REU-Undergraduate Research On Microbial, Vegetation, and Arthropod Communities in Forests and Managed Lands in New Jersey and Costa Rica

Kean University, Union NJ

Investigators

Abstract

An award was made to Kean University to provide research training for 10 weeks for 6 students, for the summer of 2010. The 6 students will work with 3 faculty conducting research, analyzing data, and writing research publications involving assessment and comparison of the structure, diversity, and biomass of vegetation, arthropod, and soil microbial communities, and the composition of soil C and N components within intact and managed forests of Costa Rica and the northeastern United States. Through this project students and faculty will: 1) identify potential indicators of habitat condition; 2) determine if nutrient differences in soil can be correlated with, or determined as, drivers of differences in the biota of the different trophic levels; and 3) determine if similar patterns of ecological significance by habitat type or management strategy can be seen within and/or between areas studied in the eastern US and Costa Rica. The students, including those from underrepresented groups, will be recruited from the Kean University Biology Program and DOE Ronald McNair program and from other universities, and from the general student population at Kean University. Students will receive training in Ethics in Research, using the Resources for Research Ethics Education website (http://research-ethics.net/topics/) as the primary resource. Both the SURE (http://web.grinnell.edu/sureiii/) and (http://www.colorado.edu/eer/research/ undergradtools.html) instruments will be used to determine how students' perceptions of science of their own abilities have changed; whether the program influences how well they see themselves as scientists; what their primary accomplishments have been; and their development of a global perspective on the ecological/environmental sciences. For more information, contact Dr. Bill Eaton, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, Kean University, 1000 Morris Ave, Union, NJ 07083; 908-737-3653; weaton@kean.edu; http://www.kean.edu/~sels/resources/REU2010.pdf.