Enhancing capacity for aquatic research at the Cocha Cashu Biological Station in the Peruvian Amazon

圣地亚哥动物园全球历史悠久的Cocha Cashu生物站（CCBS）是一个跨学科的研究和教育中心，致力于了解Manu国家公园（400万英亩的国家公园和秘鲁亚马逊的联合国教科文组织世界遗产中心）的生物多样性和支持它的生态过程。位于牛轭湖岸边，是由一系列河流和溪流连接的基本未改变的分水岭的一部分，CCBS在推进热带水生系统科学知识方面的潜力是巨大的。然而，与对该站和周围亚马逊森林的陆地系统的长期研究相比，很少有研究涉及各种动植物生命以及当地人口所依赖的水生生态系统。该项目将建设基础设施，获得研究船，并为研究人员采用新技术，以解决这一知识差距。由于CCBS为不受人类活动干扰的复杂生物系统提供了无与伦比的途径，因此有很大的机会在进化过程与人类到达现场之前大致相同的水生生态学中追求问题。基于同样的原因，CCBS可以作为一个参考景观，为理解人为干扰和环境变化的影响提供比较数据。该项目将吸引来自美国、秘鲁和其他国家的不同科学家组成的队伍，在合作的保护伞下共同努力，了解这一水生生态系统的功能，以及如何维护它，以服务于生物多样性、环境质量和人类需求的利益。这项工作的合作性质还将有助于建立美国科学家与新兴和成熟的秘鲁专业人士和政府代表之间的关系，从而帮助建立当地的科学能力，帮助建立美国科学家的职业生涯，为美国和秘鲁公民提供教育和培训机会，并在两国之间建立积极的联系。CCBS的研究探索了热带生态学的基本和未解之谜。尽管该野外观测站位于亚马逊河漫滩上的牛轭湖和马努河之间，但与陆地生态系统的强大研究记录相比，水生生态系统的研究在历史上一直被忽视。该领域数据的缺乏确保了新研究计划的新颖性，传感器和仪器的提供将促进多学科研究，将收集的生物及其非生物环境数据整合起来，这是生态学的基本目标。由于陆地和水生系统是耦合的，水生研究将为陆地上开展的大量研究提供信息。国家科学基金会的支持将使CCBS的前沿研究发展到21世纪，并扩展到秘鲁亚马逊河流域的水生生态系统，从而为热带生态系统提供基础数据，并探索全球变化生物学的新方向。这种扩展可能包括对水文生态学、洪泛平原动力学、营养物质运输、洄游鱼类和鸟类的生态特征、水生生态系统生物多样性的驱动因素以及对这些系统和特定物种（如巨獭和黑凯门鳄）的新影响的研究。要成功地扩大CCBS的水生研究计划，需要解决几个障碍。为了克服这些限制，将利用渔业资源基金的资金购买三艘研究船，这些船将配备传感器和专门的水生监测设备；建造一个储存和处理水生样本的实验室，并建造研究人员住宿的小屋。扩大在CCBS的水生研究将具有重要的保护应用，指导公园管理活动，为亚马逊系统的保护和恢复目标提供信息，并直接增加对保护依赖物种（如巨獭）的管理知识。这些活动将有助于维持健康的水生生态系统，以支持人类和自然社区。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

San Diego Zoo Global's historic Cocha Cashu Biological Station (CCBS) is an interdisciplinary research and education center dedicated to understanding biodiversity and the ecological processes that support it in Manu National Park'a 4 million acre National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Center in the Peruvian Amazon. Located on the shores of an oxbow lake that is part of a largely unaltered watershed connected by a series of rivers and streams, the potential of CCBS to advance scientific knowledge of tropical aquatic systems is substantial. Yet, in contrast to the long legacy of research on terrestrial systems at the station and in the surrounding Amazonian forests, few studies have addressed the aquatic ecosystem on which the diverse animal and plant life, as well as the local human populations, depend. This project will build infrastructure, acquire research vessels, and adopt new technologies for investigators to address this knowledge gap. Because the CCBS provides unrivalled access to complex biological systems undisturbed by human activities, there is great opportunity to pursue questions in aquatic ecology where evolutionary processes are still much the same as they were before humanity arrived on the scene. For the same reason, the CCBS can serve as a reference landscape providing comparative data to understand the impacts of human disturbance and environmental change. This project will engage a diverse contingent of scientists from the United States, Peru and elsewhere to work together under a collaborative umbrella to understand how this aquatic ecosystem functions and how it can be maintained to serve the interest of biodiversity, environmental quality, and human needs. The collaborative nature of this work will also serve to build relations between U.S. scientists and emerging and established Peruvian professionals and government representatives, and thus help build local capacity in science, help build the careers of U.S. scientists, support educational and training opportunities for U.S. and Peruvian citizens, and create positive ties between the two countries. Research at the CCBS explores fundamental and unanswered ecological questions of tropical ecology. Despite the field station's location in the Amazonian floodplain between an oxbow lake and the Manu River, aquatic ecosystem research has been neglected historically, contrasting with its strong research record in terrestrial ecosystems. The paucity of data in this area ensures the novelty of new research initiatives and the provision of sensors and instrumentation will facilitate multi-disciplinary research that integrates data collected on organisms and their abiotic environment, a fundamental objective in ecology. Because terrestrial and aquatic systems are coupled, aquatic research will inform the robust body of research conducted on land. NSF support will allow cutting edge research performed at CCBS to grow into the 21st century and expand into aquatic ecosystems of the Peruvian Amazon, thus providing fundamental data for tropical ecosystems and exploring new directions that inform global change biology. This expansion may include new studies on hydroecology, flood plain dynamics, nutrient transport, ecological characterization of migratory fish and birds, drivers of aquatic ecosystem biodiversity, and emerging anthropogenic impacts on these systems and specific species such as the giant otter and the black caiman. A successful expansion of an aquatic research program at the CCBS requires that several obstacles are addressed. To address these limitations, FSML funds will be used to purchase three research vessels, fully equipped with sensors and specialized aquatic monitoring equipment; construct a laboratory for storing and processessing aquatic samples, and construct cabins for researcher accommodation. An expanded aquatic research at CCBS will have significant conservation application, guiding park management activities and informing conservation and restoration goals in Amazonian systems, and directly increasing knowledge for the management of conservation-dependent species such as the giant otter. Together, these activities will help maintain a healthy aquatic ecosystem to support human and natural communities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.