Doctoral Dissertation Research: Cultivation and Conservation: Exploring Pattern and the Potential for Coexistence in Northern Tanzania

在发展中世界的许多地区，传统上从事畜牧业、小农耕作和其他对自然环境影响较小的生计的社会正在采用更现代的经济活动形式，往往对自然系统产生更深远的影响。随着这些变化，人们越来越需要更好地了解如何在受人类影响更大的景观中保持生物多样性和自然环境的其他质量。这个博士论文研究改进项目将调查沿坦桑尼亚北部塔兰盖尔地区最重要的剩余野生动物走廊之一的种植和保护之间的相互作用。这些走廊被几个大型物种用来到达塔兰盖尔国家公园以东肥沃的雨季牧场。该地区也正在经历社会和土地利用的变化，因为牧民马赛人采用耕作和混合耕作方法。人们假设，对生产的限制因社会和自然环境的不同而不同。这项研究将确定哪些限制因素对种植决策影响最大，走廊地区的景观结构与农业变化之间的关系，以及土地利用变化改变植被组成和栖息地结构的方式。对限制的反应可能会影响长期可持续性和复原力，因为减少了抵消其他限制提高产量的努力。变化将在空间上反映在物种组成的格局上，以及在农田建立、休耕和废弃的时间格局上。将在景观生态框架内使用自然科学和社会科学的方法。将通过参与者观察和社会调查来了解马赛的粮食生产战略。使用BOMA(作为一个单位生活的一组家庭，分享放牧决策，有时还分享耕作决策)的整群抽样设计将被用来访问家庭。将通过调查作物因捕食、疾病和干旱造成的损失以及土壤分析来衡量对种植的限制。植被采样将检查耕作对整个景观的物理影响，验证言语反应。附近种植系统不太发达的村庄的植被也将进行调查，并将两者与20世纪70年代以来的现有调查进行比较。这个村庄将为地下水位和气候驱动的植被组成变化提供基线。该项目将为人类活动影响自然系统的过程以及经历变化的人们监测和应对环境变化的过程提供有价值的见解。这些见解将对学术讨论以及本地区和其他地区的土地和资源管理者具有重大实用价值。这项研究的更广泛影响包括有助于了解牧民如何实现经济多样化，同时增加生态数据，以应对自然资源变化的影响。这项研究还将在景观生态学的背景下加强社会科学和自然科学数据的整合。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研究生涯。

In many parts of the developing world, societies that traditionally engaged in pastoralism, small-field farming, and other livelihoods that had relatively minor impacts on the natural environment have been adopting more modern forms of economic activity, often with more profound impacts on natural systems. With these changes, the need has grown to better understand how biodiversity and other qualities of the natural environment can be maintained in landscapes being impacted more significantly by humans. This Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement project will investigate the interplay between cultivation and conservation along one of the most important remaining wildlife corridors in Northern Tanzania's Tarangire Region. These corridors are used by several large species to reach fertile rainy season pastures east of Tarangire National Park. The region is also undergoing social and land-use change as pastoral Maasai adopt cultivation and engage in mixed farming methods. It is hypothesized that constraints to production vary across both the social and physical landscapes. The research will determine which constraints most strongly impact cultivation decisions, the relationships between landscape structure and agricultural change in the corridor area, and the way that changing land use alters vegetation composition and habitat structure. Responses to constraints may impact long term sustainability and resilience by reducing effort to counteract other constraints to higher yields. Changes will be reflected spatially in the pattern of species composition and in the temporal pattern of field establishment, fallowing, and abandonment. Methodologies from the natural and social sciences will be used within a landscape ecology framework. Participant observation and social surveys will be used to understand food production strategies of Maasai. A cluster sampling design using the boma (a group of households that live as a unit, sharing herding and sometimes cultivation decisions) will be used to interview households. Constraints to cultivation will be measured through survey of crop losses to predation, disease, and drought as well as soil analysis. Vegetation sampling will examine the physical impact of cultivation across the landscape, verifying verbal responses. The vegetation of a nearby village with a less developed cultivation system will also be surveyed and both will be compared to available surveys from the 1970s. This village will provide a baseline for water table and climate driven changes in vegetation composition.This project will provide valuable insights into the processes through which natural systems are impacted by human activity as well as the processes through which people experiencing change monitor and respond to environmental change. These insights will have significant utility both for academic discourse and for land and resource managers in this region and elsewhere. The broader impacts of the research include contributing to knowledge of how pastoralists diversify their economies, while adding ecological data to the impact of changes on natural resources. This research will also enhance the integration of social and natural science data within the context of landscape ecology. 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.