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形成的狭窄的树木带，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定共同威胁着溪流和对维护河岸走廊至关重要的浅层地下水。相互关联的生物物理和社会压力可能会推动河岸系统越过临界点，超过这些临界点就不太可能恢复到更早的状态。这可能导致更广泛的社会生态复原力丧失，即系统保留基本功能的能力，包括提供水和其他生态系统服务。该项目将提高对社会和自然过程的变化如何影响河岸系统的复原力，进而影响这些系统所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：上游圣佩德罗河，从墨西哥索诺拉向北流入美国亚利桑那州，以及上游索诺拉河，在索诺拉境内向南流动。将创建一个基于主体的模型，将环境条件、社会规则和人类实践之间的相互作用转化为正在研究的河岸走廊可能的变化。该项目将回答以下关键问题：河岸系统中耦合的人类和生态过程；河岸系统对压力的反应；以及如何评估跨越阈值。这项研究将开发模拟河岸走廊社会生态相互作用的新技术，这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，利用以科学为基础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.