CAREER: Refining forest management strategies to maximize hydrologic gains from snow dominated watersheds

职业：完善森林管理策略，最大限度地提高以雪为主的流域的水文收益

• 批准号: 1920425
• 负责人: Mukesh Kumar
• 金额: $ 30.64万
• 依托单位: University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-03-15 至 2022-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1920425&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Refining; forest; management; strategies

Seasonal snow in forested uplands is a critical water source for most of the western United States and other snowfall-dominated regions of the world. In addition to providing melt water, the forests also provide goods and services valued by society, including timber production, carbon sequestration, biodiversity preservation, nutrient interception, and water exchange to the atmosphere. To sustain these ecosystem services, forest management practices (FMPs) such as mechanical thinning, gap creation, and firebreak cutting are often implemented. However, these FMPs can have unintended consequences, including increased snow melt and peak flow that can cause erosion, destabilize streams, produce water shortages, and degrade water quality and ecosystem health. Water and forest managers need to strike a balance between maximizing forest productivity and minimizing impacts on water resources. This project will study the role of altered forest configurations due to FMPs on peak and melt-season streamflow in snow-dominated forests. The results will lead to mitigation of harmful hydrologic impacts from both natural and managed forest alterations and enhance the resilience of economies in the western U.S. and other areas supported by snow-fed water from these forests. Research and education will be integrated across multiple educational levels. K-12 outreach will be achieved through the Decision Room, a group simulation exercise to: 1) develop knowledge around specific water topics and 2) understand trade-offs involved in decision making and implementation of science-based solutions. The Decision Room will be implemented in collaboration with Morehead Planetarium Science Center at the North Carolina Science Festival, which has a history of engaging a very diverse student population. At the university level, data and models developed in this project will be integrated into courses on Water Quantity and Quality Assessment. Educational activities in North Carolina public schools, at Duke University and at the University of Idaho, will inspire a new generation of scientists and engineers to explore, collaborate and teach. The project will develop an improved understanding of how FMPs, such as thinning and gap creation, impact snow accumulation, snowmelt, and the consequent hydrologic response. The research will advance integrated assessment of radiation transfer, snow accumulation and melt, and the consequent hydrologic response in forested watersheds, through synergistic observation and modeling. Specifically, the project will: 1) develop, validate, and evaluate a physics-based forest radiation model for heterogeneous forests and 2) assess the impacts of changes in forest patch and gap configuration on hydrologic response, by integrating the radiation model with a snow melt and accumulation model and a distributed hydrologic model. Hypothesis testing, and parameterization, evaluation, and validation of the models will be performed at multiple sites including the Mica Creek Experimental Watershed (Idaho), Southern Sierra Critical Zone Observatory (California) and Niwot Ridge Long Term Ecological Research site (Colorado). The validated model will evaluate existence of optimal forest patch and gap configurations that may either minimize the negative impacts of FMPs or enhance hydrologic benefits. The integrated model developed during the project, to be released to the broader community, will allow robust hydrology impact analyses for forest alteration scenarios and provide a foundation for testing future sustainable water resource and forest management strategies.

森林高地的季节性降雪是美国西部大部分地区和世界其他降雪较多地区的重要水源。除了提供融水外，森林还提供社会重视的商品和服务，包括木材生产、碳固存、生物多样性保护、养分截留以及与大气的水交换。为了维持这些生态系统服务，经常实施机械间伐、间隙创造和防火林砍伐等森林管理实践（FMP）。然而，这些 FMP 可能会产生意想不到的后果，包括雪融化和洪峰流量增加，从而导致侵蚀、破坏溪流稳定、造成水资源短缺以及水质和生态系统健康下降。水和森林管理者需要在最大化森林生产力和最小化对水资源的影响之间取得平衡。该项目将研究 FMP 对积雪森林高峰和融化季节径流造成的森林结构改变的作用。研究结果将有助于减轻自然森林和管理森林改变造成的有害水文影响，并增强美国西部和其他由这些森林的雪水支持的地区的经济复原力。研究和教育将跨多个教育层次进行整合。 K-12 的外展活动将通过决策室进行，这是一项小组模拟练习，目的是：1）开发有关特定水主题的知识，2）了解决策和实施基于科学的解决方案所涉及的权衡。决策室将与北卡罗来纳州科学节的莫尔黑德天文馆科学中心合作实施，该中心有着吸引非常多样化的学生群体的历史。在大学层面，该项目开发的数据和模型将被整合到水量和质量评估课程中。北卡罗来纳州公立学校、杜克大学和爱达荷大学的教育活动将激励新一代科学家和工程师进行探索、合作和教学。 该项目将更好地了解森林管理计划（例如稀疏化和间隙形成）如何影响积雪、融雪以及随后的水文响应。该研究将通过协同观测和建模，推进对森林流域辐射传输、积雪和融化以及随之而来的水文响应的综合评估。具体来说，该项目将：1）开发、验证和评估异质森林的基于物理的森林辐射模型，2）通过将辐射模型与融雪和积雪模型以及分布式水文模型相结合，评估森林斑块和间隙配置变化对水文响应的影响。模型的假设检验、参数化、评估和验证将在多个地点进行，包括云母溪实验流域（爱达荷州）、南山脉关键区观测站（加利福尼亚州）和尼沃特岭长期生态研究地点（科罗拉多州）。经过验证的模型将评估最佳森林斑块和间隙配置的存在，这些配置可以最大限度地减少 FMP 的负面影响或增强水文效益。该项目期间开发的综合模型将向更广泛的社区发布，将为森林改变情景进行稳健的水文影响分析，并为测试未来的可持续水资源和森林管理战略奠定基础。