Catalyst Project: Diversity of ecosystem services provisioning in coastal socio-ecological systems

Catalyst项目为历史上的黑人学院和大学提供支持，以建立教师的研究能力，加强科学、技术、工程和数学本科教育和研究。预计该奖项将进一步提高教师的研究能力，并改善该机构的研究和教学。特拉华州立大学的这个项目将研究沿海生态系统的生态系统服务。本科生作为研究人员参与本项目。生态系统服务，或人类从生态系统中获得的利益，是保护和恢复投资的重要理由。然而，过去的研究在如何评估以及何时期望服务之间的协同作用和权衡方面存在矛盾。此外，很少有研究在沿海社会生态系统中考察这些关系。该项目旨在定量绘制特拉华州沿海生态系统提供的一系列服务，包括观鸟、海滩、公园、划船等文化服务；供应服务，如渔业；管理和支持诸如洪水缓解和生物多样性保护等服务。以生物多样性指数为基础，建立服务总量和服务多样性的空间模型，并在多个空间尺度上进行比较。此外，将使用多元统计方法识别和检查跨空间尺度和不同土地利用的服务包或不同的共同发生服务组。该项目将提供一个总体框架来评估生态系统服务的共同提供，该项目将对高度重视的沿海生态系统的服务提供进行评估。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。

Catalyst Projects provide support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities to work towards establishing research capacity of faculty to strengthen science, technology, engineering and mathematics undergraduate education and research. It is expected that the award will further the faculty member's research capability, and improve research and teaching at the institution. This project at Delaware State University will study ecosystem services for coastal ecosystems. Undergraduate students participate in this project as researchers. Ecosystem services, or the benefits that humans receive from ecosystems, are an important justification for conservation and restoration investments. However, past studies are conflicted regarding how to assess and when to expect synergies and tradeoffs among services. Further, few studies have examined these relationships in coastal socioecological systems. This project aims to quantitatively map a broad suite of services provided by Delaware's coastal ecosystems, including cultural services such as birding use, beach use, park use, boating; provisioning services, such as fisheries; and regulating and supporting services such as flood mitigation and biodiversity preservation. Spatial models for the total service delivery and diversity of service delivery will be developed based on biodiversity indices and compared at multiple spatial scales. In addition, service bundles or distinct groups of co-occurring services will be identified and examined across spatial scales and with different land uses using multivariate statistics. The project will contribute a general framework to evaluate the co-delivery of ecosystem services, and the project will provide an assessment of the delivery of services in highly valued coastal ecosystems.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.