Workshop Proposal: Long-term trends in nitrogen cycles in ecosystems: Field monitoring and global comparisons

该奖项将资助来自美国的五名教师和四名学生参加于2016年6月16日至24日在日本北海道大学举行的关于生态系统中氮循环长期趋势的国际培训课程。这门课程包括在附近的乌龙实验森林进行实地监测，以及对世界各地生态系统中氮循环模式的比较。该培训旨在让年轻的研究人员（博士生、博士后研究人员和早期职业教师）接触到最先进的生态系统氮循环分析方法，重点关注关键的生态系统过程和对环境污染的影响。课程结构包括讲座、实地考察、数据收集和分析以及小组讨论。参与者将学习标准研究方案、新兴方法、最新发现和数据分析工具，并获得与国际同事合作的经验。由于本次研讨会主要是美国和日本学者之间的一项新的合作成果，并支持正在进行的生态系统科学和长期生态研究，因此由美国国家科学基金会国际科学与工程全球风险基金提供共同资金。人为衍生（活性）氮在全球环境变化中发挥核心作用，包括气候变化、生物多样性丧失、空气污染、温室气体排放、水污染以及粮食生产和人类健康。目前对全球耦合人类生态系统中控制氮循环的生物地球化学过程的理解主要来自长期的生态监测和实验研究。考虑到氮循环挑战的全球性，综合国际和长期合作研究对于减少不确定性、促进进一步理解和设计解决全球生态系统中与氮循环相关的环境问题至关重要。本次研讨会是由北海道大学柴田英树教授领导的国际长期生态研究（ILTER）网络在氮循环全球模式方面的新努力的结果。柴田英树教授是本次研讨会的组织者。

This award supports the travel of five faculty and four students from the United States to participate in an international training course on long-term trends in nitrogen cycles in ecosystems at Hokkaido University in Japan, June 16-24, 2016. The course includes field monitoring at the nearby Uryu Experimental Forest, as well as comparisons of nitrogen cycling patterns in ecosystems from around the world. The training is designed to expose young researchers (PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and early career faculty) to state-of-the-art approaches for the analysis of nitrogen cycling in ecosystems, with a focus on key ecosystem processes and implications for environmental pollution. The course structure includes lectures, field classes, data collection and analyses, and group discussions. Participants will learn about standard research protocols, emerging methods, recent findings, and data analytical tools and will gain experience working with international colleagues. Because this workshop is primarily the result of a new collaboration between U.S. and Japanese scholars and supports ongoing research in ecosystem science and long-term ecological research, co-funding is provided by the NSF International Science and Engineering Global Venture Fund.Anthropogenically derived (reactive) nitrogen plays a central role in global environmental change, including climate change, biodiversity loss, air pollution, greenhouse gas emission, water pollution, as well as food production and human health. Current understanding of the biogeochemical processes that govern the nitrogen cycle in coupled human-ecological systems around the globe is drawn largely from long-term ecological monitoring and experimental studies. Given the global nature of the nitrogen cycle challenges, integrated international and long-term collaborative studies are essential to reduce uncertainties, promote further understanding, and design solutions to environmental problems associated with nitrogen cycle in ecosystems across the globe. This workshop emerges from new efforts focused on global patterns in nitrogen cycling within the International Long-Term Ecological Research (ILTER) network, led by Prof. Hideki Shibata at Hokkaido University, the organizer of this workshop.