LTREB: The Ecological Consequences of Forest Decline: Pattern and Process in Red Spruce Forests

LTREB：森林衰退的生态后果：红云杉林的模式和过程

• 批准号: 0075610
• 负责人: John Battles
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2000
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2000-08-01 至 2002-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0075610&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: LTREB; Ecological; Consequences; Forest; Decline

0075610BattlesForests throughout the world are experiencing worrisome increases in tree mortality. Some cases involve the introduction of exotic pests or exploitative land use practices. For others, the interaction of specifically ordered physical and biological factors produces a progressive loss of vigor that frequently ends in death, a phenomenon called forest decline. Atmospheric pollution often is implicated as a contributor to forest decline. The perceived threat to regional forest health concentrated research efforts on a search for causes. The consequences of decline on forest structure and function have received much less attention. The decline of red spruce in the northeastern United States presents an opportunity to study forest dynamics in the midst of an archetypal decline-disturbance. The extent, severity, and timing of spruce decline are such that the phenomenon can be tractably investigated from an ecological perspective. Given the weak factual foundation on which to build a conceptual understanding of the ecology of decline, a detailed case study quantifying pattern and process is necessary. This project will complete a 37 year record of vegetation change on Whiteface Mountain, New York - a record unparalleled in scope and scale for the northeastern subalpine forest biome. Re-measurement of 64 permanent forest plots stratified by land use, aspect, and elevation would provide robust estimates of growth, mortality, and recruitment rates for spruce and associated tree species. The health of the red spruce forests has been at the center of environmental, political and scientific controversies for two decades. Some of the arguments were about scientific findings that had to rely on inferential approaches to reconstruct the pre-decline status of the forest. Neither the knowledge base nor database existed to properly evaluate the magnitude of the decline and place it within an appropriate ecological context. The proposed research addresses these deficiencies and would perpetuate and preserve the best data available on forest population and community dynamics in this sentinel ecosystem.

世界各地的森林都在经历令人担忧的树木死亡率上升。有些案例涉及引进外来有害生物或剥削性土地利用做法。对于其他人来说，特定顺序的物理和生物因素的相互作用会导致活力的逐渐丧失，最终往往会导致死亡，这一现象被称为森林衰退。大气污染往往被认为是造成森林退化的原因之一。人们认为对区域森林健康的威胁将研究工作集中在寻找原因上。森林退化对森林结构和功能的影响受到的关注较少。美国东北部红云杉的衰落为研究典型衰退-干扰中的森林动态提供了机会。云杉衰退的程度、严重程度和时间是如此之大，以至于可以从生态学的角度对这一现象进行可追踪的调查。鉴于建立对衰退生态的概念性理解的事实基础薄弱，有必要进行详细的案例研究，量化模式和过程。该项目将完成纽约白面山37年来的植被变化记录--这是东北亚高山森林生物群在范围和规模上无与伦比的记录。根据土地利用、坡向和海拔对永久林地进行重新测量，将为云杉和相关树种的生长、死亡和采集率提供可靠的估计。20年来，红云杉林的健康一直是环境、政治和科学争议的中心。其中一些争论是关于科学发现的，这些发现必须依靠推理方法来重建森林衰退前的状态。无论是知识库还是数据库都不存在，无法正确评估下降的程度，并将其置于适当的生态背景下。拟议的研究解决了这些不足之处，并将永久保存关于这一哨兵生态系统中森林人口和社区动态的最佳数据。