Flowering Times and Climate Change in Thoreau's Concord

梭罗《康科德》中的开花时间和气候变化

• 批准号: 0413458
• 负责人: Richard Primack
• 金额: $ 6.75万
• 依托单位: Trustees of Boston University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-09-01 至 2007-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0413458&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Flowering; Times; Climate; Change; Thoreau

Global climate change is already altering biological communities: plants are flowering and leafing out earlier in the spring, birds are migrating and breeding earlier, and species are shifting their ranges. Predicting how biological communities will respond to future climate change and developing methods to lessen the harmful impacts of these changes will require knowledge about the responses of individual species. The Principal Investigator proposes to use historical and current observations to examine the effects of climate change on more than 700 plant species in Concord, Massachusetts. The investigator will compare his current (2004 to 2006) observations of the flowering times of plants in Concord with past observations of flowering times made by three local naturalists from 1851 to 1993. One of these naturalists is Henry David Thoreau, the well-known philosopher and author. From these comparisons, the investigator will determine which species are most and least responsive to climate change and which climatic variables are most closely linked to variation in flowering time. The investigator will also document the plant species currently present in Concord and their abundances, and compare this information to the five previous records documenting the Concord plant community to determine how the flora has changed over time. This interdisciplinary study, involving both current observations and historical records, will produce many unique publications from the shared viewpoint of science and history. The project, bolstered by including Thoreau's observations, is expected to generate extensive public interest, which will be supported through publications in the popular press, public talks, and the incorporation of volunteers and undergraduates in gathering and analyzing the data.

全球气候变化已经在改变生物群落：植物在春天提前开花和长叶，鸟类提前迁徙和繁殖，物种正在改变它们的范围。预测生物群落将如何应对未来的气候变化，并制定减少这些变化的有害影响的方法，将需要了解各个物种的反应。首席研究员建议使用历史和当前的观察来检查气候变化对马萨诸塞州康科德700多种植物物种的影响。 研究人员将比较他目前（2004年至2006年）对康科德植物开花时间的观察与1851年至1993年三位当地博物学家对开花时间的观察。这些自然主义者之一是著名的哲学家和作家亨利大卫梭罗。 通过这些比较，研究人员将确定哪些物种对气候变化的反应最大，哪些最小，以及哪些气候变量与开花时间的变化关系最密切。 调查人员还将记录目前在康科德的植物物种及其丰度，并将这些信息与以前记录康科德植物群落的五个记录进行比较，以确定植物群如何随着时间的推移而变化。 这种跨学科的研究，涉及目前的观察和历史记录，将产生许多独特的出版物，从科学和历史的共同观点。该项目，包括梭罗的观察，预计将产生广泛的公众利益，这将通过在大众媒体，公开讲座，并纳入志愿者和大学生在收集和分析数据的出版物的支持。