Collaborative Research: Landsliding, land-use change, and carbon dynamics in a Central American mountainscape

山体滑坡是一个复杂的过程，会影响世界各地山区的碳收支。这一跨学科项目旨在了解滑坡和森林砍伐对土地覆盖变化的相对贡献，并最终了解它们在危地马拉拉斯米纳斯山脉转移和储存有机碳方面的作用。使用一组不同的流域--干的和湿的--这个项目将解决三个主要目标：1)量化毁林和滑坡对土地覆盖变化的贡献，2)检查滑坡和溪流之间的耦合，以及3)估计与滑坡和毁林有关的碳通量。从多个时间点拍摄的遥感图像获得的土地覆盖数据，以及从植被、土壤和水的实地采样获得的碳含量数据，将在地理信息系统(GIS)中结合起来，以建立碳储量和碳通量的模型。该项目将有助于在一个认识到生态学和地球科学之间重要联系的新兴领域培养新一代科学家。实现这一目标的方法是，让传统上科学方面人数不足的学生参与各种活动，包括实地考察、卫星图像分析和建模以及实验室分析。学生还将受益于国际环境下跨学科科学研究的跨文化方面。该项目的成果将改善热带地区碳减排项目所需的知识基础，并将加强我们在气候变化、危险评估和森林保护背景下对碳循环和封存的理解。

Landsliding is a complex process that influences carbon budgets in mountainscapes worldwide. This interdisciplinary project seeks to understand the relative contribution of landsliding and deforestation to land-cover change and ultimately, their role in transferring and storing organic carbon in the Sierra de Las Minas, Guatemala. Using a set of contrasting watersheds - dry and wet - this project will address three primary goals: 1) quantify the contribution of deforestation and landsliding to land-cover change, 2) examine the coupling between landslides and streams, and 3) estimate carbon fluxes associated with landsliding and deforestation. Land-cover data obtained from remotely sensed images taken at many points in time, and carbon-content data obtained from field sampling of vegetation, soil, and water, will be combined in a geographic information system (GIS) to model carbon storages and fluxes. This project will contribute to the education of a new generation of scientists in an emergent field that recognizes important links between Ecology and Earth Sciences. This goal will be accomplished by engaging students traditionally under-represented in science across educational levels in a variety of activities, including field work, satellite image analysis and modeling, and laboratory analyses. Students will also benefit from the cross-cultural aspects of interdisciplinary scientific research in international settings. Results of this project will improve the knowledge base needed for carbon mitigation projects in tropical regions, and will enhance our understanding of carbon cycling and sequestration in the context of climate change, hazard assessment, and forest conservation.