Health Status of the Ecosystem, Biodiversity and Species Abundance along the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline.

部落学院和大学计划旨在支持为美国大量原住民学生提供服务的学院和大学的科学，数学，工程和技术（STEM）教育和研究能力的改善。加强这些教育机会有助于增加获得STEM学位的土著人的数量，从而使美国的STEM劳动力多样化。“达科他石油管道沿线生态系统、生物多样性、水、土壤和物种的健康状况”项目通过对管道周围生态系统的研究，支持这些成果。该项目由Sitting Bull College的Standing Rock Sioux Reservation的环境科学教师组成的跨学科专家团队领导，重点收集有关管道周围保留区的物种多样性，水质和土壤特征的基线数据。教师导师还聘请本地本科生和研究生作为该项目的组成部分，指导他们在设计和进行研究和介绍其结果。研究中收集的基线信息是一种宝贵的资源，有助于进一步了解管道随着时间的推移对环境的影响，并制定管理这些影响的战略。美国石油管道的普遍存在，以满足国家的能源需求，使这项工作高度相关和重要的美国公民在广泛的规模。健康状况的生态系统，生物多样性，水，土壤和物种的重点是沿着达科他州访问石油管道的物种组成，水质，以及管道周围各种生境的土壤因素。使用先进的采样技术和最先进的实验室设备，该项目聘请了来自Sitting Bull College的环境科学家组成的跨学科团队，记录，量化和推导关键物种的相对丰度估计在Standing Rock Sioux Reservation的管道周围地区。数据收集和分析的全面性和严谨性使得能够跨时空尺度研究生态系统。这些数据将广泛提供，并将在进一步了解管道的影响，以及为未来的研究和制定补救计划，在美国的这条管道和其他管道的价值。 本科生和研究生水平的学生与教师导师在研究设计，实施和演示文稿的合作有助于该项目？通过发展部落学院及其学生的研究能力，扩大其更广泛的影响。

The Tribal Colleges and University Program is designed to support improvements in the science, math, engineering and technology (STEM) education and research capacities of colleges and universities that serve significant numbers of Native students in the United States. Strengthening these educational opportunities serves to increase the number of Indigenous people attaining STEM degrees and thereby diversify the STEM workforce in the United States. The Health Status of the Ecosystem, Biodiversity, Water, Soil and Species Abundance Along the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline project supports these outcomes through its study of the ecosystems surrounding the pipeline. Led by an expert interdisciplinary team of environmental science faculty members from Sitting Bull College on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, the project focuses on gathering baseline data on species diversity, water quality, and soil characteristics of the areas on the reservation surrounding the pipeline. Faculty mentors also engage Native undergraduate and graduate students as integral members of the project, mentoring them in the design and conduct of the research and the presentation of its findings. The baseline information gathered in the study is an invaluable resource in helping further understanding of the environmental effects of pipelines over time and in formulating strategies for managing those effects. The ubiquitous presence of oil pipelines across the United States serving to meet the nation's energy needs makes this work highly relevant and significant to the American citizenry on a broad scale.The focus of the Health Status of the Ecosystem, Biodiversity, Water, Soil and Species Abundance Along the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline is to conduct a baseline inventory of the species composition, water quality, and edaphic factors of various habitats surrounding the pipeline. Using sophisticated sampling techniques and state-of-the-art laboratory equipment, the project engages an interdisciplinary team of environmental scientists from Sitting Bull College in documenting, quantifying, and deriving relative abundance estimates of keystone species in the areas surrounding the pipeline on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. The comprehensiveness and rigor of the data collection and analyses enable the study of the ecosystem across spatial and temporal scales. These data will be widely available and will be valuable in furthering current understanding of pipeline impacts as well as informing future studies and the formulation of remediation plans for this and other pipelines in the United States. The collaboration of undergraduate and graduate level students with faculty mentors in the research design, implementation, and presentation contributes to the project?s broader impacts by developing the research capacity of the tribal college and its students.