Evaluating the resilience of semi-arid vegetation and ecosystem function during the late Holocene in the south-central Andes

评估安第斯山脉中南部全新世晚期半干旱植被和生态系统功能的恢复力

• 批准号: 2208411
• 负责人: Sarah Ivory
• 金额: $ 61.11万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-01 至 2025-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2208411&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Evaluating; resilience; semi; arid; vegetation

Over 30% of the Earth’s surface is classified as arid lands. Arid lands are vulnerable to small changes in precipitation. People that rely on arid lands are also vulnerable to changes in precipitation amount and timing. The Andes Mountains of South America contain arid lands that are one of the most extreme environments in the world. The region is expected to experience more frequent severe droughts in the coming decades, causing concern about the impacts on available natural resources and livelihoods. The goal of this project is to investigate the climatic and human controls on ecosystems in the arid lands of the Andes beyond the historical record. This research aims to improve our ability to predict changes in these ecosystems in the future because of climate change and land-use pressure. This project is providing training opportunities for early career scientists to conduct research as well as through training workshops. This project is also developing an international collaboration to connect scientists with Indigenous groups and park rangers at the Sajama National Park in Bolivia. Data generated from this project are archived at the Neotoma Paleoecology Database and the Global Charcoal Database.This research investigates the resilience of Andean drylands to climate, fire, and human land-use through the analysis of fossil plant material recovered from rodent middens and peatland sediment cores. The resulting data are used to test the hypothesis that human disturbance coupled with changing climate leads to reduced stability and longer recovery times of natural ecosystems. Combining paleoecological information from middens and cores as well as anthropogenic indicators directly derived from the archaeological record allows reconstruction of ecosystem dynamics. Two sites in the southcentral Bolivian Andes are studied. Vegetation reconstructions are combined with fecal biomarkers and human demographic reconstructions to assess the ecological legacies of past changes to human-land use. This project helps determine the relationships between climate variability and human activities as well as the resilience of arid lands over the last few thousand years.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.

超过30%的地球表面被归类为干旱土地。干旱地区易受降水量微小变化的影响。依赖干旱土地的人们也容易受到降水量和时间变化的影响。南美洲的安第斯山脉是世界上最极端的环境之一。预计该区域在未来几十年将经历更频繁的严重干旱，对现有自然资源和生计的影响令人担忧。该项目的目标是调查历史记录之外的气候和人类对安第斯山脉干旱地区生态系统的控制。这项研究旨在提高我们预测未来由于气候变化和土地使用压力而导致的这些生态系统变化的能力。该项目为从事研究的早期职业科学家提供培训机会，并举办培训讲习班。该项目还在开展国际合作，以便使科学家与玻利维亚萨哈马国家公园的土著群体和公园管理员建立联系。该项目产生的数据存档于Neotoma古生态学数据库和全球木炭数据库，通过分析从啮齿动物的贝冢和泥炭地沉积物芯中回收的植物化石材料，研究安第斯旱地对气候、火灾和人类土地使用的适应能力。由此产生的数据被用来测试的假设，人类干扰加上不断变化的气候导致自然生态系统的稳定性降低和更长的恢复时间。结合古生态信息的贝冢和核心，以及直接来自考古记录的人为指标，允许重建生态系统动态。研究了玻利维亚中南部安第斯山脉的两个地点。植被重建与粪便生物标志物和人类人口重建相结合，以评估过去人类土地利用变化的生态遗产。该项目有助于确定气候变化与人类活动之间的关系，以及过去几千年来干旱土地的恢复能力。该奖项反映了NSF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

Precipitation variability, vegetation turnover, and anthropogenic disturbance over the last millennium in the Atacama highlands of northern Chile (19°S)

• DOI: 10.1177/09596836231151834
• 发表时间: 2023-02
• 期刊: The Holocene
• 作者: Alejandra I. Domic;M. E. de Porras;J. Capriles;Andrés Zamora-Allendes;S. Ivory;A. Maldonado