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INTPART-International Partnerships for Excellent Education and Research

Experiments, Traits, Synthesis: Using knowledge from global ecological experiments to validate, assess, and improve trait-based theory

Alternative title: Eksperimenter, funksjonelle trekk, syntese: Kunnskap fra globale eksperimenter for å teste og utvikle økologisk teori

Awarded: NOK 4.5 mill.

As the impacts of climate and environmental change take place at an increasing pace, we urgently need tools for understanding, planning, managing, and communicating the future of biodiversity and the future of our world. ExperTS is motivated by the realization that more powerful tests of biodiversity theories need to move beyond species richness, and explicitly focus on mechanisms that generate diversity. Trait-based approaches offer a range of powerful tools and approaches towards this end, grounded in ecological and evolutionary theory. To make progress in testing, developing, and applying theory, however, these tools and approaches should be applied to and combined with the rich resource of empirical biodiversity and ecosystem data now available from global networks of climate change experiments. ExperTS has (i) increased the recognition and use of the theoretical, conceptual frameworks and experimental methods in biological research, (ii) developed theoretical expertise and comparative research between different ecosystems and academic cultures, (iii) offered unique student opportunities for courses and international research experiences that support the students in integrating theory and experimentation, and (iv) strengthened institutional collaboration over student-active research and research-based education in the interface between ecological theory and global change biology. ExperTS supported a partnership between nine institutions in five countries. Together, we have trained students, done research, and developed knowledge on the impact of international internship experience on student motivation and learning. The project has informed how global change influences biodiversity and ecosystem services important to society, and how we can manage and mitigate those impacts. Outcomes already have been, and will be implemented in research and education at all partner institutions, and findings communicated to the scientific and educational community and to the public. In 2023, we published scientific papers and data papers communicating findings from earlier Plant Functional Traits Courses – where we train students in functional trait ecology, collecting field data, and engage them in the developing and writing of scientific output. We also published a paper to accompany the R-package (2020) that was developed to provide better estimates of community trait distributions and is now publicly available. Further, we hosted 11 interns (7 in Norway, coming from Norway, Europe, and the USA) and 4 in the USA (coming from the Americas). These worked on field and educational research projects, and got experience in field work on carbon flux, functional trait and vegetation analyses, data management and project collaboration. They also participated in lab meetings and research workshops and participated in publications and data analyses. The internships were conducted in collaboration with other research and educational projects. We continued the interaction between early career researchers that have taken part in the PFTC courses and/or had an internship, by organizing an online seminar series amongst alumni. We presented our findings at conferences, and as invited presentations.

The outcomes under the ExperTS grant have been built on previous projects; notably, INTPART project 274831 2018 – 2022 RECITE. Since the start of ExperTS, we have increased the total of our Plant Functional Traits Courses (PFTC) from 4 to 7 courses, increasing the total number of participants from 80 to 180, representing 85 institutions from 31 countries. As a result of the data collected and experiences drawn from these courses, we have now published 16 scientific articles and 2 data papers. We funded a postdoc leading and actively contributing to publication of papers based on PFTC data. We published two newsletters amongst the PFTC alumnus network, 4 press and media items, and a course website. We presented our findings on a wide range of events and conferences, in over 35 (invited) talks and 5 poster presentations. We also organized a workshop about open science and data in education, and published a paper on the outcomes. We established an online monthly seminar series amongst course alumni, We have produced an array of teaching materials in relation to our courses, including protocols and streamlined workflows, two tutorials for data analysis in R, and an R statistical package. We also conducted research on student experiences in fieldwork. Alongside the courses, ExperTS funded 53 internship positions for BSc and MSc level students, coming from 17 countries and travelling to our project partners in Norway, Svalbard, USA, China, and South Africa. During COVID-19, many of these internships were altered to facilitate distance (online) internships. Impacts: We established a large network of early career researchers, that maintains to produce collaborations as direct, and beyond direct, PFTC outputs. The PFTC network also actively facilitated our members in staying connected during lockdowns and travel restrictions following the COVID-19 outbreak. We built international experience, collaborations and facilitated careers for early career researchers as well as students. This also impacts the general workforce, contributing to more people with experience and connection to large international collaborative networks. We contributed to the greater scientific and non-scientific communities by improving data resolution and quantity, knowledge of functional trait ecology, and developing reproducible methodologies; all of which are freely available on open platforms, and which can contribute to improved understanding and predictions for a changing world. Our efforts further good research practice by actively incorporating, teaching and discussing open science, open data, and FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) research practices. We know for a fact that our methods and open science concepts are implemented by our alumni in their current work, far beyond the narrower discipline (alpine vegetation ecology) of the courses.

Based on a strong track record in research and educational collaboration on ecosystem responses to climate change, ExperTS will support a partnership between five Norwegian institutions (UiB, NMBU, BCCR, NINA, MF) and four INTPART priority countries (USA, Canada, South Africa, China). ExperTS is motivated by the realisation that more powerful tests of biodiversity theories need to move beyond species richness and explicitly focus on mechanisms that generate diversity via trait composition. As the effects of climate and environmental change take place at an increasing pace, we urgently need tools for communicating and planning for the future of biodiversity and the future of our world. The proposed synthesis of theory and experimental data will inform how global change influences ecosystem services important to society. ExperTS will offer (i) a greater recognition and use of the theoretical, conceptual frameworks and experimental methods in biological research, (ii) development of theoretical expertise and comparative research between different ecosystems and academic cultures, (iii) unique student opportunities for courses and international research experiences that support the students in integrating theory and experimentation, and (iv) institutional collaboration over student-active research and research-based education in the interface between ecological theory and global change biology. Outcomes will be implemented in research and education at all partner institutions, and findings will be communicated to the scientific and educational community and to the public.

Publications from Cristin

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Funding scheme:

INTPART-International Partnerships for Excellent Education and Research