Boreal forest refugia for fire and climate change

应对火灾和气候变化的北方森林避难所

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-06040
• 负责人: Nielsen, Scott
• 金额: $ 2.91万
• 依托单位: University of Alberta
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=715880
• 关键词: Boreal; forest; refugia; fire; climate

A central question in ecology and conservation is how biodiversity will respond to climate change - essentially identifying species and places that are likely to be more or less vulnerable. Recent work on the velocity of climate change has illustrated how macro-terrain and maritime features can reduce climate velocity resulting in definable areas of macrorefugia where species are likely to persist. Although much has been done to understand refugia at macro-scales, smaller scale landscape features can also decouple a location's temperature from its surrounding climate resulting in microrefugia. And unlike macrorefugia, microrefugia can not be easily predicted from downscaled climate models resulting in gaps in our understanding and predictions. Existing work on microrefugia emphasizes local topography with surprisingly little work on the effects of large lakes on adjacent mainland microclimates and hence areas of potential microrefugia. Yet some large lakes are known to have disjunct species along their shoreline with populations >1,000 km south of their main range representing relicts of a previous cooler climate. Understanding these patterns informs current threats and future responses. A second aspect of large lakes that is often underappreciated is their ability to diversify fire regimes by fragmenting fuel and blocking fire spread. This not only creates fire refugia that supports old-growth species along their shorelines and on islands, but also potentially supporting higher landscape-scale biodiversity. When taken together, lake-derived climate and fire refugia can be synergistic in their location strengthening further the refugia effect. My long-term research goals are to understand the processes governing the distribution, dynamics, and interactions of species and ecosystems and to use this information to inform biodiversity conservation. I propose to address these questions and their applications to conservation in this grant under two complementary topics. The first is in understanding the factors associated with lakes that alter microclimates and promote disjunct patterns in biota thus informing local climate refugia. This includes measuring and predicting microclimatic and biotic responses along lake shorelines, relating these to existing patterns in relict species, and predicting future change. The second is in understanding how these lakes alter fire history within fire-prone boreal forests of western Canada, including locations of fire refugia and how this regulates the supply of old growth forests and biodiversity. This work will be done through a combination of field and remote sensing studies ultimately providing new insights, understandings, methods, and conservation applications to refugia (fire & climate) and biodiversity within Canada's boreal forest. The grant will also result in training of highly-quality personnel who will contribute towards addressing Canada's commitment to biodiversity protection.

生态学和保护中的一个核心问题是生物多样性将如何应对气候变化 - 本质上是确定可能或多或少脆弱的物种和地方。关于气候变化速度的最新工作表明，宏观侵蚀和海上特征如何降低气候速度，从而导致物种可能持续存在的Macrotefugia的可定义区域。尽管已经做了很多事情来了解宏观尺度的避难所，但较小的规模景观特征也可以使位置的温度与周围气候的温度解脱，从而导致MicroRefugia。与MacroRefugia不同，微虫从缩小的气候模型中很容易预测，从而导致我们的理解和预测存在差距。现有的有关微循环的工作强调了当地的地形，令人惊讶的是，大湖区对邻近大陆微气候以及潜在微虫地区的影响很少。然而，众所周知，一些大湖区的海岸线有分离的物种，其种群距离其主要范围以南> 1,000公里，代表了先前凉爽的气候的遗物。了解这些模式会为当前的威胁和未来的响应提供信息。大型湖泊的第二个方面通常被低估了，它们通过破碎燃料和阻塞火势传播来使火灾差异多样化。这不仅创造了沿海岸线和岛屿上的老化物种的消防避难所，而且还可能支持更高的景观尺度生物多样性。当一起，湖泊衍生的气候和消防避难所在其位置可以协同加强避难所。 我的长期研究目标是了解有关物种和生态系统的分布，动态和相互作用的过程，并使用这些信息来为生物多样性保护提供信息。我建议在两个互补话题下解决这些问题及其在本赠款中的保护。首先是理解与改变微气候的湖泊相关的因素，并促进生物群岛中的分离模式，从而告知当地气候避难所。这包括测量和预测海岸湖沿湖泊的微气候和生物反应，将这些反应与遗物物种中的现有模式有关，并预测未来的变化。第二在于了解这些湖泊如何改变加拿大西部易火的北方森林中的火灾历史，包括消防避难所，以及这如何调节旧生长森林和生物多样性的供应。这项工作将通过现场和遥感研究的结合来完成，最终为加拿大北方森林内的避难所（消防与气候）和生物多样性提供新的见解，理解，方法和保护应用。该赠款还将导致对高质量的人员进行培训，这些人员将为解决加拿大对生物多样性保护的承诺做出贡献。