Collaborative Research: NSFGEO-NERC: Aeolian dust responses to regional ecosystem change

全球旱地的风蚀和粉尘排放影响生态系统健康、农业生产和粮食安全、人类健康和气候。尽管对风蚀和粉尘排放如何发生以及它们如何影响地球大气层和人口进行了广泛的研究，但人们对这些过程在何处，何时以及为什么在不同的生态系统中发生，或者地球生态系统的变化如何影响它们在不同地点的速率所知甚少。了解这些相互作用对于土地管理者确定风蚀和扬尘可能是一个问题并采取行动长期可持续地管理农业和生态系统非常重要。这项研究将研究由于人类干扰，干旱，火灾和入侵植物物种而在北美发生的不同类型的生态系统变化如何影响风蚀和粉尘排放率。这项研究将促进美国和英国研究人员之间的国际合作，作为NSF/GEO-UK NERC项目的一部分。该研究将产生新的信息，支持北美旱地的管理，并将为K-12学生编写教材，并为代表性不足的本科生和研究生提供科学培训，研究将确定风蚀粉尘排放对北美区域生态系统变化的反应，这是由于三种扰动机制：1）与能源有关的许多离散的、小规模（10公顷）的、突然的生态系统变化（石油和天然气）开发; 2）离散、大规模（1000公顷），与火灾和生态反馈有关的突然生态系统变化，促进了草类入侵和改变了火风蚀状况;（3）荒漠草原灌木持续入侵引起的扩散性、大规模（1000公顷）、普遍的生态系统变化。将使用由遥感和大规模标准化生态数据集驱动的新的风成（风力驱动）沉积物输运模型来解决区域生态系统变化对风蚀和粉尘排放的影响。这些模型将使用来自美国国家风蚀研究网络站点的数据进行校准，然后应用于探索整个北美的灰尘排放模式。国家生态数据集将被用来分析的驱动程序和解释沙尘排放响应区域生态系统的变化，在整个干扰制度。这项研究将大大提高我们对沙尘循环和生态系统变化的人为驱动因素之间的耦合的理解。该项目由地貌学和土地利用动力学计划、生态系统科学计划和激励竞争性研究的既定计划（EPSCoR）共同资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

Wind erosion and dust emissions from global drylands impact ecosystem health, agricultural production and food security, human health and climate. Despite extensive study of how wind erosion and dust emission occur, and how they affect Earth's atmosphere and human populations, little is known about where, when, and why the processes take place across different ecosystems, or how changes to Earth's ecosystems influence their rates at different locations over time. Understanding these interactions is important for land managers to identify where wind erosion and blowing dust may be a problem and act to sustainably manage agriculture and ecosystems over the long term. This research will examine how different types of ecosystem change occurring across North America due to human disturbances, drought, fire and invasive plant species impact rates of wind erosion and dust emission. The research will promote international collaboration among researchers in the United States and United Kingdom as part of a NSF/GEO-UK NERC project. It will produce new information that supports management of North American drylands and will generate educational materials for K-12 students and provide scientific training to underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students.The research will establish wind erosion dust emission responses to regional ecosystem changes across North America due to three disturbance regimes: 1) numerous discrete, small scale (10 ha), abrupt ecosystem changes associated with energy (oil and gas) development; 2) discrete, large scale (1000 ha), abrupt ecosystem change associated with fire and ecological feedbacks that promote invasive grasses and altered fire-wind erosion regimes; and 3) diffuse, large scale (1000 ha), pervasive ecosystem changes associated with sustained shrub invasion of desert grasslands. New aeolian (wind-driven) sediment transport models driven by remote-sensing and broad-scale standardized ecological datasets will be used to resolve the impacts of the regional ecosystem changes on wind erosion and dust emission. The models will be calibrated using data from US National Wind Erosion Research Network sites, then applied to explore patterns of dust emission across North America. National ecological datasets will be used to analyze the drivers and interpret dust emission responses to regional ecosystem changes across the disturbance regimes. The research will significantly improve our understanding of the coupling between the dust cycle and anthropogenic drivers of ecosystem change. This project is jointly funded by the Geomorphology and Land-use Dynamics Program, the Ecosystem Science Program, and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).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.