RAPID: Studying the Effects of Disturbance in a Complex Socioecological System

RAPID：研究复杂社会生态系统中的干扰影响

• 批准号: 1600221
• 负责人: Mark Moritz
• 金额: $ 1.77万
• 依托单位: Ohio State University
• 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: 2015-12-01 至 2016-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1600221&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Studying; Effects; Disturbance; Complex

This research asks a significant scientific and humanitarian question: what happens when a smoothly functioning and sustainable socio-ecological system is disturbed by refugees from an external political crisis? The question is timely as well as scientifically important. A valuable opportunity to investigate it on a small and thus manageable research scale is provided by the crisis in Northeast Nigeria. In the last two years, thousands of pastoralists have fled the insecurity caused by Boko Haram in Nigeria and moved with their livestock to the Logone Floodplain in the Far North Region of Cameroon. In earlier research, the researchers, Dr. Mark Moritz (Ohio State University) and his team, found that the mobile pastoralists who were already using the Logone region were sustainably managing these grazing resources without conflict. They had developed a decentralized and flexible system in which access was open to all, regardless of ethnicity, nationality, seniority, or socioeconomic status. This baseline research plus the disturbance provided by the refugee newcomers gives the researchers a rare opportunity to see how resilient a previously documented system is to an extreme perturbation. Will the ethos of open access survive when the influx of newcomers doubles the population the system must support?Cumulatively, the human, animal, and natural elements of the Logone plain comprise a complex adaptive system in which, even though there is no central authority, individual decision-making results in an ideal free distribution of grazing pressure over the available grazing resources. Now the researchers will look to see if there is still an ideal free distribution of pastoralists; if the influx of refugee pastoralists has affected the ethos and practice of open access; and what other changes the influx has brought about. They will use GPS/GIS technology to map the locations of pastoralist camps; document at intervals the current distribution of vegetative resources by using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, a remotely sensed vegetative index that is refreshed frequently; document transhumance orbits to look for changes; and interview both Nigerian and Cameroonian pastoralists about their strategies. The urgency of this project, and hence the need for a RAPID award, is that at this particular moment the pastoral system is under the greatest stress, which allows the researchers to study in real time a socio-ecological system as it adapts or collapses.

这项研究提出了一个重大的科学和人道主义问题：当外部政治危机中的难民打扰一个平稳运转且可持续的社会生态系统时会发生什么？这个问题及时也很重要。 尼日利亚东北部的危机提供了一个宝贵的机会，可以在较小的且可管理的研究范围内进行调查。在过去的两年中，成千上万的牧民逃离了尼日利亚Boko Haram引起的不安全感，并带着牲畜搬到了喀麦隆远北部地区的Logone洪泛区。在较早的研究中，研究人员马克·莫里茨（Mark Moritz）（俄亥俄州立大学）和他的团队发现，已经使用Logone地区的移动牧民正在可持续地管理这些放牧的资源而没有冲突。他们开发了一个分散且灵活的系统，在该系统中，无论种族，国籍，资历或社会经济地位如何，都可以向所有人开放。这项基线研究以及难民新移民提供的干扰为研究人员提供了一个难得的机会，可以查看以前记录的系统对极端扰动的弹性。当新移民的涌入人口增加一倍时，该系统必须支持的人的涌入能力会累积吗？logone平原的人类，动物和自然元素都包含一个复杂的自适应系统，即使没有中央政府，个人决策也会导致理想的自由分布在可用的抓地力资源上的理想自由分布。现在，研究人员将寻求查看牧民是否仍然有理想的自由分发。如果难民牧民的涌入影响了公开通道的精神和实践；以及涌入带来的其他变化。他们将使用GPS/GIS技术来绘制牧民营地的位置；通过使用归一化差异指数的植被资源的当前分布的文档，这是一种经常刷新的远程感知的营养指数；记录射击轨道以寻找更改；并采访了尼日利亚和喀麦隆牧民的策略。该项目的紧迫性，因此需要快速奖励，是在这个特定的时刻，牧师制度承受着最大的压力，这使研究人员可以实时研究社会生态系统，以适应或崩溃。