SGER: Consequences of Large-scale Fire on Plant Reestablishment in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

1988年黄石国家公园的大火为研究大规模扰动对生态的影响提供了一个独特的机会。火灾的一个显著特征是燃烧景观的异质性，就整体燃烧模式和燃烧区域内不同的火灾严重程度而言。很少有生态学研究系统地、定量地研究干扰效应的空间变化。以往的研究表明，物种对干扰的反应不仅与湿度、温度和其他环境梯度有关，还与受干扰地点的大小、形状和异质性有关。1988年的火灾为生态学家研究大规模火灾后的植物重建提供了一个独特的机会。Drs。Romme， Turner和Gardner将评估黄石景观中火灾形成的斑块的大小和空间格局对代表不同繁殖模式的植物物种重建的相对重要性。研究人员推测，植物重建的速度在一定程度上是由景观的几何形状控制的，但景观结构的相对重要性因植物的繁殖模式而异。这些调查人员是景观生态学领域的高素质专家。这项研究得到了机构的大力支持。

The 1988 fires that burned Yellowstone National Park present a unique opportunity to investigate ecological responses to large-scale disturbance. A striking feature of the fires was the resulting heterogeneity of the burned landscape, in terms of both the overall burning patterns and the variable fire severity within the burned areas. Few ecological studies have dealt explicitly with the spatial variation of disturbance effects in a systematic and quantitative way. And previous research suggests that species' responses to disturbance may vary not only in relation to moisture, temperature, and other environmental gradients, but also with the size, shape, and heterogeneity of disturbed sites. The 1988 fires present a unique opportunity for ecologists to study plant reestablishment following large-scale fires. Drs. Romme, Turner and Gardner will evaluate the relative importance of size and spatial patterning of fire-created patches in the Yellowstone landscape for reestablishment of plant species representing different modes of reproduction. The investigators hypothesize that the rates of plant reestablishment are controlled in part by the geometry of the landscape, but that the relative importance of landscape structure differs with the plant's mode of reproduction. These investigators are highly qualified experts in the area of landscape ecology. The institutional support for this research is outstanding.