REU Site: Global Change Ecology at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

这个REU网站奖史密森环境研究中心（SERC），位于马里兰州埃奇沃特，将支持10名学生在2023年至2025年的夏天10周的培训。预计共有30名学生，主要来自研究机会有限的学校，或来自代表性不足的群体，将在该计划中接受培训。SERC REU计划侧重于全球变化的各个方面，包括生态系统保护，气候变化和生物多样性改变，正在改变生态系统功能。在实习期间，学生将参加实地研究，实验室工作，数据分析和专业发展，包括与R编码，科学交流和STEM职业相关的课程。实习生将练习与各种观众沟通，为科学观众制作正式演讲，并为外行观众制作简短视频，描述其独立研究项目的结果和影响。他们还与他们的导师合作，以找到他们的研究通知的方式，并由其他学科通知，以更好地了解他们的工作超出研究领域的影响。学生将学习如何进行研究，许多人将在科学会议上展示他们的工作成果。该计划的评估将通过在线SALG URSSA工具进行。学生将被要求在NSF ETAP系统（etap.nsf.gov）中注册，并在课程结束后进行跟踪，以确定他们的职业道路。近几个世纪以来，人类通过栖息地破碎化，温室气体增加，物种引进，过量营养负荷和本地物种灭绝，极大地改变了地球。确定并最终减轻这些全球变化的后果是生态学的一个主要目标，也是史密森环境研究中心REU计划的主要重点。世纪的环境问题是复杂的，需要多学科的方法。我们的学生在许多子领域接受培训，包括生态学，地球化学，遗传学，定量生态学和科学传播，从而获得丰富的经验和科学影响。SERC研究人员和实习生与史密森尼的专家以及社区和合作伙伴组织合作，开展自然和社会科学研究，社区和利益相关者参与以及教育相结合的工作，作为史密森尼的泛机构工作土地和海景，互联健康和城市化河口计划的一部分。这使REU实习生能够将他们的网络扩展到SERC之外，并参与各种声音和专业知识，他们可以用来开发和实施他们的独立项目。近年来，SERC REU实习项目包括对切萨皮克湾夏季比目鱼种群变化驱动因素的研究，根瘤菌菌株多样性对不同气候变化情景下大豆植物生产力和草食动物抗性的影响，植被，盐度和潮汐盐沼甲烷排放之间的关系，以及利用遥感估计伯利兹海草床的碳固存。自2001年以来，SERC的REU实习生进行了新的研究，在国家和国际会议上发表了77篇演讲，并发表了44篇同行评议的文章。有关该计划的更多信息，请访问https：//serc.si.edu/internships，或联系PI（Alison Cawood博士，cawooda@si.edu）或co-PI（John帕克博士，parkerj@si.edu）。该奖项反映了NSF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。

This REU Site award to the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), located in Edgewater, MD, will support the training of 10 students for 10 weeks during the summers of 2023-2025. It is anticipated that a total of 30 students, primarily from schools with limited research opportunities, or from an under-represented group, will be trained in the program. The SERC REU program focuses on how aspects of global change, including ecosystem conservation, climate change, and altered biodiversity, are changing ecosystem functions. During their internships, students will participate in field research, laboratory work, data analysis, and professional development, including sessions related to coding in R, scientific communication, and STEM careers. Interns will practice communicating with a variety of audiences, producing both a formal presentation for a scientific audience and a short video for lay audiences that describes the results and implications for their independent research projects. They also work with their mentors to find ways that their research informs, and is informed by, other disciplines to better understand the impacts of their work beyond the research sphere. Students will learn how research is conducted, and many will present the results of their work at scientific conferences. Assessment of the program will be done through the online SALG URSSA tool. Students will be required to register in the NSF ETAP system (etap.nsf.gov) and tracked after the program to determine their career paths.In recent centuries, humans have dramatically altered the planet through habitat fragmentation, increased greenhouse gases, species introductions, excess nutrient loading, and native species extirpation. Determining and ultimately mitigating the consequences of these global transformations is a major goal in ecology and the primary focus of the REU program at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. The environmental issues of the 21st century are complex and require a multi-disciplinary approach. Our students are trained in many subfields including ecology, biogeochemistry, genetics, quantitative ecology, and science communication, resulting in rich experiences and scientific impacts. SERC researchers and interns collaborate with experts across the Smithsonian, as well as in communities and partner organizations, to conduct work that combines natural and social science research, community and stakeholder engagement, and education as part of the Smithsonian’s pan-institutional Working Land and Seascapes, Interconnected Health, and Urbanized Estuaries initiatives. This allows REU interns to expand their networks beyond SERC and engage a variety of voices and range of expertise that they can use to develop and implement their independent projects. In recent years, SERC REU intern projects have included studies on drivers of change in summer flounder populations in Chesapeake Bay, the impacts of rhizobia strain diversity on the productivity and herbivore resistance of soybean plants under different climate change scenarios, relationships among vegetation, salinity, and methane emissions from tidal saltmarshes, and estimations of carbon sequestration from seagrass beds in Belize using remote sensing. Since 2001, SERC’s REU interns have conducted novel research resulting in 77 presentations at national and international meetings and 44 peer-reviewed articles. More information about the program is available by visiting https://serc.si.edu/internships, or by contacting the PI (Dr. Alison Cawood at cawooda@si.edu) or the co-PI (Dr. John Parker at parkerj@si.edu).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.