Long-term human environmental impacts in a cross-scale context across the Pacific Coast of North America

北美太平洋沿岸跨尺度背景下的长期人类环境影响

• 批准号: RGPIN-2018-05185
• 负责人: Trant, Andrew
• 金额: $ 2.04万
• 依托单位: University of Waterloo
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=682531
• 关键词: Long; term; human; environmental; impacts

Understanding current and future forest ecosystems requires detailed knowledge of long-term human environmental impacts. These long-term human environmental impacts are rarely considered when evaluating seemingly wild' or pristine' landscapes. However, failing to consider the influence of people may greatly under or over-estimate the resilience of these systems. The overall objective of my research program is to quantify and challenge held paradigms of humans being associated with degraded landscapes. More specifically, in the next five years I will: a) generate a time series of when human influence was removed from habitation sites (places where people lived resulting in the accumulation of a physical-material record); b) quantify the spatial extent and persistence of long-term human environmental impacts and their effect on forest composition and productivity; c) predict the future forest composition and productivity growing on habitation sites; and d) quantify carbon dynamics across the Northwestern coast of North America by determining the amount of nutrient subsidies moved into the terrestrial environment, the anthropogenic fire history, and the associated changes in forest productivity.*** This research will continue developing strong partnerships with Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in the traditional territories of the Heiltsuk and Wuikinuxv First Nations that are critical to the success of this work. This work is of great significance to the field of evolution and ecology, as it is challenging existing community ecology paradigms about the role that humans play in driving patterns of forest productivity by mediating marine nutrient subsidies into terrestrial environments. This notion of long-term human settlement being detrimental to the landscape is entrenched in our thinking about issues of sustainability and environmental issues. This works challenges that notion. These results will contribute important information for the Coastal First Nations with a detailed time series of when habitation sites were abandoned and provide data on the future composition of productivity of these forests. The impact of my team's research will be enhanced by increasing Indigenous engagement, especially with youth, throughout the data collection and outreach stages.

了解当前和未来的森林生态系统需要详细了解长期的人类环境影响。在评估看似野生或原始的景观时，很少考虑这些长期的人类环境影响。然而，不考虑人的影响可能会大大低估或高估这些系统的弹性。 我的研究计划的总体目标是量化和挑战人类与退化景观相关的固有范式。更具体地说，在接下来的五年中，我将：a）生成人类影响从居住地（人们居住的地方导致物理材料记录积累的地方）消失的时间序列； b) 量化长期人类环境影响的空间范围和持续性及其对森林构成和生产力的影响； c) 预测居住地未来的森林构成和生产力增长； d) 通过确定进入陆地环境的养分补贴数量、人为火灾历史以及森林生产力的相关变化，量化北美西北海岸的碳动态。*** 这项研究将继续与 Heiltsuk 和 Wuikinuxv 原住民传统领土上的土著和非土著社区建立强有力的伙伴关系，这对于这项工作的成功至关重要。这项工作对进化和生态学领域具有重要意义，因为它正在挑战现有的群落生态学范式，即人类通过调节海洋养分补贴到陆地环境来推动森林生产力模式的作用。这种长期人类住区对景观有害的观念根深蒂固地存在于我们对可持续发展和环境问题的思考中。这项工作挑战了这一观念。这些结果将为沿海原住民提供重要信息，包括居住地被废弃的详细时间序列，并提供有关这些森林未来生产力构成的数据。通过在整个数据收集和推广阶段增加原住民的参与，特别是青年人的参与，我的团队研究的影响将得到增强。