RAPID: Quantifying the impact of a large, infrequent disturbance on landscape carbon balance: strengthening conceptual understanding of ecosystem carbon fluxes

热带森林受到严重风暴的影响，导致大树突然倒下。这些风暴是巨大的和不可预测的，所以很难理解它们的全部影响。该项目将研究最近在哥斯达黎加低地造成相当大破坏的灾难性风暴事件。倒下的树木的范围，以及这些树木中的碳含量，将通过在森林上空飞行探测器来测量，同时对地面上的森林结构进行一些基本测量。随后，从空中拍摄的照片将被分析，以产生倒下的树木和碳的测量。该项目将直接支持美国的研究生和本科生，本研究产生的所有数据将不受限制地公开提供。这项研究的结果将发表在开放获取的期刊上，或在可能的情况下以开放获取的方式发表。这项研究测试了关于扰动事件如何影响碳输入和输出的两个预测。该方法将研究哥斯达黎加拉塞尔瓦生物站最近一次灾难性风暴前后地面碳储存的变化。一架高解析度的遥感飞机将利用激光雷达（光探测和测距）技术测量倒下的树木。激光雷达是一种测量方法，通过用脉冲激光照射目标并用传感器测量反射脉冲来测量到目标的距离。这些测量将伴随着对倒下的树木的地面调查，以提供重要的额外信息。这场风暴发生在一个经过充分研究的野外观测站，该观测站具有推进森林碳循环概念理解所需的基础设施和基线测量，这是一个前所未有的研究机会。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Tropical forests are affected by severe windstorms that cause large trees to fall very suddenly. These storms are massive and unpredictable, so it has been difficult to understand their full impacts. This project will study a recent catastrophic storm event that caused considerable damage in the lowlands of Costa Rica. The extent of fallen trees, and the amount of carbon in those trees, will be measured by flying a detector over the forest while taking some basic measurements of forest structure on the ground. Later, the pictures taken from the air will be analyzed to produce a measurement of fallen trees and carbon. The project will directly support graduate and undergraduate students in the U.S. All of the data generated by this research will be made publicly available without restriction. The findings of this research will be published in open-access journals, or with an open access option, whenever possible.This research tests two predictions about how disturbance events influence carbon inputs and outputs. The approach will examine changes in above ground carbon stocks before and after a recent catastrophic storm at La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica. The measurement of fallen trees will be conducted by a very high resolution remote sensing aircraft using the LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technique. LIDAR is a surveying method that measures distance to a target by illuminating the target with pulsed laser light and measuring the reflected pulses with a sensor. These measurements will be accompanied by ground surveys of fallen trees to provide important additional information. The occurrence of this storm at a well-studied field station with the infrastructure and baseline measurements necessary to advance conceptual understanding of forest carbon cycling is an unprecedented research opportunity.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.