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

REU 站点：史密森尼环境研究中心的全球变化生态学

• 批准号: 2244132
• 负责人: Alison Cawood
• 金额: $ 35.69万
• 依托单位: Smithsonian Institution
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-03-01 至 2026-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2244132&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: REU; Site; Global; Change; Ecology

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 [e-mail]) or the co-PI (Dr. John Parker at [e-mail]).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.

这项授予位于马里兰州Edgewater的史密森尼环境研究中心（SERC）的REU站点奖将在2023 - 2025年的夏季支持10个学生的培训10周。预计将在该计划中培训总共30名学生，来自研究机会有限的学校或代表性不足的小组。 SERC REU计划着重于全球变化的各个方面，包括生态系统保护，气候变化和改变的生物多样性，正在改变生态系统功能。在搭便车中，学生将参加现场研究，实验室工作，数据分析和专业发展，包括与R，科学沟通和STEM职业相关的会议。实习生将练习与各种受众的交流，为科学受众提供正式演讲，又为外行观众提供了简短的视频，这些视频描述了其独立研究项目的结果和影响。他们还与导师合作，找到他们的研究所告知的方式，并由其他学科告知，以更好地了解其工作领域的作品的影响。学生将学习如何进行研究，许多人会在科学会议上介绍他们的工作结果。该程序的评估将通过在线Salg Urssa工具进行。学生将被要求在NSF ETAP系统（ETAP.NSF.GOV）中注册，并在计划之后进行跟踪以确定其职业道路。在最近几个世纪以来，人类通过栖息地碎片，增加的温室气体，物种引入，多余的营养负荷和本地物种而动态地改变了地球。确定并最终减轻这些全球转型的后果是生态学的主要目标，也是史密森尼环境研究中心REU计划的主要重点。 21世纪的环境问题很复杂，需要采用多学科的方法。我们的学生接受了许多子领域的培训，包括生态学，生物地球化学，遗传学，定量生态学和科学传播，从而带来了丰富的经验和科学影响。 SERC的研究人员和Inters与史密森尼人以及社区和合作伙伴组织的专家合作，开展将自然和社会科学研究，社区和利益相关者参与的工作，以及教育作为史密森尼人泛机构的工作土地和海景的一部分，互联健康和城市化的河口启动。这使REU实习生可以将其网络扩展到SERC之外，并参与各种声音和专业知识，以开发和实施其独立项目。 In recent years, SERC REU intern projects have included Studies on drivers of change in summer florunder 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 sensitivity.自2001年以来，SERC的REU实习生进行了新的研究，在国家和国际会议和44次同行评审的文章中进行了77次演讲。有关该计划的更多信息，可以通过访问https://serc.si.edu/internships，或通过与PI联系（通过[e-mail]）或Co-pi（约翰·帕克（John Parker）博士（[e-mail]）与Pie ext Infort the Infort the Infortional Inducation the Indercuniation the Informity of Inderiation，标准。