HSD: Collaborative Research: Understanding Socio-Ecological Impacts and Responses to Large-Scale Environmental Disturbance in the Western Solomon Islands

了解人类和自然对快速环境变化的反应对于管理和保护海洋生态系统和相关服务至关重要。沿海人口的长期福祉取决于沿海生态系统及其提供的关键经济和生态服务，包括缓冲风暴和渔业生产。破坏性的自然事件可能会损害这种福祉，从而提出了一个关键问题，即在面对快速变化时，哪些社会和生态参数会导致社区具有复原力。西所罗门群岛最近发生的自然灾害表明，迫切需要评估破坏性自然事件对海洋生态和社会经济系统的影响。2007年4月，所罗门群岛首都霍尼亚拉西北345公里处发生8.1级地震，引发海啸，给西所罗门群岛造成重大损失。一个由一名海洋人类学家、两名海洋科学家、一名遥感地理空间专家和一名健康科学家组成的多学科小组将(1)利用一系列生态、社会经济、健康/营养和地理空间研究方法，测量跨越海啸影响梯度的快速和大规模环境破坏的社会和生态影响；(2)通过将研究结果与现有的回顾性（基线）数据进行比较，评估人类和自然耦合系统的响应；(3)评估系统恢复力的潜在驱动因素。由于海啸前有广泛的数据可用，本研究期间收集的大量数据提供了一个独特的机会，可以充分检验社会和生态系统恢复力的因素。很难在与资源管理最相关的大尺度上证明或测试生态系统的恢复能力，因为大规模的干扰很难预测（当自然引起时），而且通常不允许通过实验来设计它们。因此，“干扰前”的数据很少，但对于评估复原力至关重要，复原力被认为是有效资源管理的重要组成部分。该研究项目提出了一个独特的“前后对比”实验情境，以衡量沿海社区对大型环境干扰的社会和生态脆弱性和恢复能力。此外，该项目还要求学生参与重要的研究经验，包括实地工作，并将自然科学和社会科学的方法和理论方法整合在一起。学生将接受自然科学和社会科学的定量和定性方法的培训，并鼓励他们在整体研究设计的框架内发展自己的研究项目。促进国际和大学间的合作。

Understanding the human and natural responses to rapid environmental change is crucial to managing and conserving marine ecosystems and associated services. The long-term well-being of coastal populations is dependent on coastal ecosystems and the critical economic and ecological services that they provide, including buffering of storms and production of fisheries. Destructive natural events can compromise this well-being, raising the critical question of which social and ecological parameters lead communities to be resilient or not when faced with rapid change. A recent natural disaster in the Western Solomon Islands presents a case in which there is an urgent need to assess impacts of a destructive natural event on marine ecological and socioeconomic systems. An earthquake measuring 8.1 struck 345 km northwest of the Solomon Islands' capital Honiara in April 2007, creating a tsunami that caused significant damage in the Western Solomon Islands. A multidisciplinary team composed of a marine anthropologist, two marine scientists, a remote sensing geospatial expert, and a health scientist will (1) use an array of ecological, socioeconomic, heath/nutrition, and geospatial research methods to measure the social and ecological effects of rapid and large-scale environmental disruption across a gradient of tsunami impact, (2) assess the responses of coupled human and natural systems by comparing the research results with existing sets of retrospective (baseline) data, and (3) evaluate potential drivers of system resilience. Because extensive pre-tsunami data are available, the body of data collected during this research affords a unique opportunity to fully test ideas of what gives resilience to social and ecological systems. It has been difficult to demonstrate or test ecosystem resilience at the large scales that are most relevant to resource management, because large-scale disturbances are difficult to predict (when naturally caused) and it is not generally permissible to engineer them experimentally. Thus, "before-disturbance" data are rare, but are critical for assessing resilience, which is recognized as an important component of effective resource management. This research program presents a unique 'before-and-after' experimental situation in which to measure the social and ecological vulnerability and resilience of coastal communities to large environmental disturbances. Additionally, the project involves participating students in a significant research experience that includes field work and integration of methods and theoretical approaches of the natural and social sciences are integrated. Students will be trained in quantitative and qualitative methods from the natural and social sciences and will be encouraged to develop their own research projects within the framework of the overall research design. International and interuniversity collaborations are fostered.