CNH-L: Adaptation, Mitigation, and Biophysical Feedbacks in the Changing Bonneville Salt Flats

【摘要】博纳维尔盐滩是犹他州西北部一个巨大的多年生盐田，变化迅速。该系统对雨、风、蒸发和地下水通量的变化很敏感，它是世界闻名的陆地速度赛车记录的诞生地。它还支持钾肥开采和其他娱乐活动。最近的环境变化限制了这些历史用途，土地管理者正在积极制定保护环境的方法，以便继续进行陆地速度比赛，同时仍然保持自然资源开采和生态系统功能的机会。该项目将密切关注自然环境与周围人口之间的联系；不断变化的环境如何影响有关维护和使用邦纳维尔盐滩的决策和政策变化；以及正在进行的人类活动和干预如何改变这一重要资源的状况。该项目将确定管理决策、利益相关者的看法和使用以及博纳维尔盐滩的自然生物物理和水文系统之间的联系。将盐滩作为一个耦合的自然和人类系统进行研究将有助于确定：环境、水文和微生物条件如何调节盐壳的溶解和降水；各利益相关者之间关系的性质以及他们维持博纳维尔盐滩特定条件的动机；随着时间的推移，盐滩对文化和土地利用的影响；以及人类活动、决策和缓解措施对生物物理系统的影响。该项目将量化环境变化的速率和特征，并评估生物物理变化与利益相关者社区之间的反馈。

ABSTRACTThe Bonneville Salt Flats is a vast perennial salt pan in northwest Utah that is changing rapidly. The system is sensitive to variations in rain, wind, evaporation, and groundwater flux, and it is known world-wide as the location where land-speed racing records are set. It has also supported potash mining and other recreational activities. Recent environmental changes are limiting these historic uses, and land managers are actively making decisions about ways to preserve this environment for the continuation of land-speed racing, while still maintaining opportunities for natural resource extraction and ecosystem function. This project will look closely at how the physical environment and the human population around it are linked; how the changing environment influences decisions and policy changes regarding the maintenance and use of the Bonneville Salt Flats; and how ongoing human activities and interventions are altering the conditions of this important resource.This project will identify the linkages among management decisions, stakeholder perception and use, and the natural biophysical and hydrological system of the Bonneville Salt Flats. Examining the salt flats as a coupled natural and human system will help determine: how environmental, hydrological, and microbiological conditions regulate the dissolution and precipitation of the salt crust; the nature of the relationships among various stakeholders and their motivations for maintaining specific conditions at the Bonneville Salt Flats; the influence of the salt flats on culture and land use over time; and the effects of human activities, decisions, and mitigation efforts on the biophysical system. This project will quantify rates and characteristics of environmental change and evaluate the feedbacks between the biophysical changes and the stakeholder communities.