Collaborative Research: Disturbance and productivity as drivers of plant-pollinator diversity and function across scales

尽管野火在自然生态系统中具有重要意义，但生态学家和土地管理者都没有充分了解野火如何影响生产力变化的自然景观中的生物多样性和生态系统服务。在这个合作项目中，三位早期的研究人员将整合实地采样、实验和建模，以了解野火如何影响落基山脉北部的植物传粉者网络。该研究将把当地植物传粉者的动态扩展到生产力梯度的区域尺度，并将利用30年的野火记录来调查比短期实验可能更长时间的动态。广泛的空间分析与更长的时间记录相结合，将为野火如何在复杂的景观中塑造生物多样性和重要的生态系统服务提供独特的见解。每年花费数十亿美元用于扑灭野火，以保护易发生火灾的地区的人类社会生计。同时，大量投资用于恢复火灾，却没有清楚地了解它如何影响生态相互作用及其提供的基本生态系统服务。该项目的研究结果将直接影响土地管理政策。研究人员将与管理者密切合作，制定和实施可行的森林管理方案，以优化复杂环境梯度下的生物多样性和生态系统功能。计划举办火灾生态学和零模型课程、蒙大拿森林恢复委员会的特别会议以及霍帕山土著科学研究员的指导，以汇集生态学、管理、政策和土著文化方面的不同观点。学生和一名博士后研究员将参与研究，并与政府机构、土地管理者和公众进行联系。总之，这个跨学科的团队准备在生态和社会的界面上为解决一些最紧迫的环境问题建立至关重要的关系。该项目由人口与社区生态项目和刺激竞争研究实验项目办公室（EPSCoR）共同资助。

Despite the importance of wildfires in natural ecosystems, neither ecologists nor land managers fully understand how wildfire shapes biodiversity and ecosystem services across natural landscapes that vary in productivity. In this collaborative project, three early-career investigators will integrate field sampling, experiments, and modeling to understand how wildfires influence plant-pollinator networks in the Northern Rocky Mountains. The study will extend local plant-pollinator dynamics to regional scales across a productivity gradient, and will leverage a 30-year record of wildfires to investigate dynamics over longer periods than are possible using short-term experiments. The combination of broad spatial analyses with longer temporal records will provide unique insights into how wildfire shapes biodiversity and important ecosystem services across complex landscapes. Billions of dollars are spent annually to suppress wildfires to protect the livelihoods of human societies within fire-prone landscapes. Simultaneously, huge investments are devoted to restoring fire without clear understanding of how it influences ecological interactions and the essential ecosystem services they provide. Results from this project will directly inform land management policy. The researchers will work closely with managers to develop and implement feasible forest management programs to optimize biodiversity and ecosystem function across complex environmental gradients. Courses in fire ecology and null models, a special session of the Montana Forest Restoration Committee, and mentorship of Hopa Mountain Native Science Fellows are planned in order to bring together diverse perspectives in ecology, management, policy, and native cultures. Students and a post-doctoral researcher will be involved in both research and outreach with government agencies, land managers, and the public. Together, this interdisciplinary team is poised to build relationships critical for solving some of the most pressing environmental issues at the interface of ecology and society.This project is jointly funded by the Population and Community Ecology Program and the Office of the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).