Long-term Studies of Ecosystem Response to Disturbance Along Environmental Gradients at Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory

Coweeta 水文实验室生态系统对环境梯度干扰响应的长期研究

• 批准号: 9011661
• 负责人: Judith Meyer
• 金额: $ 437.36万
• 依托单位: University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1991
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1991-01-01 至 1997-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9011661&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Long; term; Studies; Ecosystem; Response

This project will continue long-term studies of response and recovery of Southern Appalachian forested ecosystems to disturbances. To understand and predict responses to current and emerging environmental problems requires an expansion of research perspective from a watershed to a landscape. The project will emphasize new studies along a complex environmental gradient with a continued emphasis on use of experimental manipulation to examine ecosystem response to disturbance. An elevational sequence that represents a gradient in external driving variables (e.g. temperature, precipitation) as well as a gradient in ecosystem response will be used in this study. Three interconnected ecosystems are arrayed along this response gradient: forested slopes, riparian zone and stream. The PIs will test the following ideas in these landscape components: (1) Forest structure and processes in the Southern Appalachians are currently changing as a result of both historic factors and recent drought-induced tree mortality. (2) Differences in structural and functional characteristics of stream ecosystems along elevational and longitudinal gradients are a consequence of changes in the relative abundance of geomorphic patch types along the stream. (3) Rhododendron maximum is a keystone species in the Southern Appalachian landscape, regulating the rates of soluble and particulate element export from the forest and reducing stream productivity. This is an outstanding research group that is recognized at the national and international level as leaders in the area of forest ecosystem research. Institutional support is excellent and the project management is dynamic and effect. Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory has been the site of interdisciplinary ecological research for over twenty years. This is an exceptional Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) project.//

该项目将继续对南阿巴拉契亚森林生态系统对干扰的响应和恢复进行长期研究。为了理解和预测对当前和新出现的环境问题的反应，需要将研究视角从流域扩展到景观。该项目将强调沿着复杂环境梯度的新研究，并继续强调使用实验操作来检查生态系统对干扰的反应。本研究将使用代表外部驱动变量（例如温度、降水）梯度以及生态系统响应梯度的海拔序列。 三个相互关联的生态系统沿着这个响应梯度排列：森林斜坡、河岸带和溪流。 PI 将在这些景观组成部分中测试以下想法： (1) 由于历史因素和近期干旱导致的树木死亡，阿巴拉契亚山脉南部的森林结构和过程目前正在发生变化。 (2)河流生态系统沿高程和纵向梯度结构和功能特征的差异是河流沿线地貌斑块类型相对丰度变化的结果。 (3) 最大杜鹃是南阿巴拉契亚景观的关键物种，调节森林中可溶性和颗粒元素的输出速率并降低河流生产力。 这是一个杰出的研究小组，在国家和国际层面被公认为森林生态系统研究领域的领导者。 机构支持优良，项目管理动态有效。二十多年来，Coweeta 水文实验室一直是跨学科生态研究的场所。这是一个特殊的长期生态研究（LTER）项目。//