CAREER: Understanding the conservation and restoration potential of retired agricultural land: An ecoinformatics approach

职业：了解退休农业用地的保护和恢复潜力：生态信息学方法

• 批准号: 2042526
• 负责人: Ashley Larsen
• 金额: $ 59.34万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Barbara
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-07-15 至 2026-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2042526&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Understanding; conservation; restoration; potential

The conversion of land both to and away from agriculture is a central component of global environmental change, with implications for both people and natural systems worldwide. In developed countries including the US, land area in agricultural production is contracting leaving millions of hectares of former or “retired” agricultural land often nested in a mosaic of productive and semi-natural lands. It remains unclear whether, where, and when retired agricultural lands are beneficial to biodiversity and ecosystem services in these landscapes. Given the ubiquity of agricultural landscapes and the dramatic biodiversity declines therein, such a gap is crucial to fill. Using a combination of data-driven methods, this research will advance understanding of the drivers of revegetation and the potential conservation value of retired agricultural lands, which can help policy-makers and scientists manage these lands for the well-being of human and natural communities. The training component of this CAREER award will include curriculum development and workshops on the application of data-driven techniques to ecological and environmental problems targeted at high school through PhD students. This research will leverage remote sensing, causal inference, and connectivity modeling methods applied to intensively managed agricultural landscapes to 1) elucidate the mechanisms governing revegetation and succession on retired agricultural lands, 2) understand how the spatial distribution of retired lands influences landscape fragmentation and connectivity, and 3) test whether retired land functions as a net source or sink of crop pests. The education component will engage local high school and first year undergraduates in hands-on research and training in spatial ecology and data-driven environmental science, and train professional master’s and PhD students in managing, processing and analyzing large spatial datasets and data products to address tractable but complex agricultural ecology questions.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.

将土地转为农业用地和从农业用地转为农业用地是全球环境变化的一个核心组成部分，对全世界的人和自然系统都有影响。在包括美国在内的发达国家，农业生产的土地面积正在收缩，留下数百万公顷的前或“退休”农业用地，这些土地往往被镶嵌在生产性和半自然土地的马赛克中。目前尚不清楚是否，在哪里，以及何时退休的农业用地是有益的生物多样性和生态系统服务在这些景观。鉴于农业景观的普遍存在和其中生物多样性的急剧下降，填补这一空白至关重要。利用数据驱动的方法相结合，这项研究将促进对植被恢复的驱动因素和退休农业用地的潜在保护价值的理解，这可以帮助政策制定者和科学家管理这些土地，为人类和自然社区的福祉。该职业奖的培训部分将包括课程开发和针对高中至博士生的生态和环境问题应用数据驱动技术的研讨会。本研究将利用遥感、因果推理和连接性建模方法，应用于集约化管理的农业景观，以1）阐明退休农业用地的植被恢复和演替机制，2）了解退休土地的空间分布如何影响景观破碎化和连接性，3）测试退休土地是否作为农作物害虫的净源或汇。教育部分将使当地高中和一年级本科生参与空间生态学和数据驱动环境科学的实践研究和培训，并培训专业硕士和博士生管理，处理和分析大型空间数据集和数据产品，以解决易处理但复杂的农业生态学问题。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过评估予以支持使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

项目成果

Micro-climate to macro-risk: mapping fine scale differences in mosquito-borne disease risk using remote sensing

• DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ac3589
• 发表时间: 2021-12-01
• 期刊: ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
• 影响因子: 6.7
• 作者: Boser, Anna;Sousa, Daniel;MacDonald, Andrew
• 通讯作者: MacDonald, Andrew

Evaluating climate-driven fallowing for ecological connectivity of species at risk

评估气候驱动的休耕对濒危物种的生态连通性

• DOI: 10.1007/s10980-022-01522-9
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Landscape Ecology
• 影响因子: 5.2
• 作者: McComb, Sofie;Powers, L. Claire;Larsen, Ashley E.
• 通讯作者: Larsen, Ashley E.

Reconnecting stranded public lands is a win-win for conservation and people

重新连接搁浅的公共土地对于保护和人民来说是双赢的

• DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109557
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Biological Conservation
• 影响因子: 5.9
• 作者: Powers, L. Claire;Larsen, Ashley E.;Leonard, Bryan;Plantinga, Andrew J.
• 通讯作者: Plantinga, Andrew J.