RAPID: Using open-source ecology to examine tree physiological response and mortality across species during the 2012 United States drought

RAPID：利用开源生态学检查 2012 年美国干旱期间各物种的树木生理反应和死亡率

• 批准号: 1249256
• 负责人: Christopher Field
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: Carnegie Institution of Washington
• 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: 2012-08-01 至 2015-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1249256&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Using; open; source; ecology

This exploratory project examines how drought affects tree death across the continental United States. Research on drought and tree mortality is typically carried out at particular locations and on few species, in part because major droughts at the regional scale are relatively rare, hard to anticipate and hard to study. In contrast, this project uses a uniquely collaborative approach, referred to as open-source ecology, in order to develop a broader perspective of tree vulnerability to water stress based on the on-going major western regional drought of 2012. The project will document the physiological status, growth and annual mortality of trees across a number of different locations and species, leveraging data from national monitoring programs, such as the Forest Inventory and Analysis and NEON, and involving many institutions, investigators and students, to demonstrate how a coordinated continental measurement program could be fully implemented in the future. Drought-induced tree mortality is an important but poorly understood process that leads to major uncertainties regarding the impacts of climate change on biodiversity, ecological communities, and the terrestrial carbon cycle. For example, current models of the carbon cycle either assume long-term background rates of mortality, or that mortality can be modeled in response to disturbances like fire, not in response to particular stressors that are well known to be important. In fact, no predictive model of drought-driven tree death across species or ecosystems currently exists. To carry out this pilot, more than 45 scientists have committed to work with many undergraduate and graduate students on field and lab measurements. A kick-off meeting at the 2012 Ecological Society of America Meeting will galvanize these commitments and enable recruitment of a more diverse national student group through the ESA program, Strategies for Ecology Education, Diversity and Sustainability. The project will also lay the foundation for national and potentially international coordination across disciplines beyond ecology, including atmospheric modeling, physiology, hydrology, remote sensing, and biogeochemistry. Finally, broad support from multiple communities assembled by the project creates a unique intellectual forum for a shared, collaborative, and open approach to developing the understanding and tools necessary to predict and manage drought impacts on forest ecosystems.

这个探索性的项目研究了干旱如何影响美国大陆的树木死亡。关于干旱和树木死亡率的研究通常是在特定地点和少数物种上进行的，部分原因是区域范围的重大干旱相对罕见，难以预测，也难以研究。相比之下，该项目使用了一种独特的协作方法，称为开源生态学，以基于2012年正在进行的西部地区重大干旱，开发更广泛的树木对水分胁迫的脆弱性。 该项目将记录许多不同地点和物种的树木的生理状态、生长和年死亡率，利用来自国家监测方案的数据，如森林清查和分析和氖，并涉及许多机构、调查人员和学生，以展示如何在未来全面实施协调的大陆测量方案。干旱引起的树木死亡是一个重要的，但知之甚少的过程，导致气候变化对生物多样性，生态群落和陆地碳循环的影响的重大不确定性。 例如，目前的碳循环模型要么假设了长期的背景死亡率，要么假设死亡率可以根据火灾等干扰因素来建模，而不是根据众所周知的重要压力因素来建模。事实上，目前还不存在跨物种或生态系统的干旱导致树木死亡的预测模型。为了进行这项试验，超过45名科学家承诺与许多本科生和研究生合作进行实地和实验室测量。2012年美国生态学会会议的启动会议将激发这些承诺，并通过欧空局计划，生态教育，多样性和可持续性战略，招募更多样化的国家学生团体。该项目还将为生态学以外的跨学科的国家和潜在的国际协调奠定基础，包括大气建模，生理学，水文学，遥感和地球化学。最后，该项目汇集了来自多个社区的广泛支持，创造了一个独特的知识论坛，以一种共享、协作和开放的方式来发展预测和管理干旱对森林生态系统影响所需的理解和工具。