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

那些试图研究世界各地土地使用和土地覆盖变化的模式和过程的人面临着许多重要问题。 这些问题包括：使用和管理资源的不同机构是否产生了不同的土地利用和土地覆盖变化模式，这些不同的模式是否对生态系统和自然群落产生了不同的后果？ 本博士论文研究项目探讨了墨西哥尤卡坦半岛南部地区的森林覆盖模式的演变，特别注意森林覆盖如何受到促进森林保护的不同社会机构的影响。 主要的研究问题是，不同的保护机构是否会产生不同的生态系统水平模式，以及不同的生态系统水平模式是否反映了不同的生态系统和社区水平的后果。 与主要保护机构领导人的访谈和调查将获得有关保护战略和实施计划的信息。 将调查为当地土地使用者，特别是小农户创造激励和抑制措施的方案。 将收集关于维持森林覆盖的小农活动的补贴以及关于控制毁林面积、空间格局和时间的明确机制的定性和定量数据。 将绘制、数字化和分析关键机构控制的空间范围，以评估它们与当前景观格局指数和过去15年格局变化的统计关系。 将根据遥感得出的土地使用和土地覆盖分类计算森林分割和连通性等格局指数。 然后，景观研究将立足于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。 本研究将景观和社区生态学的方法与空间明确的地理研究，研究当地的保护机构的南部尤卡坦地区在改变景观格局，生态系统功能和生物多样性的作用。 该项目将使人们对土地使用和土地覆盖变化的生态和体制动态有新的认识，并对将地方和地方一级的土地使用模式和过程研究联系起来的时间和空间标量问题有新的认识。 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的研究生涯。

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.