This RII award to Montana EPSCoR will build a coordinated research program linking microbiology, ecology, and climatology to understand the dynamics of the processes that govern how an ecosystem responds to climate change. Through this interdisciplinary and ecosystem-centric approach, the program will provide an innovative model that is both regionally relevant and nationally significant, while capitalizing on the unique resources and scientific strengths in Montana. The funded participants include Montana University System (MUS), University of Montana (UM), and seven tribal colleges: Blackfeet Community College, Fort Peck Community College, Little Big Horn College, Stone Child College, Fort Belknap College, Fort Peck Community College, and Salish Koontenai College.
This project will form a single statewide umbrella institute, the Montana University System Consortium for Ecosystem Research and Education (MtCERE), which will build on past EPSCoR investments to acquire new talent in targeted scientific areas, establish shared research facilities, and develop an integrated education, diversity, and outreach program.
Intellectual Merit The proposed MT EPSCoR research program aims to link microbial ecology, systems ecology, and climatology to investigate the multi-scale processes that govern ecosystem responses to climate change. In particular, researchers will examine how physical and biotic processes, operating at multiple scales, interact to govern ecosystem structure and function and the influence of climate change on these systems. The project has identified three focal areas to study: 1) feedback between microbial dynamics and ecosystem processes; 2) linkages among landscape patterns and ecosystem processes; and 3) impacts of multi-scale interactions and specific vulnerabilities of species and ecosystems to climate change. The project will involve interdisciplinary experimentation, observation, modeling, and iterative data-model comparisons in four benchmark Montana ecosystems, including the Crown of the Continent, High Plains, Upper Missouri, and Greater Yellowstone.
Broader Impacts The research outcomes will have strong relevance to a broad set of research fields, both within Montana and nationally. The project has an extensive diversity plan to enhance math and science success for Native American undergraduate students and other underrepresented groups, improve core environmental sciences education at Tribal Colleges, support accelerated math preparation for Tribal College students, and increase the number of Native American Ph.D. students in environmental sciences. Workforce development efforts include research partnerships, teaching-the-teacher programs, pre-college student opportunities, team-centered research internships and mentoring, and new approaches for science communication to promote Montana?s connection to science and provide the state?s rural and underrepresented populations. In addition, the project plans to take advantage of Montana?s unique natural areas, including Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, to have extensive external engagement with the general public.
