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

该奖项为"林中学习“项目提供资金，该项目旨在采用多方面的方法，在大盆地将关于环境变化的研究和教育纳入年际至十年尺度，大盆地人口的快速增长正在考验自然和人类主导的生态系统对气候波动的脆弱性。研究的主要目标是获得一个基线表示，在过去的千年，年际到年代际的供水和消防制度的变化。野火的空间和时间模式将在气候波动的背景下进行分析。将为特拉基、卡森、步行者、欧文斯和洪堡河流域等选定的流域编制对水分敏感的树种的年轮年表。这种自然档案的年度到季节分辨率允许用仪器记录进行准确校准，从而可以获得多年来年度到季节降水和水流的代理系列。此外，每年还将为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和高中学生。具体的科学和教育目标包括测试大盆地水文气候学中十年尺度变化的空间一致性，确定过去西部山间选定流域淡水输入的年际到年代际波动幅度千年，研究空间和时间变化的火灾制度与当地和区域气候在每年的决议几个世纪，教育新一代的动态关系，既存在于空间和时间之间的气候和表面过程，如降水，径流，野火，开发一个基于网络的信息系统，显示空间变异的降水，水流，和火制度在大盆地流域的仪器观测期间和代理气候记录期间，并提供代表性不足的群体的激励，在他们的教育生涯的早期，追求科学事业。

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.