EAPSI: Does Clay Content in Soil Exacerbate the Effects of Climate Change in Arid Ecosystems?

EAPSI：土壤中的粘土含量是否会加剧气候变化对干旱生态系统的影响？

• 批准号: 1613942
• 负责人: Hannah Yokum
• 金额: $ 0.54万
• 依托单位: Yokum Hannah E
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-06-01 至 2017-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1613942&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAPSI; Does; Clay; Content; Soil

Climate change is one of the leading factors behind the range expansion or contraction of species. Through climate models, researchers are able to predict temperature change and rainfall patterns on a local scale. However, to determine what effect these changes will have on plant communities, there needs to be a connection between climate models and in situ plant response variables. The combination of both create species distribution models. In dryland regions of the world where species are currently water-limited, predictive species distribution models are critical to understanding the survival of indigenous plant species in the changing climate. This research will provide information about soil-water-plant relationships, which will be incorporated into predictive models to assess landscape changes in the presence of global climate change. Research will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. John Morgan from La Trobe University in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.The main question of this research project is: does high clay content in soil increase woody shrub mortality through plant-water stress. This project involves two research aims: 1) spatial sampling of remotely-sensed data, and 2) corresponding field studies. In the field, clay content in critical soil layers, stem water potential of shrubs, soil infiltration, and soil bulk density will be measured. Correlations will be formed between clay content and plant-water stress which will be compared to other dryland regions in the western United States. These data will be added to, and overlayed with, remote sensing images of the area. These results will show how climate change, moderated through the effects of soil clay content, may affect community assemblage in two different dryland ecosystems. These data will inform climate and water models in their prediction for species at risk. Several studies have predicted that shrub distributions will increase with climate change. If shrub increase or decline is linked to precipitation regimes through clay content, inclusive models will be better able to predict areas where shrubs are threatened. This award under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the Australian Academy of Science.

气候变化是物种分布范围扩大或缩小的主要因素之一。通过气候模型，研究人员能够预测局部范围内的温度变化和降雨模式。然而，为了确定这些变化将对植物群落产生什么影响，需要在气候模型和原位植物响应变量之间建立联系。两者的结合创造了物种分布模型。在世界干旱地区，物种目前水分有限，预测物种分布模型对于了解当地植物物种在不断变化的气候中的生存至关重要。这项研究将提供有关土壤-水-植物关系的信息，这些信息将被纳入预测模型，以评估全球气候变化情况下的景观变化。研究将与澳大利亚维多利亚墨尔本拉筹伯大学的约翰·摩根博士合作进行。该研究项目的主要问题是：土壤中高粘土含量是否会通过植物水分胁迫增加木本灌木的死亡率。本计画包含两个研究目标：1）遥感资料之空间取样，及2）相关之实地研究。在田间，将测量临界土层中的粘粒含量、灌木的茎水势、土壤渗透率和土壤容重。将形成粘土含量和植物水分胁迫之间的相关性，并将其与美国西部其他旱地地区进行比较。这些数据将被添加到该地区的遥感图像中并与之叠加。这些结果将表明，通过土壤粘粒含量的影响而缓和的气候变化如何影响两种不同旱地生态系统的群落组合。这些数据将为气候和水模型预测面临风险的物种提供信息。一些研究预测，灌木的分布将随着气候变化而增加。如果灌木的增加或减少通过粘土含量与降水制度联系起来，包容性模型将能够更好地预测灌木受到威胁的地区。东亚和太平洋夏季研究所计划下的这个奖项支持美国研究生的夏季研究，由NSF和澳大利亚科学院共同资助。