BIOCOMPLEXITY-- INCUBATION ACTIVITY: Spatiotemporal Coupling of Ecological and Geological Dynamics in the Nebraska Sand Hills

[00:84075 .星期三]内布拉斯加州的沙丘是西半球最大的沙丘区。如今，这些沙丘很稳定，被原生草原覆盖。然而，在不太遥远的过去（也许就在1000年前），这些沙丘中的大多数都是活跃的。对生态学家、地质学家和沙山牧场主来说，这个生态系统是“伪装的沙漠”。短期和长期气候变化是如何与放牧和火灾等生态过程相互作用的，从而破坏了这个巨大的沙丘系统的稳定，或者，另一方面，重新稳定了大片流动的沙子？该地区众多的带间湿地和湖泊在稳定草沙丘陵高地方面发挥了什么作用？地质学家、土壤科学家、气候专家、草地生态学家、景观生态学家和建模者将聚集在一起解决这些问题。通过结合对该地区当前湿地和草原的生态研究，以及对过去3000年气候变化、沙丘运动和湿地动态的地质研究，跨学科团队将开发一个沙丘模型，该模型将有助于预测该地区在各种管理和气候变化情景下的未来。

0084075WedinThe Nebraska Sand Hills is the largest sand dune area in the Western Hemisphere. Today these dunes are stable and covered by native grassland. However, in the not too distant past (perhaps as recently as 1000 years ago), most of these dunes were active. To ecologists, geologists and Sand Hills ranchers, this ecosystem is a "desert in disguise". How do short- and long-term climate change interact with ecological processes such as grazing and fire to destabilize this massive sand dune system, or, on the other hand, restabilize large areas of moving sand? What role do the numerous interdunal wetlands and lakes of the region play in stabilizing the grassy Sand Hills uplands? Geologists, soil scientists, climate specialists, grassland ecologists, landscape ecologists, and modelers will be assembled to address these questions. By combining ecological studies of the region's current wetlands and grasslands, with geological studies of climate change, sand dune movement and wetland dynamics over the last 3000 years the interdisciplinary team will develop a model of the Sand Hills that will facilitate predicting the future of this region under various scenarios of management and climate change.