REU Site: Life in the Mountains: Field Research in Gothic, Colorado

This REU Site award to the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL), located in Gothic, CO, will support the training of 10 students for 10 weeks during the summers of 2024-2026. It is anticipated that a total of 30 students, primarily from schools with limited research opportunities, including though not limited to, students from Los Angeles community colleges, and also from under-represented groups, will be trained in the program. Participants will engage in place-based field research centered on life in the mountains, leveraging one of the most studied ecosystems, including natural history and long-term research to pursue questions involving the fundamental biological processes that support biodiversity and ecosystem processes critical to humans, including human health, food production, and nutrient flows. Students will learn how research is conducted, and many will present the results of their work at scientific conferences. Assessment of this program will be done through an online tool. Students should apply to the REU site using NSF ETAP (Education and Training Application: https://etap.nsf.gov). Most projects will center on ecology and evolutionary biology, with opportunities to investigate interdisciplinary biological processes, from genes to ecosystems. Examples of projects include exploring the impact of environmental variation on life histories, behavior, and population dynamics, using butterflies, using machine learning algorithms to train drone imagery to detect large scale patterns linking floral resources and pollinators, exploring the change in the relative abundance of alpine plants in relation to regional and local temperature change, and how a new range-shifting caddisfly alters food-web connections involving salamanders and birds. With RMBL hosting scientists from 100+ colleges and universitities, mentors will be chosen from biology and related departments from across the country. Selected by RMBL’s education team based upon application materials, students will start with onsite orientation and participate in independent, mentored research. They will also participate in Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) ethics and skills workshops, as well as seminars, hikes, birding, and mothing, supported by mentors, RMBL’s education team, and large research community. More information about the program is available by visiting rmbl.org/education, or by contacting the PI Ian Billick or the co-PI Rosemary Smith at rmblreu@rmbl.org. 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.