Doctoral Dissertation Research: Harvesting Practices, Ecosystem Degradation, and Artifical Selection of Economically Viable Forest Resources

博士论文研究：采伐实践、生态系统退化和经济上可行的森林资源的人工选择

• 批准号: 1455814
• 负责人: Nigel Smith
• 金额: $ 0.95万
• 依托单位: University of Florida
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-03-01 至 2016-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1455814&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Harvesting; Practices

This doctoral dissertation research project will focus on the complex interactions between harvesting practices of forest resources and changes in the quality and availability of the resource, which may engender changes to the ways in which the resource is harvested. The project will focus on the impact of destructive harvesting of a fruit-bearing tree by felling the tree, a practice through which the destruction of female fruit-bearing trees from wild stands has led to overall population declines and unbalanced sex ratios. The project will analyze the extent and distribution of the degradation of trees and the ecosystem they occupy, and it will determine whether harvesting practices constitute an artificial selection process that favors economically inferior fruit traits. The project will assess the potential value of new remote sensing techniques for the analysis of land-cover degradation, thereby improving more general capabilities for environmental monitoring. It will provide new insights into the role of harvest-based artificial selection on underutilized crops, which will expand knowledge of this general topic beyond its current focus on fishing and hunting and enhance general understanding of natural resource management, ethnobotany, and historical ecology. Project findings will provide new insights regarding conservation and development in the study area and in many other locales, including those in the U.S., where resource extraction practices are being reconsidered in order to identify economically and environmentally sustainable practices. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.The doctoral student undertaking this project will focus his attention on the harvesting of Mauritia flexuosa (Mauritia palm), which is economically and nutritionally important to residents of the Peruvian Amazon. The study will focus on TWO research questions: (1) What is the extent and distribution of Mauritia palm swamp degradation from unsustainable harvesting? (2) Do these extractive pressures lead to an artificial selection in Mauritia flexuosa? The student hypothesizes that the spatial distribution of resource and ecosystem degradation can be determined by the persistence of declines in the interannual Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). As populations decline from overharvesting, a correlating drop in NDVI is expected. Spatial statistics will be used to map hotspots of degradation, and the results will be verified through field surveys. The student also hypothesizes that ecosystem degradation is decreasing the frequency of desirable phenotypes in Mauritia flexuosa. The relationship between the expression of these traits and the level of degradation will be analyzed to ascertain whether destructive harvest practices are shaping phenotypic expression through a process of artificial selection.

本博士论文研究项目将侧重于森林资源的采伐实践与资源质量和可用性变化之间的复杂相互作用，这可能会导致资源采伐方式的变化。 该项目将侧重于通过砍伐果树来破坏性收获果树的影响，这种做法是通过砍伐野生林中的雌性果树导致总体人口下降和性别比例失衡。 该项目将分析树木退化的程度和分布以及它们所占据的生态系统，并将确定收获做法是否构成有利于经济上低劣的水果性状的人工选择过程。 该项目将评估新的遥感技术对分析土地覆盖物退化的潜在价值，从而提高环境监测的一般能力。 它将提供新的见解收获为基础的人工选择对未充分利用的作物的作用，这将扩大这个一般性主题的知识超越其目前的重点是捕鱼和狩猎，并加强对自然资源管理，民族植物学和历史生态学的一般理解。 项目研究结果将为研究区域和许多其他地区的保护和发展提供新的见解，包括美国，这些国家正在重新考虑资源开采做法，以确定经济和环境上可持续的做法。 作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将为有前途的学生提供支持，使其能够建立强大的独立研究事业。承担该项目的博士生将专注于对秘鲁亚马逊地区居民具有重要经济和营养价值的棕榈树的收获。 本研究将集中于两个研究问题：（1）不可持续采伐导致的棕榈沼泽退化的程度和分布情况？ (2)这些萃取压力是否导致了对曲叶藓的人工选择？ 该学生假设资源和生态系统退化的空间分布可以通过年际归一化植被指数（NDVI）持续下降来确定。 随着过度捕捞导致种群数量下降，预计归一化植被指数也会相应下降。 将利用空间统计数据绘制退化热点地图，并通过实地调查核实结果。 该学生还假设生态系统的退化正在降低曲叶中理想表型的频率。 将分析这些性状的表达与退化水平之间的关系，以确定破坏性的收获做法是否通过人工选择过程塑造表型表达。