WORKSHOP: UINTAS 2006--The Uinta Interdisciplinary Assessment Symposium

研讨会：Uintas 2006“Uinta跨学科评估研讨会本提案寻求为在犹他州东北部的Uinta山脉举行的一个聚焦于地球系统科学的会议提供部分资金支持。乌伊塔山是研究第四纪气候变化、景观演变和地球生态学的迷人的自然实验室。这座山脉包含一个联邦指定的荒野区域，占地近50万英亩，由三个不同的国家森林管理。在过去的十年里，许多学术研究人员与从事这些国家森林工作的土地管理者建立了创新的合作关系，这极大地提高了我们对Uinta土地系统以前被忽视的方面的了解。这项工作始于1990年代中期，当时有一个专门的地貌测绘方案，该方案构成了林务局土地系统调查的基础。从这一起点开始，研究已经向多个方向扩展，涵盖了各种主题，如第四纪地质年代学、冰缘地貌演变、古岩溶学、冰川后气候变化、树线波动、河流地貌和森林生态。在过去的五年里，新研究人员的增加和新研究项目的建立尤其迅速，结果是，十多名学术科学家正在积极开展范围内的资助研究，其中包括两个由国家科学基金会资助的多年项目。这项工作的结果已经在10多篇同行评议的论文中公布，并与正在进行的中部落基山脉其他地方的研究有相当大的相关性。智力价值：Uintas当前研究的活跃性质和广度令人兴奋，并呈现出相当大的跨学科合作潜力。然而，大量的研究人员专注于如此多的不同主题，阻碍了研究目标和结果的有效沟通，这是未来合作发展所必需的。这不是任何一个研究小组的过错，而是一个日益专业化的科学社区的必然结果，在这个社区中，不同兴趣的研究人员参加不同的会议，阅读不同的文献。因此，Uintas创新跨学科研究的巨大潜力将一直没有实现，直到这些学科之间的人为障碍被克服，具有互补利益的研究小组之间可以建立牢固的联系。在这项提议中描述的周末会议，Uintas 2006“Uinta跨学科评估研讨会”，将通过极大地加强目前活跃在Uintas的学术研究小组之间的沟通来解决这种情况。通过介绍研究概述和结果以及有重点的规划会议，将为下一代创新的、跨学科的项目奠定基础。会议还将强调如何更好地将学术研究与土地管理者的需求联系起来，以确保学术界和林务局之间长期合作的历史得以保持。广泛的影响：这次会议的概念得到了目前活跃在Uintas的研究界以及提供大部分资金的美国林务局的极大热情。林业局土地管理人员尤其感到兴奋的是，这次会议有可能成为政府土地管理机构如何更好地协调他们的需求与学术研究人员利益的典范。因此，这次会议具有极大的潜在影响，超越了目前专注于Uintas的研究人员社区。此外，预计将有大约16个关于Uintas地球系统科学方面的报告在会议上发表。这些报告将被收集并作为《北极、南极和高山研究》杂志的特刊发表，以确保会议报告以及不同研究小组迄今获得的成果将随时提供给更广泛的科学界。

WORKSHOP: UINTAS 2006"The Uinta Interdisciplinary Assessment SymposiumThis proposal seeks funding for partial support of a conference focused on Earth system science inthe Uinta Mountains of northeastern Utah. The Uinta Mountains are a fascinating natural laboratoryfor the study of Quaternary climate changes, landscape evolution, and geoecology. The mountainrange contains a federally designated wilderness area spanning nearly half a million acres, and isadministered by three different National Forests. Over the past decade, numerous academicresearchers have forged innovative collaborations with land managers working on these NationalForests, which have greatly improved our understanding of previously overlooked aspects of theUinta land system. This work began in the mid-1990s with a dedicated program of geomorphicmapping that formed the basis of a Forest Service land systems inventory. From that starting point,research has expanded in a multitude of directions, encompassing topics as diverse as Quaternarygeochronology, periglacial landscape evolution, paleolimnology, post-glacial climate changes,treeline fluctuations, fluvial geomorphology, and forest ecology. The addition of new researchersand the establishment of new research programs have been particularly rapid over the past five years,with the result that more than a dozen academic scientists are actively pursuing funded research inthe range, including two multi-year projects supported by the National Science Foundation. Theresults of this work have been presented in more than 10 peer-reviewed papers, and haveconsiderable relevance to ongoing studies elsewhere in the central Rocky Mountains.Intellectual Merit: The vibrant nature and breadth of current research in the Uintas is exciting andpresents considerable potential for interdisciplinary collaboration. However, the large number ofresearchers focused on so many varied topics is inhibiting the efficient communication of researchgoals and results necessary for the development of future collaborations. This is not the fault of anyindividual research group, but rather the inevitable outcome of an increasingly specialized scientificcommunity in which researchers with different interests attend different meetings and followdifferent literature. As a result, the great potential for innovative interdisciplinary research in theUintas will remain unrealized until these artificial barriers between disciplines are overcome androbust connections can be made between research groups with complementary interests.The weekend conference described in this proposal, UINTAS 2006"The Uinta InterdisciplinaryAssessment Symposium, will address this situation by greatly enhancing communication betweenthe academic research groups currently active in the Uintas. Through presentation of researchoverviews and results, and focused planning sessions, a foundation will be constructed for the nextgeneration of innovative, interdisciplinary, projects. The conference will also highlight ways tobetter connect academic research with the needs of land managers to ensure that the history offruitful collaboration between academe and the Forest Service will be maintained.Broader Impacts: The concept for this conference has met with great enthusiasm from the researchcommunity currently active in the Uintas, and from the U.S. Forest Service, which is providing themajority of the funding. Forest Service land managers are particularly excited about the potential forthis conference to become a model for how government land management agencies may bettercoordinate their needs with the interests of academic researchers. As such, this conference has greatpotential for impacts beyond the community of researchers currently focused on the Uintas.Furthermore, it is expected that approximately 16 presentations will be made on aspects of Earthsystem science in the Uintas at the conference. These presentations will be collected and publishedas a special issue of the journal Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, ensuring that the conferencepresentations, and the results obtained to date by the different research groups, will be readilyavailable to the broader scientific community.