Doctoral Dissertation Research: Landscape Ecology and Institutions of Conservation in the Southern Yucatan Peninsular Region of Mexico

那些试图研究与世界不同地区土地利用和土地覆盖变化相关的模式和过程的人面临许多重要问题。这些问题包括：使用和管理资源的不同机构是否产生不同的土地利用和土地覆盖变化的景观格局，以及这些不同的格局是否对生态系统和自然社区产生不同的后果？这一博士论文研究项目考察了墨西哥尤卡坦半岛南部地区景观规模森林覆盖格局的演变，特别关注促进森林保护的不同社会机构如何影响森林覆盖。主要的研究问题是，不同的保护机构是否产生不同的景观水平格局，以及不同的景观水平格局是否反映了不同的生态系统和社区水平的后果。对主要保护机构领导人的采访和调查将获得有关保护战略和实施计划的信息。为当地土地使用者，特别是小农创造激励和阻碍的项目将被调查。将收集关于补贴维持森林覆盖的小农活动以及控制毁林面积、空间格局和时机的明确机制的定性和定量数据。将对主要机构行使的控制空间范围进行测绘、数字化和分析，以评估其与当前景观格局指数和过去15年格局变化的统计关系。将根据遥感土地利用和土地覆盖分类计算森林破碎化和连通性等格局指数。然后，景观研究将以对当地演替森林的生态系统功能属性(碳和氮储量、土壤湿度和相对生物量)和群落组成(物种和结构多样性)的点评估为基础。这项研究将结合景观和群落生态学的方法与空间明确的地理研究，以研究尤卡坦南部地区当地保护机构在改变景观格局、生态系统功能和生物多样性方面的作用。该项目将对土地利用和土地复盖变化的生态和体制动态以及将土地利用模式和过程的地方和景观研究联系起来的时间和空间尺度问题提供新的认识。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。

Many important questions confront those who seek to do research on the patterns and processes associated with land-use and land-cover change in different parts of the world. Among those questions are: Do different institutions that use and manage resources produce different landscape-level patterns of land-use and land-cover change, and do these different patterns have different consequences on ecosystems and natural communities? This doctoral dissertation research project examines the evolution of landscape-scale forest-cover patterns in the southern Yucatan peninsular region of Mexico, paying special attention to how forest cover is affected by distinct social institutions promoting forest conservation. The primary research questions ask whether distinct conservation institutions give rise to different landscape-level patterns, and whether diverse landscape-level patterns reflect different ecosystem and community-level consequences. Interviews with and surveys of leaders of key conservation institutions will elicit information about conservation strategies and implementation plans. Programs creating incentives and disincentives for local land-users, particularly smallholder farmers, will be investigated. Qualitative and quantitative data will be gathered on subsidization of smallholder activities that maintain forest cover, and on explicit mechanisms controlling the area, spatial pattern and timing of deforestation. Spatial extents of control exercised by the key institutions will be mapped, digitized, and analyzed to assess their statistical relationship to current landscape pattern indices and to changes in patterns over the last 15 years. Pattern indices such as forest fragmentation and connectivity will be computed from a remote-sensing-derived land-use and land-cover classification. The landscape study will then be grounded in point assessments of local successional forests for ecosystem function attributes (carbon and nitrogen stocks, soil moisture and relative biomass) and community composition (species and structural diversity). This study will incorporate methods of landscape and community ecology with spatially explicit geographic research to study the role of local conservation institutions of the southern Yucatan region in changing landscape patterns, ecosystem functions, and biodiversity. The project will shed new light on the ecological and institutional dynamics of land-use and land-cover change and on temporal and spatial scalar issues in linking local and landscape-level studies of land-use patterns and processes. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.