LTER: Changing Disturbances, Ecological Legacies, and the Future of the Alaskan Boreal Forest

在过去的一个世纪里，阿拉斯加变暖的速度是全球平均速度的两倍，其内部北方森林的升温幅度很大。这种更温暖、更干燥的气候引发了地区野火、害虫和病原体爆发以及永久冻土融化的重要变化。Bonanza Creek长期生态研究（BNZ ltr）项目将促进对气候变化和干扰制度对阿拉斯加北方森林影响的理解，并探索与气候系统反馈相关的区域后果。BNZ LTER项目将与阿拉斯加土著社区以及州和联邦土地管理机构合作，确定脆弱性并探索适应环境变化的机会。该计划将增加对生态学理论的理解以及北方生物群系和永久冻土在地球系统中的作用。BNZ LTER将通过校园LTER与学生和教育工作者进行接触，并为本科生、第一代大学生和公众培养科学项目，与更广泛的社区分享结果。一个新的阿拉斯加原住民咨询委员会将为BNZ项目带来一个充满活力和包容性的阿拉斯加原住民视角。该研究项目将重点关注通过支持生态系统恢复和稳定的信息和物质的结转而传播的过去生态系统的生态遗产。气候或干扰制度的变化可以改变关键的遗产，并触发生态系统快速重组到新的恢复轨迹。这些变化包括向不太可能恢复到干扰前生态系统的新状态的转变。这种生态系统状态的频率和寿命的变化可以在景观尺度上重构过程。它们可以影响土壤热状态、水文、物种组成和生物相互作用、生物地球化学循环、生态系统服务和社会生态系统的动态。BNZ LTER计划解决以下问题：1)遗产如何限制阿拉斯加北方森林对气候变化的响应，2)这些遗产将如何影响未来的生态系统轨迹，以及3)这些新兴生态系统轨迹现在和未来的本地，区域和全球影响是什么？关于遗产在生态系统恢复力和变化中的作用的多种机制假设将使用该站点的数据进行测试。将继续收集长期数据，并与来自新站点、实验和调查的数据相结合。这将扩大对新型扰动影响的研究。统计和基于过程的模拟模型将结合起来，在景观尺度上预测当前和未来的生态动态和反馈。它将确定社会生态脆弱性，并与阿拉斯加原住民和阿拉斯加社区一起探索适应机会。这个长期生态研究站点是由环境生物学部和极地项目办公室支持的。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。

Over the past century, Alaska has been warming twice as quickly as the global average, with large increases occurring in its interior boreal forests. This warmer, drier climate has triggered important changes to regional wildfire, pests and pathogen outbreaks, and permafrost thaw. The Bonanza Creek Long-Term Ecological Research (BNZ LTER) program will advance understanding of the impacts of changing climate and disturbance regimes on the Alaskan boreal forest and explore associated regional consequences on feedbacks to the climate system. In collaboration with Alaska Native communities, as well as state and federal land management agencies, the BNZ LTER program will identify vulnerabilities and explore adaptation opportunities to environmental change. The program will increase understanding of ecological theory and the role of the boreal biome and permafrost soils in the Earth System. The BNZ LTER will share results with a broader community via outreach to students and educators through their schoolyard LTER and fostering science programs for undergraduate students, first-generation college students, and the general public. A new Alaska Native Advisory Council, which will bring a dynamic and inclusive Alaska Native perspective into the BNZ program will be introduced with this renewal.This research program will focus on ecological legacies of past ecosystems transmitted through carryover of information and materials that support ecosystem recovery and stabilization. Changes in climate or disturbance regimes can modify key legacies and trigger rapid ecosystem reorganization into new recovery trajectories. These include shifts to new states that are unlikely to recover to the pre-disturbance ecosystem. Such shifts in the frequency and longevity of ecosystem states can restructure processes at the landscape scale. They can influence soil thermal states, hydrology, species composition and biotic interactions, biogeochemical cycles, ecosystem services, and dynamics of social-ecological systems. The BNZ LTER program addresses the following questions: 1) how do legacies constrain the response of the Alaskan boreal forest to climate change, 2) how will these legacies affect future ecosystem trajectories, and 3) what are the local, regional, and global impacts of these emergent ecosystem trajectories now and in the future? Multiple mechanistic hypotheses about the role of legacies in ecosystem resilience and change will be tested using data from the site. Collection of long-term data will be continued and combined with data from new sites, experiments, and surveys. This will expand research to investigate new types of disturbance impacts. Statistical and process-based simulation models will be combined to predict current and future ecological dynamics and feedbacks at the landscape scale. It will identify social-ecological vulnerabilities and explore adaptation opportunities with Alaska Natives and Alaskan communities. This Long Term Ecological Research site is supported by The Division of Environmental Biology and the Office of Polar Programs.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.