IRES: Sustainable Development of a Tropical Agroforestry Program in the Rural Borneo Highlands

该项目将收集基线生态数据，以记录婆罗洲高原退化的热带森林对采用农林业系统的反应。在上个世纪的两次砍伐之后，这些高地被归还给马来西亚婆罗洲的土著（卡达山人）；农林复合系统旨在恢复森林冠层。来自STEM学科中代表性不足群体的11名本科生和2名硕士学生将在为期8周的暑期生态实地研究经历中收集数据。数据包括土壤特性（有机质、化学成分、pH值、持水量、真菌细菌比）、节肢动物多样性（甲虫、蚂蚁和蝴蝶）以及果食性和食虫性蝙蝠群落。这些数据记录了生产地点的生态变化，并将与相邻和受保护的国家森林范围内相同海拔的地点进行比较，以作为生态基准。制定基准有助于使农林业做法符合国际绿色产品标签的要求，这将大大提高生产者的收入。研究结果将提高对热带森林生态群落从土壤到冠层之间联系的科学认识；最后，学生将获得设计生态实地实验，收集和分析数据，并在专业会议上与来自不同文化和学术界的利益相关者交流结果的专业经验。

This project will collect baseline ecological data to record the response of a degraded tropical forest in the Bornean highlands to the introduction of an agroforestry system. The highlands were returned to indigenous (Kadazan) persons in Malaysian Borneo following two clear-cuttings over the last century; and the agroforestry system is designed to restore the forest canopy. 11 undergraduate and 2 MS students from underrepresented groups in STEM disciplines will collect data in paid 8-week summer ecological field research experiences. Data include soil properties (organic matter, chemical content, pH, water holding capacity, fungi to bacteria ratio), arthropod diversity (beetles, ants and butterflies) and fructivorous and insectivorous bat communities. The data record ecological changes at producer sites and will be compared to sites at the same elevation in an adjacent and protected national forest range for ecological benchmarking. Benchmarking serves to help qualify agroforestry practices for international green product labelling, which would substantially elevate producer incomes. Results will improve scientific understanding of the linkages among ecological communities in tropical forests from soil to canopy; and, finally, students will gain professional experience in designing ecological field experiments, collecting and analyzing data, and communicating results to stakeholders from different cultures and academics at professional conferences.