CAREER: Life on the Edge: The Effects of Climate, Competition and History on Range Limits

职业：边缘生活：气候、竞争和历史对范围限制的影响

• 批准号: 1054012
• 负责人: Janneke Hille Ris Lambers
• 金额: $ 76.3万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-03-01 至 2017-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1054012&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Life; Edge; Effects; Climate

Why are coconut trees never found north of Florida while Christmas trees (i.e. balsam firs) never grow south of Pennsylvania? These species differ in their tolerance of climatic stressors like frost and drought, thereby limiting their distributions to an area termed the species "range". Despite a century of study, scientists are only beginning to understand which factors, including climate, influence the boundaries of these ranges. To address these fundamental gaps in our understanding, the investigator will utilize observational data, experiments and mathematical models to study current and future ranges of five tree species on Mt. Rainier, Washington. The project will assess how competition with other tree species interacts with climate to limit ranges for each tree species; determine whether the distributions of target tree species reflect past as opposed to current climates; and determine how quickly ranges of target tree species can shift in response to the rapid rates of climate change predicted for the Pacific Northwest.The broader impacts of the proposed research are threefold. The study species are economically valuable timber species, and dominate western Washington forests that provide ecosystem services such as water supply, habitat for endangered species and storage of carbon. Thus, the information gained from this research will be valuable to conservation biologists, land managers and policy makers planning for climate change. The investigator will develop a climate change curriculum for an introductory biology class at University of Washington (reaching 2000 undergraduates per year) and a high school course. A citizen science program at Mt. Rainier National Park will increase the general public's awareness of how climate change impacts the natural world.

为什么椰子树从来没有发现北部的佛罗里达，而圣诞树（即香脂冷杉）从来没有增长南部的宾夕法尼亚州？这些物种对霜冻和干旱等气候胁迫因素的耐受性不同，从而将它们的分布限制在称为物种“范围”的区域。尽管经过了世纪的研究，科学家们才刚刚开始了解哪些因素，包括气候，影响这些范围的边界。为了解决我们理解中的这些根本差距，研究人员将利用观测数据，实验和数学模型来研究山上五种树种的当前和未来范围。雷尼尔，华盛顿。该项目将评估与其他树种的竞争如何与气候相互作用，以限制每个树种的范围;确定目标树种的分布是否反映过去而不是当前的气候;并确定目标树种的范围如何快速变化，以应对太平洋西北部预测的快速气候变化。研究物种是经济上有价值的木材物种，并主导了西部华盛顿森林，提供生态系统服务，如供水，濒危物种的栖息地和碳储存。因此，从这项研究中获得的信息将是有价值的保护生物学家，土地管理者和政策制定者规划气候变化。研究人员将为华盛顿大学的生物学入门课程（每年有2000名本科生参加）和高中课程制定气候变化课程。一个公民科学计划在山。雷尼尔国家公园将提高公众对气候变化如何影响自然世界的认识。