WORKSHOP: UINTAS 2006--The Uinta Interdisciplinary Assessment Symposium

研讨会：尤塔跨学科评估研讨会本提案寻求资金，以部分支持在犹他州东北部尤塔山脉举行的地球系统科学会议。温塔山脉是研究第四纪气候变化、景观演变和地质生态学的迷人的自然实验室。该山脉包含一个联邦指定的荒野区，面积近50万英亩，由三个不同的国家森林管理。在过去的十年中，许多学术研究人员与致力于这些国家森林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以前被忽视的乌干达土地系统方面的理解。这项工作始于20世纪90年代中期，当时是一个专门的地貌测绘项目，该项目构成了林业局土地系统清单的基础。从这个起点开始，研究已经扩展到许多方向，包括第四纪地质年代学、冰缘景观演化、古湖泊学、冰后气候变化、树线波动、河流地貌学和森林生态学等多种主题。在过去的五年中，新研究人员的加入和新研究项目的建立尤其迅速，结果是有十几名学术科学家正在积极地进行资助的研究，其中包括由国家科学基金会支持的两个多年期项目。这项工作的结果已经发表在10多篇同行评议的论文中，并且与落基山脉中部其他地方正在进行的研究有相当大的相关性。智力优势：尤塔斯大学当前研究的活力和广度令人兴奋，并呈现出跨学科合作的巨大潜力。然而，大量的研究人员专注于如此多的不同主题，这阻碍了未来合作发展所必需的研究目标和结果的有效交流。这不是任何一个研究小组的错，而是一个日益专业化的科学共同体的必然结果，在这个共同体中，不同兴趣的研究人员参加不同的会议，研究不同的文献。因此，除非这些学科之间的人为障碍被克服，并且在具有互补兴趣的研究小组之间建立起牢固的联系，否则，uintas创新跨学科研究的巨大潜力仍将无法实现。提案中所描述的周末会议，“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交流来解决这一问题。通过研究综述和成果的展示，以及重点规划会议，将为下一代创新的跨学科项目奠定基础。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，以确保学术界和林业局之间富有成果的合作历史得以保持。更广泛的影响：这次会议的概念受到了目前活跃在尤塔斯地区的研究界和美国林务局的极大热情，后者提供了大部分资金。林业局的土地管理者对这次会议的潜力感到特别兴奋，因为它将成为政府土地管理机构如何更好地协调其需求与学术研究人员利益的典范。因此，这次会议具有巨大的潜力，其影响超出了目前专注于Uintas的研究人员社区。此外，预计将在会议上就乌塔斯地区的地球系统科学各方面进行大约16次介绍。这些报告将被收集并发表在《北极、南极和高山研究》杂志的特刊上，以确保不同研究小组迄今为止获得的会议报告和结果将容易地为更广泛的科学界提供。

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.