CNH: Strengthening Resilience of Arid Region Riparian Corridors: Ecohydrology and Decision Making in the Sonora and San Pedro Watersheds

干旱地区的河岸走廊是沿着溪流的狭窄带状树木，它们保护着景观中一些最重要的生物多样性。 气候变化、人类取水和土地使用决策的结合威胁着河流流量和浅层地下水，而这对维护河岸走廊至关重要。 相关的生物物理和社会压力可以推动河岸系统跨越临界阈值，超过临界点，恢复到早期条件是不可能的。 这可能导致更广泛的社会-生态复原力丧失，即系统保持基本功能的能力，包括提供水和其他生态系统服务。 该项目将增进对社会和自然进程变化如何影响河岸系统的复原力以及这些系统提供的生态系统服务的理解。 研究将集中在两个相邻的河流系统：上圣佩德罗河，从墨西哥的索诺拉向北流入美国的亚利桑那州，以及上索诺拉河，在索诺拉境内向南流动。 将创建一个基于代理的模型，将环境条件，社会规则和人类实践之间的相互作用转化为研究中的河岸走廊可能发生的变化。 该项目将回答关于河岸系统中耦合的人类和生态过程的关键问题;河岸系统对压力的响应;以及如何评估跨越阈值。 这项研究将开发新的技术，模拟河岸走廊的社会生态相互作用，将直接应用于河流生态系统的管理。 该项目将为各级利益攸关方提供机会，从管理自然资源的官员到访问河岸走廊的个人，利用基于科学的工具进行知情决策。 这项工作使跨越国界的利益攸关方参与生态系统服务的参与性科学和管理。 该项目还将促进K-12年级的教育，并为本科生和研究生提供研究培训。

Riparian corridors in arid regions are the narrow ribbons of trees along streams that shelter some of the most important biodiversity in the landscape. The combination of climate change, human withdrawals of water, and land use decisions threaten stream flow and shallow groundwater that is crucial to the maintenance of riparian corridors. Linked biophysical and societal stresses can push riparian systems across critical thresholds, tipping points beyond which restoration to earlier conditions is unlikely. This can cause loss of broader social-ecological resilience; that is, the capacity of systems to retain essential functions, including provision of water and other ecosystem services. This project will improve understanding of how changes in social and natural processes affect the resilience of riparian systems and, by extension, the ecosystem services these systems provide. Research will focus on two adjacent river systems: the Upper San Pedro River, flowing northward from Sonora, Mexico into Arizona in the United States, and the Upper Sonora River, flowing south within Sonora. An agent-based model will be created to translate interactions among environmental conditions, societal rules, and human practices into likely changes to the riparian corridors under study. This project will answer critical questions about coupled human and ecological processes in riparian systems; responses of riparian systems to stresses; and how crossing thresholds can be assessed. This research will develop new techniques for modeling social-ecological interactions in riparian corridors that will have direct application in the management of stream ecosystems. The project will provide opportunities for stakeholders at all levels, from officials managing natural resources, to individuals visiting riparian corridors, to use science-based tools for informed decision-making. This work engages stakeholders across national boundaries in participatory science and management of ecosystem services. This project will also contribute to education at K-12 grade levels and provide research training for undergraduate and graduate students.