IRES: Monitoring marine megafauna and coral reef communities using remote technologies

人类健康与海洋生态系统的完整性和健康息息相关。例如，珊瑚礁创造了一个复杂的结构，为25%的海洋生物提供了家园，因此被称为海洋雨林。尽管珊瑚礁生态系统只占海底的不到1%，但却为人类提供了许多社会经济服务。它们是许多鱼类的家园，这些鱼类直接支持渔业，为生态旅游业的各个部门提供就业机会，许多居民生产具有巨大生物医学价值的各种化合物。珊瑚礁的健康取决于许多因素，包括其租户的健康，如鲨鱼和鲸鱼。这些生物通过粪便将营养物质从营养丰富的纬度和深海带到营养贫乏的珊瑚礁，作为顶端捕食者，它们通过清除病鱼和保持鱼类群落的结构完整性来帮助维持鱼类资源。了解珊瑚礁生态系统以及鲨鱼和鲸鱼种群如何受到环境和人为活动的影响，对于维持健康的海洋和地方经济至关重要。自主水下传感器、声标签和无人机等新型远程技术已成为海洋生物多样性监测的重要组成部分。在整个项目中，学生将接受远程技术、水下作业方法和计算方法的培训。学生将制定独立的问题，共同解决的研究主题使用领域和计算工具提供的程序。在这个项目中获得的技能可以转移到不同的工作领域，为美国学生未来的STEM工作做好准备。因为学生们将生活在依赖他们所学习的海洋资源的社区中，所以在课程结束时，他们也将更好地理解社会公平的重要性和海洋保护观点的多样性。这个IRES Track I项目在哥斯达黎加的圣埃琳娜湾进行。该地区是一个独特的海洋学区域，其特征是被称为“帕帕加约上升流”的季节性上升流，在信风季节将深冷且营养丰富的水带到地表，推动了该地区的高生产力和生物多样性。由于这些独特的海洋学和生物学特征，该海湾是珊瑚礁、鲨鱼和鳐鱼、座头鲸和几种海豚的重要栖息地。该项目每年将招收5名美国本科生和3名美国研究生，以及1-2名哥斯达黎加学生。每位学生将在为期6周的课程中选择一个主题来开展他们的研究项目。学生还将参加与社区的外展活动，包括非政府组织、渔民、科学家和来自哥斯达黎加的学生。该项目的具体贡献包括：(1)量化不同人为压力下的珊瑚礁健康状况，并利用各种指标评估恢复工作；(2)确定鲨鱼种群数量下降的驱动因素；(3)研究人为水下噪声对海洋哺乳动物及其交流空间的影响；(4)通过提供研究经验和与倡导海洋保护工作的哥斯达黎加科学家和组织合作的机会，培养海洋生态学方面的多样化学生群体。在课程结束时，学生将掌握水肺潜水、珊瑚礁生物多样性清单照相、标记鲨鱼、被动声学监测、实验设计和统计数据分析的技能，同时生成关于圣埃琳娜湾海洋大型动物和珊瑚礁群落的关键数据。这种真实的研究经历也将帮助学生培养自信、归属感、公平和社区的感觉。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。

Human health is tied to the integrity and health of marine ecosystems. For example, coral reefs create a complex architecture that provides home to 25% of all marine life earning their nickname as the rainforest of the ocean. Despite occupying less than 1% of the ocean floor, coral reef ecosystems provide many socio-economical services to humans. They are home to many fish species that directly support fisheries, provide jobs in various sectors of the ecotourism industry, and many inhabitants produce a diverse collection of chemical compounds of great biomedical value. Coral reefs health depend on many factors, including the health of its tenants, such as sharks and whales. These organisms bring nutrients from nutrient-rich latitudes and the deep to nutrient-poor coral reefs via their excrement, and as apex predators they help maintain fish stocks by removing sick fish and by keeping the structural integrity of the fish community. Understanding how coral reef ecosystems, and sharks and whales’ populations are impacted by environmental and anthropogenic activities is of fundamental importance in the maintenance of a healthy ocean and local economies. Novel remote technology such as autonomous underwater sensors, acoustic tags, and unmanned aerial vehicles, have become an integral component in marine biodiversity monitoring. Throughout the three cohorts of this project, students will receive training in remote technologies, underwater field methods, and computational approaches. Students will formulate independent questions that together address the research themes using the field and computational tools provided by the program. The skills acquired in this program are transferable to a diverse field of jobs preparing U.S. students for the STEM jobs of the future. Because students will be living in the communities that rely on the marine resources they are studying, by the end of the program they will also have a better understanding of the importance of social equity and diversity of perspectives in marine conservation. This IRES Track I program takes place in the Santa Elena Bay, Costa Rica. The area is a unique oceanographic region characterized by seasonal upwellings known as the “Papagayo Upwellings” which brings deep cold and nutrient rich water to the surface during the trade wind season, driving high productivity and biodiversity in the area. Because of these unique oceanographic and biological characteristics, the bay is a critical habitat for coral reefs, sharks and rays, humpback whales and several species of dolphins. This program will recruit 5 US undergraduates and 3 U.S. graduate students, and 1-2 Costa Rican students each year. Each student will select a theme to develop their research project for the 6-weeks of the program. Students will also participate in outreach activities with the community including NGOs, fishers, scientists, and students from Costa Rica. The specific contributions of this program include (1) quantify coral reef health under different anthropogenic pressures, and evaluate restoration efforts using various indicators; (2) identify drivers of decline on the shark community; (3) study the impact of anthropogenic underwater noise on marine mammals and their communicative space; and (4) train a diverse cohort group of students in marine ecology by providing research experience and opportunities to work with Costa Rican scientists and organizations championing marine conservation efforts. By the end of the program students will have acquired skills in scuba diving, photomosaics for coral reef biodiversity inventories, tagging sharks, passive acoustic monitoring, experimental design, and statistical data analysis while generating critical data on the marine megafauna and coral reef communities of Santa Elena Bay. This authentic research experience will also help students develop feelings of confidence, belonging, equity, and community.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.