CAREER: Learning in the Woods - Decadal Climate, Water Supply, and Fire Frequency in the Great Basin

该奖项资助了“森林中的学习”项目，该项目旨在使用多方面的方法，在年际到年代际尺度上整合关于大流域环境变化的研究和教育，在大流域，快速的人口增长正在测试自然和人类主导的生态系统对气候波动的脆弱性。这项研究的主要目标是获得过去千年期间供水和消防制度年际至年代际变化的基线。将在气候波动的背景下分析野火的空间和时间模式。将为选定的流域，包括Truckee、Carson、Walker、Owens和Humboldt河流域，编制水分敏感物种的树木年轮年表。这种自然档案的年度到季节分辨率允许使用仪器记录进行准确的校准，从而可以获得长达数世纪的年度到季节降水量和径流的替代系列。此外，每年将为K-12教师和学生举办为期四天的科学体验，针对内华达州的西班牙裔初中生和高中生。具体的科学和教育目标包括测试大流域水文气候学十年尺度变化的空间一致性，确定过去一千年来对西部山区选定流域的淡水输入的年际到年代际波动的幅度，研究几个世纪以来与当地和区域气候有关的火灾制度的时空变化，教育新一代人关于气候和地表过程(如降水、径流和野火)在空间和时间上存在的动态关系，开发一个基于网络的信息系统，显示在仪器观测期间和替代气候记录期间大流域流域的降水、水流和火情的空间变异性，并在其教育生涯早期为代表不足的群体提供追求科学事业的激励。

This award funds the 'Learning in the Woods' project which aims to use a multi-faceted approach to integrate research and education on environmental change at interannual to interdecadal scales in the Great Basin, where rapid population growth is testing the vulnerability of natural and human-dominated ecosystems to climatic fluctuations. The primary goal of the research is to obtain a baseline representation, over the last millennium, of interannual to interdecadal changes in water supply and fire regime. The spatial and temporal patterns of wildfire will be analyzed in the context of climatic fluctuations. Tree-ring chronologies from moisture-sensitive species will be developed for selected watersheds, including the Truckee, Carson, Walker, Owens, and Humboldt River Basins. The annual to seasonal resolution of such natural archives allows for accurate calibration with instrumental records, so that multi-century long proxy series of annual to seasonal precipitation and stream flow can be obtained. In addition, a four-day science experience for K-12 teachers and students will be held every year, and aimed at Hispanic middle- and high-school students in Nevada.The specific scientific and educational objectives include testing the spatial coherence of decadal-scale variability in Great Basin hydroclimatology, determining the amplitude of interannual to interdecadal fluctuations of freshwater input to selected watersheds of the Intermountain West over the past millennium, examining spatial and temporal changes of fire regime in connection to local and regional climate at annual resolution for several centuries, educating new generations on the dynamic relationships that exist both in space and in time between climate and surface processes such as precipitation, runoff, and wildfire, developing a web-based information system showing the spatial variability of precipitation, stream flow, and fire regime over Great Basin watersheds for the period of instrumental observations and for the period of proxy climatic records, and providing under-represented groups an incentive, early in their educational careers, for pursuing science careers.