REU Site: Tracking Land Change (TLC)

该项目由SBE理事会的本科生研究经验(REU)站点计划资助。它兼具科学和社会效益，集研究和教育于一体。该项目汇集了8名本科生和教职员工，进行了为期8周的密集研究和学习体验，学习环境保护的科学和技术。美国的生物多样性热点存在于城市扩张、保护区和工作用地的矩阵中。在人口稠密的地区，如加利福尼亚州，生物多样性不能仅通过指定荒地和保护区来支持。需要一种更广泛的方法，将人类、他们的活动和工作场所结合在一起。这一理解促成了和解、生态运动和新的科学，寻求将人性化的空间--如牧场和农场等工作用地--与现有的荒地和保护区系统相结合。这些办法扩大了稀有动植物物种的栖息地，并可持续地管理和向社会提供生态系统服务。该研究组的目标是在保护科学和技术方面培训下一代土地管理人员和恢复科学家，以促进将工作地转变为事实上的工作保护区。我们将在红杉国家公园附近的河岭牧场(RRR)和实验室培训一批高度多样化的学生，学习如何使用创新的地理空间技术和系统，并应用相关的STEM生物地理概念为他们提供信息。学生将开发自己的研究问题，并以小组形式进行原创研究。他们还将接受职业技能培训，包括专业报告写作和面对面和虚拟视觉演示的口头交流。当前人口增长、气候变化和资源需求的交汇点产生了重新评估土地利用的迫切需求，特别是具有高生态服务价值的工作景观。该项目将制定一个框架，用于跟踪生态系统服务的三重底线--农业生产、生物多样性和栖息地保护以及土壤健康。我们将介绍和培训学生在这个交叉点框架内的概念性问题，社会和土地管理者面临的选择，以及评估替代解决方案所需的分析和技术方法。我们将培训学生团队跟踪碳固定、植被覆盖、动物多样性和其他因素随时间的变化。我们将使用这种基于团队的方法来研究植物群落如何对不同的干扰制度做出反应，例如从集约化放牧释放土地，重新实施曾经被美洲原住民使用的火制度，以及其他导致不同植被状态(例如，草原到稀树草原到林地)之间转变的力量，以及随后生态系统服务的变化。我们将向一群不同的学生介绍使用保护无人机(UAV)来收集关于植被的高度物种特异性数据。数据将使用最先进的软件系统进行分析，为研究团队和土地管理人员提供准确的数据，为支持经济和环境可持续发展的管理决策提供信息。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project is funded from the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Sites program in the SBE Directorate. It has both scientific and societal benefits, and integrates research and education. This project brings together eight undergraduate students with faculty for an eight-week intensive research and learning experience to study the science and technology of environmental conservation. America’s biodiversity hotspots exist within a matrix of urban sprawl, reserves, and working lands. In populated areas, such as California, biodiversity cannot be supported solely through the designation of wildland and conservation areas. There is a need for a broader approach that incorporates humans, their activities, and working lands. This understanding has given rise to reconciliation ecology movements and new science that seek to integrate humanized spaces—working lands such as ranches and farms—with existing systems of wildlands and conservation areas. These approaches expand the habitat for rare plant and animal species as well as sustainably manage and provide ecosystem services to society. The objective of this REU is to train the next generation of land managers and restoration scientists in conservation science and technology to facilitate the transition of working lands to de facto working reserves. We will train a highly diverse group of students in the field on River Ridge Ranch (RRR), a working ranchland near Sequoia National Park, and in the laboratory, in the use of innovative geospatial technologies and systems and the application of the associated STEM biogeographic concepts that inform them. Students will develop their own research questions and carry out original research in teams. They will also receive training in career skills, including professional report writing and oral communication for in-person and virtual visual presentations. The current intersection of population growth, climate change, and resource demand have created a pressing need for re-evaluating land use, especially working landscapes that have high ecological service value. This project will develop a framework for tracking metrics for a triple bottom line of ecosystem services—agricultural production, biodiversity and habitat conservation, and soil health. We will introduce and train students in the conceptual questions framed by this intersection, the choices faced by society and land managers, and the analytical and technological approaches needed to evaluate alternative solutions. We will train teams of students to track changes over time in carbon sequestration, vegetation cover, animal diversity, and other factors. We will use this team-based approach to study how plant communities respond to different disturbance regimes, such as the release of lands from intensive cattle grazing, reimplementation of fire regimes once used by Native Americans, and other forces that cause transitions between different vegetation states (e.g., grasslands to savannas to woodlands) with subsequent changes in ecosystem services. We will introduce a diverse group of students to the use of conservation drones (UAVs) to gather high species specificity data on vegetation. Data will be analyzed using state-of-the-art software systems to provide research teams and land managers with accurate data to inform management decisions that support economic and environmental sustainability.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.