New Technologies for expanding the scale of research at the Mpala Research Center

Princeton University, Princeton NJ

Investigators

Abstract

Technology is transforming the scale and scope of environmental research. Just as smartphones and social media have transformed the way people interact and acquire their news, breakthroughs in image processing, GPS satellite and wireless animal trackers as well as DNA and stable isotope analytical tools are emboldening scientist to solve old ecological and environmental problems in new ways and to design new studies that ask and answer questions that were inconceivable only a few years ago. At the 22,000 ha Mpala Research Center in central Kenya, US scientists from over a dozen US universities and Institutes supported by 14 NSF and NIH grants, resulting in 197 publications in the last 5 years, study the ecology of a 20,000 Km2 semi-arid ecosystem that sustains the second most diverse array of wildlife in Kenya as well as supporting livelihoods of commercial ranchers, pastoral herders and farmers who share the landscape with this wildlife. It is a model system that supports large scale experiments that are difficult to do within the continental US. Moreover, the Mpala, Research Center, especially with the new modern lab envisioned, continues to serve as an educational laboratory that teaches US undergraduate and graduate students of all ethnicities and walks of life how do real, important, relevant and transformative science. In addition, their interactions with students, faculty and PIs from Kenya and around the world provide a diversity of perspectives that will make them broader scientists able to work within different cultures. In this way, Mpala is training the next generation of environmental leaders, some of whom will practice science, but others of whom will shape science policy. At Mpala, research generally focuses on the biogeochemistry as well as the population, community and behavioral dynamics of the animals and plants inhabiting the ecosystem. But as strong as the research has been to date, advances in DNA and genetical analytical techniques will transform science, allowing more in depth looks at the diets, the competitive and mutualistic relationships of animal species comprising food webs as well as the population genetics of species spread across expansive spatial and temporal scales. Similar advances in stable isotope analytical tools will enable novel and more detailed investigations into the functioning of the ecosystem, closer examination of water use by plants that drive and limit photosynthesis as well as those of animals that shape their movements, habitat uses and overall decision-making, and the paleoecology of many extinct species, including our human ancestors. These new tools will also provide important insights underlying interactions among wildlife and people, thus helping reduce conflict that accompanies human population growth and expansion. In order to carry out this research, the new analytical tools must be purchased and a new 'clean' building that isolates the equipment form the harsh, dusty and hot tropical climatic elements of central Kenya must be constructed. This new facility will propel the NSF and NIH supported scientists and their students to uncover new rules shaping environmental patterns and processes that were impossible to study before the emergence of these new technological advances. What is learned in Kenya where biodiversity is high and the land is shared between people and wildlife easily applies to similar ecosystems, species and problems found in the western and southwestern states in the US. 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.