U.S.-Australia IRES Collaboration: Behavioral ecology research training in Australia's tropical savannah

这项国际学生研究经验奖授予了路易斯安那州新奥尔良杜兰大学生态和进化生物系的乔丹·卡鲁比安教授。21名参与的美国研究生和本科生将在三年的时间里与澳大利亚查尔斯·达尔文大学环境研究学院的研究人员合作两个月。他们在研究所的外国合作者是迈克尔·劳斯教授和唐纳德·富兰克林教授。学生将学习国际上鸟类行为生态学和火灾生态学的研究。美国现存最大的热带稀树草原栖息地。这项研究将有助于了解环境、人口和红背鹪鹩交配系统之间的关系。学生们将利用这些鹪鹩在社会组织、性信号表达和交配行为方面表现出的相当大的灵活性，在一个生态条件以拼凑的方式变化的地区。通过描述鹪鹩利用灵活的行为和生理策略来适应其所经历的生态和社会环境的程度，并将其与其他热带和温带物种的生殖灵活性进行比较，本研究可能会进一步加深我们对鸟类交配系统及其对人类活动的反应的理解。该项目将提供尖端行为生态学方法的技术培训，并将培养这些学生未来与外国合作者合作的能力。研究人员还计划将澳大利亚土著群体纳入他们的实地研究项目。该项目的一个主要重点是让美国学生与国际学生和教师一起参与有意义的项目。学生将与具有不同科学背景的研究人员密切合作，并将学习现场和实验室技术，以提高他们的研究技能。总之，这些经历将增加学生参与者的网络和国际竞争力。这项研究计划将对生物教育和研究产生广泛的影响。

This International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) award is made to Professor Jordan Karubian in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. The 21 participating U.S. graduate and undergraduate students will collaborate for two months over a period of three years with researchers in the School for Environmental Research at Charles Darwin University in Australia. Their foreign collaborators at the Institute are Professor Michael Lawes and Professor Donald Franklin. The students will study avian behavioral ecology and fire ecology research in the world?s largest remaining tropical savannah habitat. The research will develop an understanding of the relationship between the environment, demography, and the mating system of the red-backed fairy-wren. The students will exploit the considerable flexibility these wrens exhibit in social organization, expression of sexual signals, and mating behavior in an area in which ecological conditions vary in a patchwork manner. By characterizing the degree to which the wrens use flexible behavioral and physiological strategies to negotiate the ecological and social environment that they experience, and comparing this reproductive flexibility with other tropical and temperate species, it is likely that this research will further our understanding of avian mating systems and how they respond to anthropogenic activities. The program will provide technical training in cutting edge behavioral ecology methods and will build the capacity of these students to work with foreign collaborators in the future. The researchers also plan to include Australian Aboriginal groups in their field research projects.A major emphasis of the project is to engage U.S. students in meaningful projects with international students and faculty. Students will work closely with researchers with different scientific backgrounds and will learn field and laboratory techniques that will enhance their research skills. Altogether, these experiences will increase the networking and international competitiveness of the student participants. The research program will have broad impacts on biological education and research.