An award was made to Kean University to provide research training for 10 weeks for 6 students, for the summer of 2010. The 6 students will work with 3 faculty conducting research, analyzing data, and writing research publications involving assessment and comparison of the structure, diversity, and biomass of vegetation, arthropod, and soil microbial communities, and the composition of soil C and N components within intact and managed forests of Costa Rica and the northeastern United States. Through this project students and faculty will: 1) identify potential indicators of habitat condition; 2) determine if nutrient differences in soil can be correlated with, or determined as, drivers of differences in the biota of the different trophic levels; and 3) determine if similar patterns of ecological significance by habitat type or management strategy can be seen within and/or between areas studied in the eastern US and Costa Rica. The students, including those from underrepresented groups, will be recruited from the Kean University Biology Program and DOE Ronald McNair program and from other universities, and from the general student population at Kean University. Students will receive training in Ethics in Research, using the Resources for Research Ethics Education website (http://research-ethics.net/topics/) as the primary resource. Both the SURE (http://web.grinnell.edu/sureiii/) and (www.colorado.edu/eer/research/ undergradtools.html) instruments will be used to determine how students' perceptions of science of their own abilities have changed; whether the program influences how well they see themselves as scientists; what their primary accomplishments have been; and their development of a global perspective on the ecological/environmental sciences. For more information, contact Dr. Bill Eaton, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, Kean University, 1000 Morris Ave, Union, NJ 07083; 908-737-3653; weaton@kean.edu; www.kean.edu/~sels/resources/REU2010.pdf.
The core of the Intellectual Merit of this project was to examine the differences in, and relationships between, biota from three trophic levels (microbes, plants, and insects) and C and N nutrients within primary temperate and tropical forests and adjacent managed lands; and begin to characterize the ecosystem effects that various management practices may have on tropical forests. The mentors and their undergraduate research students were successful in this approach. Through this NSF REU grant, the mentors and their students were able to demonstrate that differences in soil DNA-based microbial community characteristics, biomass, microbial activity, and carbon and nitrogen nutrient composition and dynamics can be used as indicators of environmental change, specifically to show how land management,and restoration strategies may be affecting the soil ecosystems in the lowland forests of Costa Rica. They were able to show that the tree species, Pentaclethra macroloba, important for its ability to move nitrogen into the soil (i.e., nitrogen-fixing) in these tropical forest, affects the structure of the soil microbial community, the tree and understory plant community; and also that as cleared regions of former primary forest regenerate, P. macroloba is the dominant nitrogen-fixing tree, and a critical driver of C, N, and P recuperation and soil ecosystem recovery. Once these tropical forests reach a certain point in forest succession, P. macroloba plays less of a role in these nutrient cycle activities, and an increasing leguminous and total vegetative diversity, complexity and biomass appear to become increasingly influential. REU students also showed that the naturally occurring terrestrial bromeliad, Bromelia penguin, is inhibiting fungal activity in the soils, resulting in decreased rates of C and N biomass development, suggesting the importance of the fungal community as a microbial driver of these cycles. The bromeliad also appeared to be inhibiting the fungal pathogens Mycena and Aspergillus, which suggests a potential for further studies on this bromeliad as a possible medicinal plant. In other studies, REU students showed how insect behavior can change in damaged forests. Specifically, the feeding behavior of Paraponera clavata (the Bullet Ant) changed within disturbed lands. In particular, in an undisturbed primary forest these ants returned to the nest with prey, nectar, and plant materials, while none of the ants within a 14-year old regenerating secondary forest returned with prey or nectar, few with plant materials, and most of the returns were unsuccessful in their foraging. This suggests that the ants from the primary forest are feeding at a higher trophic level and are more efficient and successful foragers; and also that these differences in feeding behavior can be used as an indicator of ecosystem condition. Lastly, they showed that as the termites that were exposed to the open gap as a result of the tornado that passed through 2 days before we arrived resulted in the termites moving to the bottom of the nest during the hot part of the day, in comparison to the nest that was protected in the primary forest. Through this NSF REU project, we were able to achieve success in the Broader Impacts components in that we enhanced the mission of advancing research excellence in ecosystem science at Kean University by having students and faculty work together on a number of projects in collaboration with both Costa Rican and US colleagues, as they also gained important networking experience which is resulting in furthering our relationships in Costa Rica and development of other grant proposals. We have provided new and high-end international research experiences for our students as they gained skills and experience to be successful at: identifying habitats to work on to address ecological questions; establishing and characterize plots within these habitats; conducting forest understory vegetation analyses; conducting forest tree structure analyses; conducting soil nutrient analyses; conducting soil microbial community analyses; conducting insect behavioral studies; performing statistical analyses on these data; and making presentations and writing journal articles. We believe this brief REU project was extremely successful in that 3 of the 6 participating students were from underrepresented groups; one of our students is now moving on to a Ph.D. program in microbial ecology, one is finishing a MS in spring 2013, who will be applying for Ph.D. programs this Fall, and one student (African American) is now entering a MS program this Fall.
