COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: The Nature of Fire-Vegetation Relationships in Tropical Savanna-Forest Mosaics

合作研究：热带稀树草原-森林马赛克中火与植被关系的本质

• 批准号: 1931265
• 负责人: Lynn Clark
• 金额: $ 19.98万
• 依托单位: Iowa State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-02-01 至 2025-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1931265&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: COLLABORATIVE; RESEARCH; Nature; Fire; Vegetation

Once viewed as destructive, fire in tropical savannas is now seen as critical to the maintenance of species-diverse plant and animal communities. Indeed, scientists now recognize that while it is important to exclude fire from places where it is destructive (tropical forests), it is equally important to promote fire in places where it is beneficial (savannas). Appropriate fire management is key to conserving biodiversity and sustaining the livelihoods of people. However, little is known about how (or if) fire-promotion and fire-protection can be accomplished simultaneously. The overarching goal of this project is to reconcile the need for savanna fires with the need to protect forests from damaging wildfire. Using field and laboratory studies in savannas and forests of Bolivia, this project will establish the scientific basis for how people living in a savanna/forest matrix can use fire in an ecologically beneficial manner. Additionally, this project will provide opportunities for a doctoral student and a postdoctoral scholar to conduct international field research, and for undergraduate students to conduct laboratory analyses in the USA. To foster international educational exchange, a short course in tropical ecology and botanical field methods will be offered to students from the USA and Bolivia. A research symposium and workshop will be organized to further address the challenges of incorporating beneficial fire management into savanna and forest conservation initiatives.This research will provide the first-ever field-based test of alternative stable state theory in a tropical savanna-forest mosaic where fire-vegetation feedbacks can be isolated from the effects of soils and plant photosynthetic type. For most of the past century, in regions where the climate can support closed-canopy forests, ecologists attributed the existence of tropical savannas to edaphic conditions or human-caused deforestation. Such ideas are being replaced by a new paradigm in which savannas and forests are modelled as alternative stable states, maintained by feedbacks between plant communities and fire. This research, to be conducted across savanna-forest boundaries in Bolivia, will use vegetation and soil sampling, field experiments, remote sensing, plant microfossil identification and dating, and functional trait measurements to understand the contemporary, paleoecological, and evolutionary relationships between plant communities and fire. Results are expected to demonstrate that in the absence of external drivers, such as logging, a persistence-colonization trade-off in grasses promotes savanna flammability while constraining savanna expansion into forests.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.

曾经被认为具有破坏性的热带稀树草原的火灾，现在被认为对维持物种多样性的动植物群落至关重要。事实上，科学家们现在认识到，虽然在具有破坏性的地方（热带森林）排除火灾很重要，但在有益的地方（热带草原）促进火灾也同样重要。适当的火灾管理是保护生物多样性和维持人们生计的关键。然而，很少知道如何（或是否）防火促进和防火可以同时完成。该项目的首要目标是协调稀树草原火灾的需要与保护森林免受野火破坏的需要。通过对玻利维亚热带稀树草原和森林的实地和实验室研究，该项目将为生活在热带稀树草原/森林基质中的人们如何以有利于生态的方式利用火建立科学基础。此外，该项目将为一名博士生和一名博士后提供在美国进行国际实地研究的机会，并为本科生提供在美国进行实验室分析的机会。为促进国际教育交流，将为来自美国和玻利维亚的学生开设热带生态学和植物学领域方法的短期课程。将组织一次研究专题讨论会和讲习班，进一步处理将有益的火灾管理纳入稀树草原和森林养护倡议的挑战。这项研究将首次在热带热带草原-森林马赛克中提供替代性稳定状态理论的实地测试，其中火-植被反馈可以从土壤和植物光合作用类型的影响中分离出来。在过去一个世纪的大部分时间里，在气候可以支持封闭树冠森林的地区，生态学家将热带稀树草原的存在归因于地理条件或人为造成的森林砍伐。这些想法正在被一种新的模式所取代，在这种模式中，稀树草原和森林被建模为另一种稳定状态，由植物群落和火灾之间的反馈来维持。这项研究将跨越玻利维亚的热带稀树草原-森林边界，利用植被和土壤采样、野外实验、遥感、植物微化石鉴定和定年以及功能特征测量来了解植物群落与火灾之间的当代、古生态和进化关系。预计结果将表明，在缺乏外部驱动因素（如伐木）的情况下，草类的持久性-殖民化权衡促进了稀树草原的可燃性，同时限制了稀树草原向森林的扩张。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

项目成果

A revision of Chusquea sect. Serpentes (Poaceae: Bambusoideae: Bambuseae) including two new species from South America.

Chusquea 教派的修订版。

• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Systematic botany
• 影响因子: 1
• 作者: McMurchie, E.A.;Peterson, B.;Leandro, T.H.D.;Londoño, X.;Clark, L.G.
• 通讯作者: Clark, L.G.