COLLABORATIVE: WORKSHOP: Identifying and prioritizing research questions for long-term ecological experiments

随着数据集的增长，数据的价值也会增加，因为这些信息可以用来回答与最初激发数据收集的问题不同的新问题。该奖项支持一个分三个阶段的过程，将吸引早期职业研究人员为长期数据集的应用确定新的前沿，特别关注长期实验。主要研究人员提出了一种独特的方法来识别这些问题。他们的方法的结果将为长期数据的持续投资增加显著的价值。他们将通过确定新问题和鼓励具有新观点的早期职业研究人员在确定未来长期研究活动方向方面发挥核心作用，从而推动生态学和生态系统科学领域的发展。通过研究网络或个人研究人员建立的长期实验为长期研究的价值提供了一些最好的例证，但这些实验在生态学和进化中各种问题的潜在应用仍未开发。调查人员将三项活动结合起来，以确保开放和民主的发展，并确定新的研究方向的优先次序。一项在线调查将用于吸引广泛的生态社区，以确定长期生态实验唯一解决的研究问题。问题将主要是封闭式的，但少量的开放式问题是必要的，以确保全面评估社区的观点。调查结果将与耶鲁大学气候变化传播项目合作总结，该项目向公众、政府和学术部门提供并分析在线调查。该项目的第二阶段是在凯洛格生物站举行的研讨会，在此期间，早期职业研究人员将提出他们自己的问题，评估和分类调查中的问题，并使用水平扫描来确定主要问题及其重要性的基本原理。综合方法和主要研究问题的报告将是项目的最后阶段。这份报告将首先由“意见领袖”或长期生态研究领域的资深研究人员进行审查。他们的评论和批评将被纳入研讨会报告的附录，该报告将提交给一家主要的生态学杂志发表。拟议的活动——一个广泛的调查、一个讲习班和一份出版物——将确定下一代问题，这些问题可以利用已经投资于长期生态研究的资金。

The value of data increases as data sets grow longer, as this information can be used to answer new suites of questions that are different from those that originally motivated the data collection. This award supports a three-staged process that will engage early-career researchers to identify new frontiers for the application of long-term data sets, with a particular focus on long-term experiments. The lead investigators propose a unique approach to identifying these questions. Results from their approach will add significant value to ongoing investments in long-term data. They will advance the fields of ecology and ecosystem science by identifying new questions and by encouraging early-career researchers with novel perspectives to play a central role in defining directions for future long-term research activities.Long-term experiments established through research networks or individual researchers provide some of the best illustrations of the value of long-term research, yet the potential applications of these experiments to diverse questions in ecology and evolution remain untapped. The investigators combine three activities to ensure an open and democratic development and prioritization of new research directions. An on-line survey will be used to engage the broad ecological community in identifying research questions uniquely addressed by long-term ecological experiments. Questions will be primarily closed-ended, but a small number of open-ended questions is necessary to ensure a comprehensive assessment of the community's viewpoints. Survey results will be summarized in collaboration with The Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, which delivers and analyzes online surveys to public, governmental, and academic sectors. The second stage of the project is a workshop, held at the Kellogg Biological Station, during which early-career researchers will present their own questions, evaluate and categorize questions from the survey, and use horizon scanning to identify leading questions and the rationale for their importance. A report synthesizing the approach and the leading research questions will be the final stage of the project. This report will first be reviewed by 'opinion leaders,' or senior researchers well established in the area of long-term ecological research. Their comments and critiques will be incorporated as appendices to the workshop report, which will be submitted for publication to a leading ecological journal. The proposed activities - a broad survey, a workshop, and a publication - will identify the next generation of questions that can capitalize on the funds already invested in long-term ecological research.