LTREB: Understanding controls on state-tranisition on Yellowstone's northern range

LTREB：了解黄石公园北部山脉状态转换的控制

• 批准号: 1147369
• 负责人: N. Thompson Hobbs
• 金额: $ 45万
• 依托单位: Colorado State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1147369&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: LTREB; Understanding; controls; state; tranisition

The extirpation and subsequent reintroduction of the gray wolf to Yellowstone National Park has created a rare opportunity to understand how predators can change ecosystems. Wolves were extirpated from Yellowstone during the early twentieth century. Their loss led to a dramatic increase in the number of elk, which is believed to have subsequently caused substantial changes in vegetation along the park?s network of streams. Wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone in 1995. It was hypothesized that the reintroduction of wolves would cause a rapid restoration of riparian communities due to their effects on elk numbers and behavior. A 10-year experiment manipulating herbivory and water availability has thus far found little support for the idea that wolves have changed the ecosystem by releasing plants from herbivory by elk. The abundance of elk in the Park has only recently declined to levels that were typical prior to the extirpation of wolves. Thus, it is plausible that there has not been sufficient time for vegetation to respond to reduced elk density resulting from wolf reintroduction. The 10-year experiment will be continued to better understand how climate, hydrology, and herbivory may control riparian ecosystems. The manipulative experiment will be supplemented with landscape-scale observations to provide a larger scale context in which to understand how wolves, elk, bison and weather interact to determine the state of the ecosystem. The demonstrated interest of citizens in the unfolding story of wolves in Yellowstone assures that research findings will be communicated in the popular media. In addition, the research team will collaborate with Yellowstone National Park staff to offer citizen education to three million visitors to the park through interpretive programs. Additional broader impacts will result from graduate and undergraduate student training, and because data from this long term study will be made easily available to the scientific community.

灰狼的灭绝和随后重新引入黄石国家公园，为了解捕食者如何改变生态系统创造了难得的机会。20世纪初，黄石公园里的狼被灭绝了。它们的消失导致了麋鹿数量的急剧增加，这被认为随后导致了S公园溪流网络沿线的植被发生了实质性变化。1995年，狼群被重新引入黄石公园。据推测，重新引入狼将导致河岸群落的迅速恢复，因为它们对麋鹿的数量和行为产生了影响。到目前为止，一项为期10年的控制食草性和水可获得性的实验几乎没有发现支持这样的观点，即狼通过让麋鹿将植物从草食中释放出来而改变了生态系统。公园里的麋鹿数量直到最近才下降到狼灭绝之前的典型水平。因此，植被没有足够的时间来应对因重新引入狼而导致的麋鹿密度下降，这是有道理的。这项为期10年的实验将继续下去，以更好地了解气候、水文和草食可能如何控制河岸生态系统。操纵性实验将辅之以景观尺度的观察，以提供更大规模的背景，在其中了解狼、麋鹿、野牛和天气如何相互作用，以确定生态系统的状态。市民对黄石公园狼的故事表现出的兴趣确保了研究结果将在大众媒体上传播。此外，研究小组将与黄石国家公园的工作人员合作，通过解说项目为公园的300万游客提供公民教育。其他更广泛的影响将来自研究生和本科生的培训，因为这项长期研究的数据将很容易提供给科学界。