Transformation of vegetation by big herbivores, from the Pleistocene to now

从更新世至今大型食草动物对植被的改造

• 批准号: DP160100748
• 负责人: Prof Christopher Johnson
• 金额: $ 26.59万
• 依托单位: University of Tasmania
• 依托单位国家: 澳大利亚
• 项目类别: Discovery Projects
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 澳大利亚
• 起止时间: 2016-05-15 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://dataportal.arc.gov.au/RGS/Web/Grants/DP160100748
• 关键词: Transformation; vegetation; big; herbivores; Pleistocene

The project aims to provide a coherent understanding of the effects of extinct and extant large herbivores on ecosystems over space and time. The structure and distribution of vegetation types is determined not only by climate and soils, but also by the impacts of herbivores and fire as consumers of plant biomass. Recent research has shown how fire shapes the large-scale distribution of vegetation types, but we do not have an equivalent understanding of the effects of large ground-dwelling herbivores. The project plans to test the effects of such animals on vegetation structure in the Pleistocene, when mega-herbivores were common, and today, and thus to compare the impacts of fire and herbivores on the distribution of vegetation types.

该项目旨在对灭绝和灭绝的大型食草动物在空间和时间上对生态系统的影响提供连贯的理解。植被类型的结构和分布不仅取决于气候和土壤，还取决于草食动物和火作为植物生物量消费者的影响。最近的研究表明，火是如何塑造植被类型的大范围分布的，但我们对大型地面食草动物的影响还没有相当的了解。该项目计划测试这种动物在更新世和今天对植被结构的影响，当时巨型食草动物很常见，因此比较火和食草动物对植被类型分布的影响。