IRES: Collaborative Research: Grenada SURF-TURF: Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows - Teaming Up on Reefs and in Forests

Tropical environments worldwide are facing increasing threats, endangering biodiversity critical to global ecological balance. These regions, which host a vast array of species in diverse habitats like rainforests and coral reefs, play a crucial role in supporting economies and cultures while providing essential ecosystem services. This collaborative initiative aims to address the complex challenge of managing tropical ecosystems by integrating traditional ecological assessments with cutting-edge technologies.

Focusing on Grenada, a Caribbean island exemplifying diverse conservation issues, the Grenada SURF-TURF program provides international research experience to 18 U.S. undergraduate students on coral reefs and in rainforests, building on nearly two decades of international collaboration between investigators at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Wisconsin Lutheran College, St. George’s University (Grenada), and other Grenadian conservation organizations.

Leveraging Grenada’s unique biodiversity and the expertise of U.S. and Grenadian scientists, outcomes from student research projects inform policy and management decisions and contribute to global conservation goals in both marine and terrestrial ecosystems.

Traditional ecological field methods are labor- and cost-intensive, limiting the scope of many conservation efforts. For example, surveys are often accomplished with transect- and quadrat-based methods, which are effective but require substantial time and effort. The difficulty of such research is compounded when investigating difficult-to-access locations, such as thick rainforests or submerged marine habitats.

Technological advances in DNA sequencing, image processing, and passive data collection have the potential to drastically improve the efficiency of conservation science efforts, but employing such indirect methods may also have drawbacks that established methods do not. As one example, environmental DNA samples may enable the detection of a rare fish or frog species, but questions of population size and health may remain.

Therefore, the Grenada SURF-TURF program (1) continues long-term ecological monitoring efforts using traditional survey techniques being conducted on Grenada’s coral reefs, beaches, and rainforests, (2) explores whether technology-assisted data collection methods accomplish research objectives as well as or better than established methods, (3) trains a cadre of U.S. students to employ both established and cutting-edge methods in conservation science, and (4) advances collaborative conservation efforts across borders. Grenada SURF-TURF participants’ research advances global conservation objectives while preparing participants to address both domestic and international challenges in conservation science and beyond.

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.