OPUS: Synthesizing concepts about succession, disturbances, and indicators based on long-term research at Mount St. Helens

演替是一个生态群落中物种随时间变化的过程。了解演替对于了解干扰如何影响生态系统是至关重要的。生态学家并不认为干扰是灾难性的破坏因素，而是将其视为长期系统动态的正常部分，有时甚至是不可或缺的部分。虽然干扰会对生态系统过程产生重大影响，但它们很少被纳入生态学研究。然而，与过去相比，干扰正在以更高的频率和强度发生。对于这一项目，1980年圣海伦斯火山灾难性喷发后建立的40年永久性地块监测数据提供了一个前所未有的机会，可以检查自1980年以来发生的极端干扰和次生干扰后的生态复原力。这项研究将建立在研究人员的文件基础上，即资源管理者和其他利益相关者必须了解演替、干扰的影响和变化指标，以便为干扰制定计划，从而为生态系统提供长期保护。该项目不仅将制作一篇科学论文、演示文稿和数据集，还将制作一本书和一场严肃的游戏，为公众提供一种手段，让他们了解演替过程中影响生态变化的力量和持续的干扰。虽然演替是生态学的基本概念之一，但演替理论尚未完全整合干扰在影响演替过程中的作用，也没有评估如何利用变化指标来提高对演替动态的理解。通过综合自1980年圣海伦斯火山喷发以来监测到的永久地块的信息，该项目将测试和更新演替概念模型，其中包括持续干扰的影响、幸存者的作用、随着时间的推移创造新的栖息地、随机事件和生态过滤器(筛选出一些繁殖、物种或相互作用的条件，从而限制生态机会)。拟议项目涉及的主题包括：受干扰后生态状况如何随时间变化、关键指标的变化对生态恢复的影响，以及人类活动和自然干扰对生态演替的影响。自圣海伦斯火山喷发以来40年来收集的有关植被重建、种子传播、土壤和其他环境条件变化的数据，以及这一综合产生的指标和其他信息，将被保存在圣海伦斯火山国家火山纪念碑的永久档案中。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

Succession is the process of change of species in an ecological community over time. Understanding succession is essential to understanding how disturbances affect ecological systems. Disturbances are not viewed by ecologists as catastrophic agents of destruction but rather as normal, sometimes even integral, parts of long-term system dynamics. While disturbances can significantly impact ecosystem processes, they are seldom included in ecological studies. Yet disturbances are occurring with greater frequency and intensity than in the past. For this project, data from 40 years of monitoring permanent plots established after the catastrophic eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980 provides an unprecedented opportunity to examine ecological resilience after extreme disturbance as well as secondary disturbances that have occurred since 1980. The study will build on the researcher’s documentation that resource managers and other stakeholders must have knowledge about succession, effects of disturbances, and indicators of change to plan for disturbances and thus provide long-term protection of ecological systems. The project will produce not only a scientific paper, presentations, and data sets but also a book and serious game that will provide a means for the public to learn about the forces that affect ecological changes during succession and ongoing disturbances.While succession is one of the basic concepts of ecology, theories of succession have not yet fully integrated the role of disturbances in affecting successional process nor evaluated how indicators of change can be used to improve understanding the dynamics of succession. By synthesizing information from permanent plots monitored since the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, this project will test and update a conceptual model of succession that includes effects of ongoing disturbances, the role of survivors, creation of new habitats over time, random events, and ecological filters (conditions that screen out some propagules, species, or interaction and therefore limit ecological opportunities). Topics addressed by the proposed project include how ecological conditions change over time following disturbance, what alterations in key indicators suggest for ecological recovery, and how human activities and natural disturbances influence ecological succession. The data on vegetation reestablishment, seed dispersal, and changes in soils and other environmental conditions that were collected over the 40 years since the eruption of Mount St. Helens as well as the indicators and other information resulting from this synthesis will be placed in the permanent archive at Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.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.