Collaborative Research: Do Microenvironments Govern Macroecology?

合作研究：微环境支配宏观生态吗？

• 批准号: 1065853
• 负责人: Alexander Hall
• 金额: $ 35.88万
• 依托单位: University of California-Los Angeles
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-06-01 至 2016-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1065853&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Do; Microenvironments; Govern

How environmental conditions vary locally in mountainous regions of the western United States and how rapid climate change determine the survival and migration rates of trees will be studied by an interdisciplinary team of climate scientists, ecologists, hydrologists and plant geographers. Current climate data and models are too coarse to accurately predict the finer scale spatial variation that enables plant communities to exist and persist. Moreover, there is scant knowledge of how colonization by tree seedlings and tree growth differ among local climates and how that might influence tree population dynamics at the regional scale. This project couples field studies of local climate, tree establishment and tree growth with regional climate modeling and models that depict spatial processes of plant population and fire dynamics. This project will bridge environmental and plant processes from the local scale of individual trees to whole tree populations at the regional level. Models based on field data and theory will predict future changes in the distribution and abundance of important oak and pine trees in California, a topographically complex and ecologically diverse region. Understanding and forecasting climate change effects on tree species is important, given the role of forests in carbon cycling, timber production, water resources and biodiversity. This project aims to revise extinction risk due to climate change, refine understanding of the ability of trees to migrate and track rapid changes, and improve predictions of how economically important trees will respond to climate change and associated changes in wildfire risk. At least three Doctoral students and three Post-Doctoral scholars will be trained to help prepare the next generation of scientists to tackle future challenges. The project also involves governmental and other non-university researchers to strengthen linkages to public and private land managers, policy makers and non-Government organizations. This will ensure that results will be translated to better adaptive management of public and private forest resources.

由气候科学家、生态学家、水文学家和植物地理学家组成的跨学科团队将研究美国西部山区的环境条件如何变化，以及气候变化的速度如何决定树木的生存和迁移率。当前的气候数据和模型过于粗糙，无法准确预测使植物群落存在和持续的更精细尺度的空间变化。此外，人们对当地气候下树苗的定殖和树木生长有何不同以及这如何影响区域范围内的树木种群动态知之甚少。该项目将当地气候、树木生长和树木生长的实地研究与描述植物种群空间过程和火灾动态的区域气候模型和模型结合起来。 该项目将在环境和植物过程中架起桥梁，从当地的单株树木到区域层面的整个树木种群。基于实地数据和理论的模型将预测加利福尼亚州这个地形复杂且生态多样化的地区重要橡树和松树的分布和丰度的未来变化。鉴于森林在碳循环、木材生产、水资源和生物多样性中的作用，了解和预测气候变化对树种的影响非常重要。该项目旨在修正气候变化导致的灭绝风险，加深对树木迁徙和跟踪快速变化能力的了解，并改进对经济上重要的树木如何应对气候变化和野火风险相关变化的预测。至少三名博士生和三名博士后学者将接受培训，以帮助下一代科学家应对未来的挑战。该项目还涉及政府和其他非大学研究人员，以加强与公共和私人土地管理者、政策制定者和非政府组织的联系。 这将确保成果转化为对公共和私人森林资源进行更好的适应性管理。