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

国家科学基础地理空间科学(GSS)进展这篇博士论文研究将调查火灾和伐木造成的森林退化如何影响整个景观的碳储量、栖息地结构和鸟类群落。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。该项目将使用创新的方法，将声学和激光雷达遥感与实地观测和卫星观测相结合，以确定以前无法获得的空间和时间尺度上的退化影响。激光雷达和声学遥感之间的协同作用具有改变生物多样性监测方式的潜力，它有助于在更长的时间段内同时进行多个采样。这一研究项目的成果将有助于更全面地了解迅速变化的热带森林动态，这将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部分，将促进通过博士生发起的学徒计划向本科科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)学生传授关键的计算和遥感技能。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项将提供支持，使有前途的学生能够建立强大的独立研究生涯。在巴西的亚马逊盆地，世界上生物多样性最丰富的地区之一，40多年来因农业、火灾和伐木活动而砍伐森林，森林已经被严重改变。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。博士生的论文研究将得到该奖项的支持，他将专注于三个核心问题：(1)火和伐木如何影响碳储量和栖息地结构？(2)伐木和火灾活动后碳损失的幅度和碳恢复的轨迹？(3)鸟类群落如何对火和伐木做出反应，以及如何推断避免退化对生物多样性的好处？学生将通过分析卫星图像的时间序列来回答这些问题，重建反映在当代激光雷达、森林调查数据和生物声音记录中的森林退化和恢复的历史。她将整合声信号处理和贝叶斯分层占用模型，以表征生物量和生物多样性在受影响的森林地区的分布。

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.