Collaborative Research: How structural heterogeneity and connectivity of landscapes affect wind dispersal

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Current and future global changes such as habitat fragmentation and climate change may require species to depend on rare long distance dispersal events for their persistence. Many seeds, spores, larvae, pollen, and fungi depend on wind dynamics for their movement. Landscape connectivity and changes in habitat structure strongly influence the flow of air, particularly the amount of turbulence and uplifting, two critical factors known to drive long distance dispersal. Past mechanistic models have ignored the effects of landscape heterogeneity (e.g., canopy structure, forest gaps, corridors, and habitat fragments). A critical new frontier is to incorporate the influence of structural heterogeneity on wind-driven dispersal. We use a modeling approach to predict wind-driven seed dispersal in heterogeneous landscapes and evaluate this model in a replicated large-scale habitat fragmentation experiment at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. We will extend these predictions to multiple species, landscape configurations, and spatial scales that are relevant to conservation and management decisions. This project will support an interdisciplinary and international collaboration among engineering, meteorology, and ecology experts and will assist in training a postdoctoral researcher, a graduate student, and several undergraduate students and technicians. In addition, this proposal will support the development of graduate courses that integrate material on fluid dynamics and ecology and evolution. Results will be communicated with land managers including the U.S. Forest Service to aid in conservation efforts. Data will be archived with the Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis to be made available to other researchers.