OVERVIEW
For at least three decades there has been a call for training ecologists with greater quantitative skills. Despite improvements in graduate education in statistics and greater use of quantitative and simulation models as teaching tools, there are still few ecological modelers relative to the demand by collaborative projects with modeling components. This need for ecological modelers and the artificial divide between modelers and empiricists has led the National Science Foundation (NSF) to sponsor this collaboratory to "close the circuit" between empiricists and modelers by training a group of young scientists to recognize themselves as both.
These young scientists are graduate students enrolled in Ph.D. programs at seven different universities across the country. Each is engaged in an NSF-sponsored research project loosely related to biodiversity and ecosystem function. Both terrestrial to aquatic systems are represented- from grasslands and forests to streams and estuaries. NSF has provided a supplement to each of these projects to help train students not only in the process of developing a research study but also in the description of system behavior through modeling. A postdoctoral researcher coordinates the collaboratory, identifies and facilitates educational goals, and leads the group in integration and synthesis activities.
At an individual level, we would like all students in this program to be better able to build, use, and understand models while at the same time have firm grounding in the practices of field- and lab-based empirical science. Most of the training in modeling will come from students' home institutions, but gathering together for workshops and discussions of modeling philosophy and practice offers the opportunity for additional training. Some of these group meetings are led by experienced modelers while others are discussion and exchange of ideas primarily among the students and postdoctoral researcher. In all cases, students are active learners who offer ideas and practices to each other. We trust that this program will produce both broadly trained scientists and quantitative descriptions of the behavior of the systems in which they are working.
As a group, the students are excited about the possibility of cross-system synthesis. They have decided to undertake a collaborative modeling project on mercury fluxes and transformations. Working on this project together shows them the opportunities, requirements, and difficulties of doing science collaboratively. In addition, this project and discussions among students in the course of the group meetings will improve understanding of patterns and processes within and across systems.
Overview