological research and for increasing minority presence in natural resource professions. The goal for the Phase II of the CFEA is to enhance and expand the effort at Al-AMU to be the leading research Center in forest ecosystem ecology and assessment in the southern Cumberland region, educating future natural resource scientists, particularly from groups that are currently underrepresented in the sciences, expanding the temporal and spatial database for long-term climate change study, and enhancing faculty capacity and intra-and inter-institutional collaborations to make CFEA self-sustaining in the future. Long-term forest ecosystem research and assessment can provide important ecological insights and are crucial for improving management of ecosystems and natural resources. The underlying research theme is to systematically and synergistically examine the relationship between forest disturbances and the forest ecosystem dynamics, at the temporal scale from immediate to long-term responses, at a spatial scale from individual genetic makeup to landscape patterns and process, at non-living level from carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus to ecosystem processes such as carbon balance and storage, and at the biological level from individual wildlife behavior to biodiversity, community dynamics, and ecosystem services. The Center is organized into three subprojects: (1) Ecological Community Responses and Dynamics, (2) Ecosystem Functions and Processes, and (3) Coupled Dynamics of Human and Landscapes. The participants will emphasize inter- and trans-disciplinary synergies and continue to enhance the research productivity of individual faculty and expand the presence of students historically underrepresented in natural resource sciences. Intellectual MeritThe proposed Center will build upon the accomplishments of the first CFEA funding period to examine the relationships between forest disturbances and the ecosystem dynamics that occur over scales from the molecular to the regional. The research will improve the knowledge of disturbance ecology under changing environment and climate, and will contribute significantly to the disciplines of forest management, restoration ecology and conservation biology. The work will involve a number of agencies, from federal through local communities. The investigators and their students will have access to an uncommonly large scale field ecological experiment, and the results will have direct impact on forest ecosystem management practices.Broader ImpactAl AMU has a strong record of preparing underrepresented minority students, particularly African Americans, for STEM careers, including advanced degree education. During the previous 5-plus years of the CFEA, 25 faculty members (more than 60% minorities), 35 graduates (awarded 20 MS and 7 PhD, more than 70% minority), 100 undergraduates and 35 high school students have been involved in the research. Continuation of the project will contribute substantially to increase the ethnic diversity of natural resource scientists serving society. The project will support the first professionally accredited Forestry Program at a Historically Black College or University as well as one of the few doctoral programs in natural resources and environmental sciences at an HBCU. The renewal project will involve significant outreach into communities and high schools to enhance recruitment and public awareness of environmental issues, especially in the Southern Cumberland Plateau Region that comprises parts of Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. The collaborations with federal and local agencies, as well as private landowners, will benefit the research efforts, establish future sustainability for the CFEA, and help to promote ecologically sustainable resource management practices.