IRES: Enhancing Global Competence and Research Skills in Climate Change and Urban Ecosystems Through Collaborative Research in China

这个IRES项目的研究主题是解决城市生态系统设计的可能性，以应对气候变化的负面影响。该项目将派遣南方大学和路易斯安那州立大学的学生到中国与中国科学院应用生态研究所和华南植物园以及北京林业研究所进行合作研究，研究将针对四个一般性主题：全球变暖和城市化对自然资源的影响建模；二氧化碳和臭氧浓度升高对城市森林的综合影响；城市森林的碳储存和固碳作用；城乡结合部热带森林土壤碳动态对长期氮沉降的响应每年将有四名本科生和四名研究生在中国参加研究活动。该项目关注的是一个非常热门的领域（即可持续性），考虑到目前世界对化石燃料的依赖以及随之而来的温室气体水平的上升，这一领域越来越重要。它涉及美国大学和中国研究机构之间的独特合作。研究工作的实质应该有助于更好地理解城市环境中的复杂环境动态，这应该在美国和中国以及世界其他地区得到应用，并促进有效的减缓战略。此外，HBCU参与IRES方案应对这一领域的人力资源开发作出积极贡献。

The research topic of this IRES program addresses the possibility of designing the urban ecosystem to deal with the negative effects of climate change. The proposed program will send students from Southern University and Louisiana State University to China to conduct collaborative research with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Institute of Applied Ecology and Southern China Botanical Garden, and the Beijing Forestry Institute, The research will be directed at four general topics: Modeling the impact of global warming and urbanization on natural resources; Combined effects of elevated levels of carbon dioxide and ozone on urban forests; Carbon storage and sequestration by urban forests; and Response of soil carbon dynamics to long-term nitrogen deposition in a tropical forest at the urban-rural interface. Each year four undergraduates and four graduate students will participate in the research activities in China. The project focuses on a very topical area of interest (i.e. sustainability), which has growing importance considering the world's current dependence on fossil fuels and the concomitant rise in greenhouse-gas levels. It involves a unique collaboration between the U.S. universities and the institutions in China. The substance of the research efforts should lead to better understanding of complex environmental dynamics in urban settings, which should have application in the U.S. and China as in other parts of the world and promote effective mitigation strategies. Also, the involvement of an HBCU in the IRES program should make a positive contribution to human-resource development in this field.