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Doctoral Dissertation Research: Spatial Resilience in Forests Recovering from Fires

博士论文研究：火灾恢复森林的空间恢复能力

基本信息

批准号：
1901630
负责人：
Erica Smithwick
金额：
$ 1.8万
依托单位：
Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2019
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2019-06-15 至 2022-05-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1901630&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Doctoral Dissertation Research Spatial Resilience

项目摘要

The doctoral student will investigate how landscape-level processes support forest regeneration and resilience in forests that were severely burned. Specifically, the research will focus on the ways in which surviving trees interact with the landscape to provide external seed sources for a burned area's recovery. Recent studies used only a limited measurement of straight-line distance to nearest tree seed source, which does not fully consider scale, pattern, or interactions with local site suitability for area recovery. Consequently, there is a knowledge gap regarding an understanding of how a burned area's surrounding context in the landscape supports or reduces its recovery potential (spatial resilience). Project findings will contribute to the development of approaches that better account for landscape context in a world where wildfires are becoming more severe and occurring more frequently. Given these changes, land managers must make decisions about which burned areas need to be actively replanted following wildfire activity versus areas that exhibit higher natural spatial resilience. Prioritizing burned areas in the context of their position in the landscape could be fundamental to this decision-making. To aid with decision-making, research findings will be disseminated as a decision-tree product to local and regional forest managers. Furthermore, the project will provide educational opportunities for undergraduate students by involving them in fieldwork and by developing workshops that engage K-12 girls with geography and spatial sciences. Finally, the project will support a female doctoral student, further broadening participation of women and underrepresented groups in geography and spatial sciences.Identifying the spatial scales at which landscape context is important for a burned forest's recovery is an important first-step in a holistic understanding of forest resilience and recovery. However, scale-dependent effects are often species-specific, thus identifying relevant scales must account for divergent tree traits and interactions with local site suitability for tree growth. To do so, the doctoral student asks three research questions: (1) What spatial extents and patterns of landscape context support a burned area's recovery? (2) How does landscape context interact with local site characteristics of recovering areas? (3) At broader temporal and spatial extents, will landscape context mediate resilience of forest ecosystem services in drier, more fire prone landscapes? These questions will be answered using statistical modeling and fieldwork-generated data from a natural experiment in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The natural experimental landscape includes fires that represent a gradient of burn patterns and post-fire climate conditions in a similar geophysical setting, thereby providing a unique opportunity to observe the effects of landscape context on different burned areas' recovery. Additionally, the investigator will use a spatially explicit ecosystem process model to investigate how landscape context at broader temporal and spatial scales support carbon storage and tree biodiversity.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.

该博士生将研究森林水平的过程如何支持被严重烧毁的森林的森林再生和恢复力。具体来说，研究将集中在幸存的树木与景观相互作用的方式，为烧毁地区的恢复提供外部种子来源。最近的研究只使用了有限的测量直线距离最近的树种源，没有充分考虑规模，模式，或与当地网站的相互作用，适合面积恢复。因此，有一个知识差距，了解如何烧伤地区的周围环境中的景观支持或减少其恢复潜力（空间弹性）。项目的研究结果将有助于制定更好地考虑野火日益严重和频繁发生的世界的景观背景的方法。鉴于这些变化，土地管理者必须决定哪些被烧毁的地区需要在野火活动后积极重新种植，哪些地区表现出更高的自然空间弹性。根据被烧毁地区在景观中的位置确定其优先次序，可能是这一决策的根本。为协助决策，将把研究结果作为决策树产品分发给地方和区域森林管理人员。此外，该项目将为本科生提供教育机会，让他们参与实地考察，并举办讲习班，让K-12女孩参与地理和空间科学。最后，该项目将支持一名女博士生，进一步扩大妇女和代表性不足的群体对地理和空间科学的参与，确定景观背景对被烧毁森林恢复的重要性的空间尺度是全面了解森林复原力和恢复的重要第一步。然而，规模依赖的影响往往是物种特异性的，因此，确定相关的规模必须考虑不同的树木性状和相互作用与当地网站适合树木生长。为了做到这一点，博士生提出了三个研究问题：（1）什么样的空间范围和景观背景模式支持烧毁地区的恢复？(2)景观背景如何与恢复地区的当地特征相互作用？(3)在更广泛的时间和空间范围内，景观背景介导的森林生态系统服务的恢复力在干燥，更容易发生火灾的景观？这些问题将使用统计建模和大黄石生态系统自然实验中的实地工作产生的数据来回答。自然实验景观包括火灾，代表了梯度的烧伤模式和火灾后的气候条件在类似的地球物理环境，从而提供了一个独特的机会，观察景观环境对不同的烧伤地区的恢复的影响。此外，研究者将使用一个空间上明确的生态系统过程模型，以调查如何在更广泛的时间和空间尺度的景观背景下支持碳储存和树木生物多样性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。