IRES: An International, Interdisciplinary Student Research Program in a Biological Hotspot of Southern Ecuador

NSF-IRES计划国际，厄瓜多尔南部生物热点的跨学科学生研究将为来自爱达荷州（UI）大学的学生提供8周的实地研究机会，与厄瓜多尔洛哈大学合作。每年六名学生（4-5名本科生，1-2名研究生）将在厄瓜多尔南部的三个主要实地进行团队研究，包括干旱森林，亚马逊低地和高安第斯山脉云雾森林和帕拉莫生态系统。培训将强调跨学科的综合性，对不同文化/政治规范的敏感性，以及在具有独特多样研究挑战的景观中进行严格科学调查的灵活性。来自UI的参与学生将在2-3名学生的跨学科团队中工作，在围绕生物多样性保护主题的广泛统一主题范围内解决个人研究问题。六个具有保护生物学，保护遗传学，哺乳动物生态学，湖沼学，昆虫生态学和昆虫遗传学，植物生态学和昆虫遗传学以及农村社会学专业知识的UTPL教师将担任当地项目导师。来自UTPL的厄瓜多尔学生将与UI学生团队成员合作开发和实施研究项目。具有景观和生物生态学，保护生物学，人口生态学，保护遗传学，水文学，湖沼学，流域管理，农村社会学，自然资源政策和昆虫学专业知识的UI教师将担任共同导师和合作者。教育活动将包括春季规划和建议开发课程，强调计划物流，厄瓜多尔南部的生态，自然历史和人文因素（可持续发展，文化，土著问题），跨学科研究方法，以及夏季研究建议的开发。在厄瓜多尔收集数据的8周实地季节后，学生将参加秋季课程，旨在促进数据分析和手稿准备，在持续的跨学科环境中，并最终在最终的口头陈述和项目报告中达到高潮。参与的学生将获得丰富的文化经验，从而建立一个复杂的，外在的科学观点。最终，该计划的毕业生应该擅长解决我们作为全球公民所面临的关键，多方面的保护困境。

The NSF-IRES program International, Interdisciplinary Student Research in a Biological Hotspot of Southern Ecuador will provide 8-week field research opportunities for students from the University of Idaho (UI) in collaboration with the Univesidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Ecuador. Six students (4-5 undergraduate, 1-2 graduate) per year will conduct team-based research at three main field sites in southern Ecuador including dry-forest, Amazonian lowlands and high Andes cloud forest and paramo ecosystems. Training will emphasize cross-disciplinary synthesis, sensitivity to varying cultural/political norms, and the flexibility to conduct rigorous scientific investigations in landscapes with uniquely varied research challenges. Participating students from the UI will work in interdisciplinary teams of 2-3 students addressing individual research questions within the scope of a broad unifying topic focused around our umbrella theme of biodiversity conservation. Six UTPL faculty with expertise in conservation biology, conservation genetics, mammalian ecology, limnology, insect ecology and phylogenetics, plant ecology and phylogenetics, and rural sociology will serve as local project mentors. Ecuadorian students from UTPL will collaborate with UI student team members to develop and implement research projects. UI faculty with expertise in landscape and organismal ecology, conservation biology, population ecology, conservation genetics, hydrology, limnology, watershed management, rural sociology, natural resource policy, and entomology will serve as co-mentors and collaborators. Educational activities will include a spring planning and proposal development course that emphasizes program logistics, the ecology, natural history and human dimensions (sustainable development, culture, indigenous issues) of southern Ecuador, interdisciplinary research methods, and the development of summer research proposals. After an 8-week field season collecting data in Ecuador, students will take a fall course designed to facilitate data analysis and manuscript preparation, in a continued interdisciplinary setting, and culminating in a final oral presentation and project report. Participating students will gain experience with a rich array of cultures, thus building a sophisticated, externalized perspective on science. Ultimately, graduates of this program should excel at addressing the critical, multi-facetted conservation dilemmas that face us as global citizens.