FSML: Increasing access to the Crown of the Continent: A visiting researcher laboratory at the Flathead Lake Biological Station (Montana)

FSML：增加进入大陆皇冠的机会：弗拉特黑德湖生物站（蒙大拿州）的访问研究实验室

• 批准号: 2018168
• 负责人: James Elser
• 金额: $ 55.28万
• 依托单位: University of Montana
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2018168&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: FSML; Increasing; access; Crown; Continent

For ecologists, field stations are fundamental components of scientific infrastructure akin to telescopes for astronomers. Generally, such stations service both scientists of the institution that runs the station as well as visiting researchers. This project will involve an expansion of laboratory facilities at the University of Montana's Flathead Lake Biological Station (FLBS), one of the USA's oldest field stations, to allow for increased capacity to house visiting researchers. This renovation is in response to major recent increases in activity at FLBS following hiring of a new director and new faculty at the station. Providing these new facilities is important because they will provide access to Flathead Lake, the USA's largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River, as well as lakes and rivers that flow in both relatively undisturbed environments as well as those being impacted by human activity, providing abundant opportunity for research on diverse topics. Terrestrial environments including grassland, forest, and alpine tundra can also be accessed. In addition to research advancement, the new facilities will advance education by providing greater access to diverse research projects for undergraduate students who enroll in summer field courses at FLBS. Finally, this increased capacity will allow important new research to take place in this region on topics such as water quantity and quality, climate change, fisheries management, and assessment of invasive species and endangered species.This project will involve a major renovation of the upper level of a building at the Flathead Lake Biological Station (FLBS; https://flbs.umt.edu/newflbs) to transform it from its current role as a storage facility for field equipment into a state-of-the-art research laboratory for visiting researchers, the FLBS Visiting Researcher Collaboratory (VRC). The targeted outcome is 820 ft2 of new research-grade laboratory space to support increased use of FLBS by external researchers drawn from the state of Montana and beyond. This renovation is in response to major recent increases in activity at FLBS following hiring of a new director and new faculty. These increases are bringing use of existing FLBS facilities to a saturation level, making it difficult to maintain and expand the role of the station in serving outside users conducting research in this region. The facility will allow new researchers to develop projects in the region’s diverse ecosystems and to continue or develop new collaborations with FLBS researchers to advance this work. By providing improved and expanded facilities for visiting researchers, the VRC will expand the ability of ecologists to make fundamental advances in our understanding of ecosystems in the Crown of the Continent and their response to ongoing global change. The VRC will also increase the opportunities for rich interdisciplinary interactions among researchers and students at all levels. FLBS also attracts students at all levels to Yellow Bay for summer classes, internships, and field trips. Developing a rich base of new "outside" users of the station will increase the opportunities afforded and perspectives gained by these students as well as the broader community with which FLBS interacts. Finally, much of the research that will be facilitated by the laboratory is of broad societal interest, dealing with topics of water quantity and quality, climate change, fisheries management, and assessment of invasive species and endangered species.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.

对于生态学家来说，野外观测站是科学基础设施的基本组成部分，类似于天文学家的望远镜。一般来说，此类观测站既为观测站运行机构的科学家也为访问研究人员提供服务。该项目将涉及扩建大学的实验室设施。蒙大拿州弗拉特黑德湖生物站 (FLBS) 是美国最古老的野外站之一，旨在增加容纳访问研究人员的能力。此次翻修是为了响应 FLBS 在聘用新主任和新教师后近期活动的大幅增加。这提供这些新设施非常重要，因为它们将提供通往密西西比河以西美国最大淡水湖弗拉特黑德湖的通道，以及在相对不受干扰的环境和受人类活动影响的环境中流动的湖泊和河流。 ，为不同主题的研究提供了丰富的机会，包括草原、森林和高山苔原。除了研究进展之外，新设施还将通过为本科生提供更多参与各种研究项目的机会来促进教育。最后，容量的增加将使该地区能够开展有关水量和质量、气候变化、渔业管理以及入侵物种和濒危物种评估等主题的重要新研究。将涉及对弗拉特黑德湖生物站（FLBS；https://flbs.umt.edu/newflbs）一栋建筑上层进行重大翻修，将其从目前作为现场设备存储设施的角色转变为国家最先进的研究实验室对于访问研究人员，FLBS 访问研究人员合作实验室 (VRC) 的目标成果是新建 820 平方英尺的研究级实验室空间，以支持来自蒙大拿州及其他地区的外部研究人员更多地使用 FLBS。在聘用新主任和新教员后，FLBS 最近的活动大幅增加，这些增加使现有 FLBS 设施的使用达到饱和水平，使得该站难以维持和扩大该站在为外部用户提供研究服务方面的作用。这个地区。该设施将允许新的研究人员在该地区的多样化生态系统中开发项目，并继续或与 FLBS 研究人员开展新的合作，以推进这项工作。通过为访问研究人员提供改进和扩展的设施，VRC 将扩大生态学家的能力，以奠定基础。我们对大陆皇冠生态系统及其对持续全球变化的反应的认识不断进步，VRC 还将增加各个级别的研究人员和学生之间丰富的跨学科互动的机会，同时也吸引各个级别的学生来到黄湾学习。暑期课程，开发该站丰富的新“外部”用户基础将增加这些学生以及 FLBS 与之互动的更广泛社区所提供的机会和观点。该实验室推动的项目具有广泛的社会利益，涉及水量和质量、气候变化、渔业管理以及入侵物种和濒危物种评估等主题。该奖项是法定使命，通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。