George Vourlitis, California State University, San Marcos 0968245
The proposed IRES offers mentoring and research opportunities in tropical ecology to undergraduate science students. The project is centered on collaboration between Dr. G. Vourlitis, California State University, San Marcos (CSUSM) and Dr. F. Lobo, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso (UFMT), and combines formal instruction and practical field work for four undergraduate students each year. The core scientific project focuses on an active, long-term ecosystem research program in the Brazilian cerrado and pantanal.
The proposed project provides instruction and research opportunities in tropical ecology to undergraduate science students early in their careers. The program consists of three phases involving pre-field education in research methods, an in-field intensive research experience in Brazil, and post-field training in data analysis and dissemination. Student researchers will be mentored by Dr. Francisco Lobo (UMFT) who has collaborated extensively with the PI in understanding the physiological ecology of Brazilian ecosystems. Four US students will work for six weeks with Brazilian counterparts and mentors at field sites in cerrado and pantanal ecosystems. The PI will recruit a diverse group of undergraduate students to participate, with strong representation of women and underrepresented minorities. A focus on recruiting from community colleges, combined with the involvement of Brazilian undergraduate and graduate students, will promote the engagement of underrepresented minorities in this international research opportunity.
This was a collaborative project between students and researchers of the California State University, San Marcos (CSUSM) and the Environmental Physics Program of the Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT). The overall goals were to provide training and research opportunities in tropical ecology to undergraduate and graduate students, to encourage undergraduate students to consider graduate research, and to build capacity for sustained research in tropical ecology. To accomplish these goals, we (1) developed and conducted an interdisciplinary course in tropical ecosystems ecology, (2) provided research opportunities for students and faculty, (3) stipends and travel support for the participation of U.S. undergraduate biology students, and (4) opportunities for students to disseminate their research at U.S. scientific meetings and in international journals. The project was conducted in the Brazilian savanna (also known as cerrado) of Mato Grosso, Brazil, which includes some of the most structurally and hydrologically diverse cerrado. In terms of intellectual merit, we addressed fundamental aspects of how variation in soil fertility and climate affect cerrado structure and function. We found that cerrado structural characteristics, such as tree density, size, aboveground carbon (C) storage, and diversity, increased significantly with inherent soil fertility. In turn, many of these same attributes affected soil fertility due to the redistribution of nutrients from plant litter. Thus, plants both responded to, and modified, soil fertility, and land use practices that reduce soil fertility and forest performance will lead to further degradation of cerrado forests. We also found that cerrado trees can rapidly adjust their physiology to cope with seasonal drought and flooding, and the ability to maintain a high physiological performance in such contrasting hydrological regimes allows certain tree species to invade areas that are outside their normal range. On a larger scale, climate variation is also a key control on the transfer of water vapor between vegetation and the atmosphere (known as evapotranspiration). During the dry season, cerrado evapotranspiration was limited by water availability, but during the wet season, cerrado evapotranspiration was as high as that reported for rainforests of the Amazon Basin. These results suggest that the basin-wide dynamics of evapotranspiration are driven by variations in rainfall and/or the duration of the dry season. This synthetic view is the most comprehensive to date and is likely to be important to researchers interested in understanding how climate variation affects energy balance of the Amazon Basin. These results were disseminated by students and researchers at international meetings (e.g., Ecological Society of America and the American Geophysical Union Annual Meetings), and to date, our group published 15 papers in peer-reviewed journals, many of which had undergraduate and graduate students as co-authors. In terms of broader impacts, this project provided training to U.S. and Brazilian students and faculty in tropical ecology theory and research methods. Stipends allowed U.S. students to participate with their Brazilian counterparts in a tropical savanna setting near Cuiaba, Mato Grosso, Brazil (Figure 1). The integrated lecture and field course consisted of 120 hours of instruction, 50% of which was in the field, and focused on the ecological theory, field sampling techniques, methods of characterizing vegetation structure and soil properties (Figure 2), sample and data analysis, and data interpretation. A total of 13 U.S. undergraduate students, over 50 Brazilian MS and PhD students, and several UFMT faculty participated in this course over the 3-year project period. Students rated the quality of instruction to be "very high" and most of the students indicated that this experience significantly increased their interest in pursuing graduate research (Table 1). Some of the U.S. undergraduate student participants took ownership of field data and developed interesting independent study projects that were subsequently disseminated at U.S. professional meetings (Figure 3). These undergraduate student contributions were possible because of this program, and the training that it provided. Furthermore, this project significantly contributed to the cultural development of both U.S. and Brazilian students. Such cultural development is critically important for bridging gaps in understanding that can develop because of biased media coverage and/or political agendas. Not surprisingly, students responded that the cultural aspects of their experience were at least, if not more, important than the technical training that they received (Table 1). Finally, this project enhanced field research infrastructure and increased opportunities for sustained collaborative research. This infrastructure includes permanently marked and geo-referenced research sites, databases, and field equipment and supplies. The training that was received, coupled with the field and material infrastructure, significantly increased the research capacity of our group, and is forming the basis of interdisciplinary field studies. This new capacity for tropical research has developed precisely where it is needed most, in Brazilian post-graduate institutions that are tasked to provide solutions for regional problems such as climate change in land use.
