Enhancing Career Opportunities - Integrative Mathematical Program for Analyzing Coastal Systems (ECO-IMPACS) is a workforce program in environmental mathematics at Sam Houston State University (SHSU) and the Texas Research Institute for Environmental Studies (TRIES). The ECO-IMPACS program will provide students from mathematical and biological sciences the opportunity to collaborate on a cutting edge research program to study how recent environmental fluctuations have impacted coastal marsh ecosystems at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Specifically, students will examine how hydrologic, nutrient and physical drivers affect key food resources of the endangered whooping crane (Grus americana). ECO-IMPACS students will learn about the biology of ANWR, travel to ANWR to collect field data, and analyze their data in a TRIES laboratory. ECO-IMPACS students will be instructed on the fundamentals of dynamical model building in the environmental sciences and basic theories of applied mathematics. Informed by their classroom, field, and laboratory work, ECO-IMPACS students will create and analyze mathematical models of hydrologic fluxes, algae population dynamics, and aquatic vegetation growth. Students will investigate agent based and nonlinear differential and difference equation models and analyze model behavior utilizing techniques such as non-dimensionalization, computation of the local and global stability of steady-states, exploration of the existence of periodic solutions, perturbation methods, bifurcation analysis, simulation and numerical computation of solutions, and parameter sensitivity analysis. Graduate students will not only facilitate each stage of the learning process, but also incorporate more advanced mathematics such as stochastic modeling. Community partners will communicate their research objectives and student efforts will be focused on these objectives throughout the modeling process. ECO-IMPACS students will be asked to clearly and practically present their results to community partners and demonstrate that their mathematical models can be used as effective tools to guide community partner research and better understand the ANWR ecosystem.
The importance of integrative modeling and computational solutions within the biological sciences has motivated many universities to create and support programs in environmental mathematics. The ECO-IMPACS program is a collaborative and educational program that is rooted in ongoing research on ecosystem dynamics of coastal marshes in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. The heterogeneous nature of the ANWR ecosystem and wide range of both natural and anthropogenic influences in the system provide multiple opportunities for collaboration between students in mathematical and biological sciences. In the ECO-IMPACS program, students will construct mathematical models based on data collected in the field and in the laboratory, perform theoretical and numerical analyses of these models, and report their results in terms that are immediately applicable to the objectives of our community partners (e.g., Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the International Crane Foundation). The involvement of mathematics and biology students in all phases of the scientific method will produce a more unified perspective about the use of modeling, simulation, laboratory procedures, and field methods in an integrative setting. The primary goals for ECO-IMPACS are to provide undergraduate and graduate students with a summer internship that develops their ability to successfully integrate mathematics and biology to complete entry level assignments in the field of environmental mathematics. Students will develop critical skills that U.S. employers desire of their employees (e.g., environmental sampling techniques, mathematical modeling, oral and written communications, teamwork, critical thinking, and problem solving) as they receive feedback and guidance from faculty members and community partners. Thus, ECO-IMPACS participants will be better prepared for both mathematical and environmentally oriented careers in a green economy. This award is jointly supported by the Workforce and Mathematical Biology programs within the Division of Mathematical Sciences.
ECO-IMPACS (Enhancing Career Opportunities - Integrative Mathematical Program for Analyzing Coastal Systems) is a program in environmental mathematics that provides a research experience for mathematics students to get rare field experience with the hands-on collection and laboratory analysis of environmental samples and for biology students to get practical experience in developing mathematical models. ECO-IMPACS also provides students with the necessary tools to transition from pure academic study in environmental mathematics to the types of activities often required for employment. The research objective is focused on building the ECO-IMPACS Coastal Wetlands Model (ECWM), a unified multi-model simulation of a Texas Gulf Coast wetlands ecosystem, the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The Intellectual Merits of ECO-IMPACS are rooted in the investigation of a central topic in environmental mathematics by students and faculty from a wide variety of backgrounds in mathematics, statistics, and biology. Interns used a truly interdisciplinary approach focused on a dynamic coastal ecosystem at the ANWR to inspire complex modeling efforts rather than attempting to apply generic mathematical methods across a wide variety of biological problems. The presence of the endangered Whooping Crane and the heterogeneous nature of the ANWR ecosystem provided multiple opportunities for collaboration among environmental scientists, biologists, and mathematicians. Students constructed models based on the field data collected and analyzed in the laboratory, and reported their results in terms that were immediately applicable to the objectives of our community partners. The involvement of mathematics and biology students in all phases of the scientific method produced a unified perspective about the use of modeling, simulation, laboratory procedures, and field methods in an integrative setting. ECO-IMPACS resulted in Broader Impacts by establishing and promoting a culture of active collaboration to address the employment needs in the green economy. Each team of student interns required biology students to mentor mathematicians as they learn about field methods and laboratory procedures and mathematics students to mentor their biology counterparts as they built and analyzed mathematical models. These mentorship activities broadened the ability of participants to engage in integrative and collaborative efforts in the green economy workforce. Student interns improved their applied skills in communication, problem solving, and professionalism, thus enhancing their employability. In particular, the connections these students made with community partners enhanced their understanding of current workforce needs and the qualities that their future employers will be looking for during the job search. Thus, ECO-IMPACS participants are better prepared for both mathematical and environmentally oriented careers in a green economy.
