REU Site: Tropical ecology and evolution at El Verde Field Station, Puerto Rico

This REU Site award to North Carolina State University, located in Raleigh, North Carolina, will support the training of 10 students for 10 weeks during the summers of 2021- 2023. Research is conducted at El Verde Field Station, located at El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico. It is anticipated that a total of 30 students, primarily from schools with limited research opportunities or from an under-represented group, will be trained in the program.

Students will learn how research is conducted, with emphasis in tropical ecology and evolution. Students develop independent projects under the advice of faculty mentors, spending most of their time conducting research and attending seminars and workshops on scientific data analysis and techniques to study tropical systems. Most students are expected to present the results of their work at scientific conferences and that some will publish their summer research in scientific journals.

Assessment of the program will be done thru the online SALG URSSA tool. Students will be tracked after the program in order to determine their career paths.

The program focuses on Tropical Ecology and Evolution. Students develop projects in areas such as the study of plant population biology, stream ecology, aquatic insect dynamics, forest ecology, arthropod biology, and coevolution in tropical rainforest. El Verde Field Station is the base of operations of the program and of many tropical researchers, including the Luquillo LTER program.

Students work with their faculty mentors in designing a research project. Students spend the summer collecting field data in rainforest ecosystems, conducting data analysis and interpretation. At the end of the summer, students present their results in a summer research symposium.

Support activities are provided to help students become researchers (e.g., workshops, seminars, round tables). A responsible conduct in science component is provided to discuss issues commonly encountered by students during their careers. Student selection is based on their research interest, academic record, and potential for outstanding research in biological sciences.

More information about the program is available by visiting https://www.ramirezlab.net/reu, by writing to [email protected], or contacting the PI (Dr. A. Ramirez at [email protected]).

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.