Doctoral Dissertation Research: Socio-Environmental Dynamics and History of the Biological Invasion of Pasture Grasses: The Case of Kikuyu Grass in Southern Peru

由于世界各地的大量地方研究，植物入侵已被定性为人类引起的全球环境变化的重要组成部分。 这一论断依赖于尚未证明的假设，即动态导致本地化的植物入侵独立于规模，因此也解释了入侵区域和全球。 对人类与环境相互作用的复杂性认识有限，使入侵成为一个空间上无差别的过程。 这种假设是有很大问题的，因为它质疑的规模和等级原则，管理复杂的社会和生态过程在大面积上运行。 解决这个问题具有重要的理论和实践意义，因为莱文将跨尺度现象的相关问题描述为“生物学和所有科学的中心问题”。 本博士论文研究项目将探讨生态学，地理学和社会过程与建立在南部秘鲁的基库尤草（狼尾草clandestinum霍赫斯特。来自Chiov.），这是20世纪20年代从非洲引进的入侵物种。 将特别注意该区域土地使用的社会环境动态的标量和空间变化。 将采用一套综合的研究方法，包括农业部门分析、村庄活动的样带分析、问卷调查和口述历史、村民绘制的民族地图、延时照片判读和档案研究。 该项目将提供有价值的新的见解尺度和空间的作用，在土地利用动态与外来物种入侵，一个具有很大的实际效用，以及具有理论意义的课题。 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。

Owing to a large number of local studies from around the world plant invasions have come to be characterized as a significant component of human-caused global environmental change. This assertion rests on the not-yet-demonstrated hypothesis that dynamics causing localized plant invasion operate independent of scale and therefore also explain invasions regionally and globally. Limited appreciation of the intricacies of human-environment interactions renders invasions a spatially undifferentiated process. Verifying such a hypothesis is highly problematic, because it questions principles of scale and hierarchy governing complex social and ecological processes operating over large areas. Addressing this issue has important theoretical and practical implications, as the question of relating phenomena across scales has been described by Levin as "the central problem in biology and in all of sciences". This doctoral dissertation research project will examine the ecological, biogeographical, and social processes associated with the establishment in southern Peru of kikuyu grass (Pennisetum clandestinum Hochst. ex Chiov.), an invasive species originally brought from Africa in the 1920s. Special attention will be given to scalar and spatial variations in the socio-environmental dynamics of land use in the region. An integrated set of research approaches will be used, including agricultural sector analyses, transect analyses of village activities, questionnaires and oral histories, ethno-cartographic construction of maps by villagers, time-lapse photo interpretation, and archival research. This project will provide valuable new insights into the role of scale and space in the land-use dynamics associated with the invasion of exotic species, a topic of great practical utility as well as have theoretical significance. 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.