Collaborative Research: Integrated Training for Continental Ecology (ITCE): Bridging Scales and Systems with Isotopes

在研究生和博士后培训中提供创新的方法，包括大陆生态学的新机会，是这个项目的关键重点。来自20多所大学的32名教师将共同努力开发这样一个培训项目，以解决区域到大陆范围内的生态挑战。该方法将包括将稳定同位素与其他数据集和计算机模型相结合。稳定同位素在评估可扩展的时间和空间数据流方面发挥着关键作用，并允许跨空间和时间尺度识别和量化潜在的过程和模式。要解决的关键主题包括生态系统和大气之间的气体交换、动物迁徙、生态水文学、光合作用的途径和对动物饮食的影响。该项目包括参与大学的四个培训要素：(1)通过两周的讲座和实验室课程进行多学科和多大学教学，第一次侧重于原理和实践，第二次侧重于联系同位素、过程和模式、建模和缩放；(2)课程结束后的拓展培训，研究生将通过访问和与其他大学的课程导师合作，获得额外的培训，并扩展他们的论文；(3)校际博士后培养，重点开展迁移、碳循环、水循环、扰动等专题研究领域的建模与综合；(4)开发、整合和传播网络数据库、数据分析工具和培训模块，供他人使用。将通过在重大科学会议之前举办讲习班和在东道国机构与博士后一起参加的方式来持续培训研究小组。学生还将在国家会议上组织会议，作为他们专业发展的组成部分。该项目将在五年内为150多名研究生和博士后提供培训和网络建设机会，为未来几代生态学家提供从区域到大陆尺度生态学项目中使用现有和新的同位素数据流的准备。招聘将强调妇女和代表性不足群体成员在这些机会中的多样性和包容性。教师开发的教学模块和网络产品将被纳入各自所在院校的课程中。数据和模型综合工作将大大增加现有的大规模同位素数据集和数据分析工具在生态研究界内外的可及性，进一步帮助发展宏观系统生物学学科。一个正式的评估框架将指导我们的数据和教育产品在这个项目的每五年的改进。

Providing innovative approaches in graduate and postdoctoral training that encompass emerging opportunities in continental ecology is the critical focus of this project. Thirty-two faculty from nearly two dozen universities will combine efforts to develop such a training program that addresses ecological challenges at regional to continental scales. The approach will include the integration of stable isotopes with other datasets and computer models. Stable isotopes play a critical role in evaluating scalable temporal and spatial data streams and allow underlying processes and patterns to be identified and quantified across scales of space and time. Key themes to be addressed include gas exchange between ecosystems and the atmosphere, animal migration, ecohydrology, and pathways of photosynthesis and consequences for animal diets. The project includes four elements of training across the participating universities: (1) multidisciplinary and multi-university instruction through two week lecture and laboratory courses, with the first focusing on principles and practices and the second on linking isotopes, processes and patterns, modeling, and scaling; (2) extended hands on training after the courses, where graduate students will obtain additional training and expand their theses through visits and collaborations with course instructors at other universities; (3) inter-university postdoctoral training, focusing on modeling and syntheses across the thematic research areas of migration, carbon cycle, water cycle, and disturbance; and (4) developing, integrating, and disseminating over the web databases, data analysis tools, and training modules to be used by others. Training of cohorts will be sustained through workshops in advance of major scientific meetings and participation with postdocs at the host institutions. Students will also organize sessions at national meetings as a component of their professional development.This project will provide training and network building opportunities to more than 150 graduate students and postdocs over five years, preparing future generations of ecologists to use existing and new isotopic data streams from regional to continental scale ecology programs. Recruitment will emphasize diversity and inclusion of women and members of underrepresented groups in these opportunities. Teaching modules and web products developed by the instructors will be incorporated into courses at their respective home institutions. Data and model synthesis efforts will greatly increase the accessibility of existing large scale isotopic datasets and data analysis tools within and beyond the ecological research community to further help develop the discipline of macrosystem biology. A formal evaluation framework will guide the improvement of our data and educational products in each of the five years of this project.