Doctoral Dissertation Research: Impacts of Tropical Forest Degradation on Carbon Stocks, Habitat Structure, and Avifauna

摘要：本博士论文将研究森林因火灾和伐木而退化对碳储量、栖息地结构和鸟类动物群落的影响。由于传统实地方法的抽样限制，人们对这些趋势的长期后果仍然知之甚少。该项目将采用创新方法，将声学和激光雷达遥感与实地和卫星观测相结合，以便在以前无法获得的空间和时间尺度上表征退化影响。激光雷达和声学遥感之间的协同作用具有变革性的潜力，可以通过促进在较长时间内同时进行多次采样来改变生物多样性监测的方式。这一研究项目的成果将有助于更全面地了解热带森林的快速变化动态，从而有助于应对减少生物量和生物多样性退化的全球挑战。该项目包括一个强大的教育组成部分，通过博士生发起的学徒计划，将关键的计算和遥感技能传授给本科科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）专业的学生。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项将为有前途的学生提供支持，使他们能够建立强大的独立研究事业。巴西亚马逊盆地是世界上生物多样性最丰富的地区之一，40多年来，由于农业砍伐、火灾和伐木活动，森林遭到了严重破坏。了解森林退化对生物多样性的影响以及退化森林的长期生境适宜性，对于努力减少或尽量减少对这些环境敏感地区的进一步损害至关重要。获得本奖项的博士论文研究将集中在三个核心问题上：(1)火灾和伐木如何影响碳储量和栖息地结构？(2)采伐和火灾后碳损失的大小和碳恢复的轨迹是什么？(3)鸟类群落如何应对火灾和伐木，避免退化对生物多样性的益处有何推断？学生将通过分析卫星图像的时间序列来回答这些问题，以重建森林退化和恢复的历史，这些历史反映在当代激光雷达、森林清查数据和生物声学记录中。她将整合声学信号处理和贝叶斯分层占用模型来表征受影响森林地区的生物量和生物多样性分布。

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATIONGEOGRAPHY SPATIAL SCIENCES (GSS) PROGRAMABSTRACTThis doctoral dissertation research will investigate how forest degradation from fire and logging impacts carbon stocks, habitat structure, and avifaunal communities across the landscape. The long-term consequences of these trends remain poorly understood because of the sampling limitations of traditional field-based methods. This project will use innovative methods that combine acoustic and LiDAR remote sensing with field-based and satellite observations in order to characterize degradation impacts over previously unavailable spatial and temporal scales. The synergy between LiDAR and acoustic remote sensing has the transformative potential to revamp the way biodiversity is monitored by facilitating simultaneous multiple sampling over extended temporal periods. Outcomes from this research project will be useful in providing a more holistic understanding of the rapidly changing dynamics of tropical forests that will help meet the global challenges of reducing biomass and biodiversity degradation. The project includes a strong educational component that will facilitate the transfer of key computational and remote sensing skills to undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students through an apprenticeship program initiated by the doctoral student. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.In the Amazon Basin of Brazil, one of the most biologically diverse regions of the world, forests have been heavily altered by over four decades of deforestation for agriculture, fire and logging activities. Understanding the impacts to biodiversity from forest degradation and the long-term habitat suitability of degraded forests is critical for efforts to reduce or minimize further damage to these environmentally sensitive areas. The doctoral student whose dissertation research will be supported by this award will focus on three core questions: (1) How does fire and logging impact carbon stocks and habitat structure? (2) What are the magnitudes of carbon losses and trajectories of carbon recovery following logging and fire activities? (3) How do avian communities respond to fire and logging, and what can be inferred about the biodiversity benefits of avoided degradation? The student will answer these questions by analyzing a time-series of satellite imagery to reconstruct the history of forest degradation and recovery that are reflected in contemporary LiDAR, forest inventory data, and bioacoustic recordings. She will integrate acoustic signal processing and Bayesian hierarchical occupancy modeling to characterize the distribution of biomass and biodiversity across the impacted forested areas.