CNH-L: Assessing the Potential for Climate Change and Forest Insects to Drive Land-Use Regime Shifts

气候变化和森林昆虫对森林生态系统产生重大影响，这些因素也对土地使用决策产生重大影响，对森林的间接影响至少与直接影响一样大。 可持续森林管理的一个科学前沿，正在更好地了解这些过程和土地变化的驱动因素，特别是确定可能引发重大土地使用变化的因素。该项目将利用一个计算机模拟模型来应对这一挑战，模拟不断变化的土地使用决定和森林昆虫爆发如何相互影响。 模拟将在不断变化的气候和新兴的木质生物质能源市场的背景下进行。 研究区域将是新英格兰，这是人口稠密，高度森林，并有破坏性的森林害虫。 这项研究将利用访谈和调查来研究土地所有者和机构土地管理者，以此作为土地使用决策的计算机模拟的基础，该决策将与森林过程的模拟，包括昆虫动态相联系。 将对这些相互作用的模式进行审查，以确定生态系统服务生产的其他结果。 这些模型的结果将被纳入一套决策支持工具，以帮助土地所有者作出知情的土地使用决策，研究将审查气候变化和虫害如何影响土地使用，并将量化这些过程对森林景观的个别、总体和互动影响。新兴的木质生物质能源市场，虫害和气候变化对森林土地使用决策的相互影响将得到解决。该研究将研究（1）气候变化和昆虫动态是否以及如何通过改变人类决策来改变新英格兰的土地使用制度;（2）人类决策的这些改变如何影响森林生态系统和选择的生态系统服务的流动;以及（3）这些生态系统变化如何反过来影响土地所有者。为了实现这些目标，研究人员将采用三个方面的方法：（1）社会科学数据收集，包括调查和有针对性的结构化访谈，以了解新英格兰的私人土地所有者如何看待气候变化和昆虫，以及这些看法如何影响他们的土地使用;（2）基于代理人的模拟;以及（3）区域尺度的森林模拟，量化森林结构、碳和物种组成的变化。代表人类系统的基于代理的模型和代表自然系统的森林模拟之间的耦合将是动态的，以捕捉从两者之间的复杂反馈中出现的特定模式。在这个框架中，复杂系统的宏观性质-即，土地使用制度-产生于代理人之间的低层次互动。研究还包括对更广泛的影响战略的有效性进行比较评估。

Climate change and forest insects have significant impacts on forest ecosystems and these factors also strongly influence land-use decision-making, with indirect forest impacts at least as significant as the direct impacts. A scientific frontier in sustainable forest management, is developing a better understanding of these processes and drivers of land change, especially identification of factors that can trigger major land-use shifts. This project will address this challenge using a computer simulation model of how changing land-use decisions and forest insect outbreaks affect each other. The simulation will be set within the context of a changing climate and emerging energy markets for woody biomass. The study region will be New England, which is densely populated, highly forested, and has damaging forest insect pests. The research will use interviews and a survey to study land owners and institutional land managers as a basis for a computer simulation of land use decision making that will be linked to a simulation of forest processes, including insect dynamics. The interacting models will be examined for alternative outcomes in the production of ecosystem services. The outputs from these models will be integrated into a portfolio of decision support tools designed to help landowners make informed land-use decisions.The research will examine how climate change and insect infestations affect land-use, and it will quantify the individual, aggregate, and interactive impacts of these processes on forest landscapes. The interacting influences of emerging woody biomass energy markets, insect infestations, and climate change on forest land-use decisions will be addressed. The study will examine (1) whether and how climate change and insect dynamics are shifting land-use regimes in New England by altering human decision-making; (2) how these alterations in human decisions may affect forest ecosystems and the flow of select ecosystem services; and (3) how, in turn, these ecosystem changes affect landowners. To achieve these goals, the researchers will employ a three-faceted approach: (1) social science data collection including surveys, and targeted structured interviews to understand how private landowners in New England perceive climate change and insect and how these perceptions are influencing their land us; (2) agent-based simulations; and (3) regional-scale forest simulations that quantify changes in forest structure, carbon, and species composition. The coupling between the agent-based model representing the human system and the forest simulation representing the natural system will be dynamic in order to capture the specific patterns that emerge from the complex feedbacks between the two. In this framework, the macroscopic properties of complex systems - i.e., land-use regimes - emerge from lower-level interactions among agents. The research also includes a comparative assessment of the effectiveness of the broader impact strategy.