PRF/M: Meadow-forest Ecotones: Subterranean Rock and Predation by Gophers

9403290将研究促成科罗拉多州西部亚高山草甸和森林分布的汤姆森因素，试图在生态科学的人口过程和景观格局之间建立牢固的智力联系。袋鼠的干扰和食草性是本次调查的重点。对袋鼠密度的操纵将使用声波威慑和诱捕在析因设计中设定的小区进行比较。地震传感将被用来评估森林-草甸交错带是由限制地鼠活动的地下岩石剖面驱动的假设。将使用空间自相关方法将浅层地震剖面与植被和地鼠活动指数联系起来。将咨询景观生态学、地理信息系统(GIS)和空间统计方面的专家。%的结果将作为设计交错带(交错带是两个相邻生态群落类型的交界处，如森林和草原)地鼠排斥的长期研究的基础。这项工作对土地使用政策有影响，因为该地区目前的使用包括住宅开发、荒野、旅游、放牧和木材，所有这些都受到伐木、火灾、雪崩和雪崩以及放牧(本土有蹄类动物和牲畜)等大规模因素的影响。到目前为止，关于口袋地鼠作为植物捕食者对生态演替有强大影响的猜测相对来说还没有得到检验。***

9403290 Thomson Factors contributing to the distribution of subalpine meadows and forests in western Colorado will be studied in an attempt to establish firm intellectual connections between population processes and landscape patterns in the ecological sciences. Disturbance and herbivory by the pocket gopher, Thomomys talpoides, serve as the foci of the investigation. Manipulations of pocket gopher densities will be compared using sonic deterrence and trapping on plots set out in a factorial design. Seismic sensing will be used to evaluate the hypothesis that forest - meadow ecotones are driven by subsurface rock profiles that limit gopher activity. Spatial autocorrelation methods will be employed to relate shallow seismic profiles to indices of vegetation and gopher activity. Specialists in landscape ecology, geographic information systems (GIS), and spatial statistics will be consulted. %%% Results will serve as a basis for designing long - term studies of gopher exclusion at ecotones (an ecotone is a transition area that bounds two adjacent ecological community types, such as forest and grassland). The work has implications for land use policy, given that current use in the region consists of a mosaic of residential development, wilderness, tourism, grazing, and timbering, all of which are affected by large scale factors of logging, fire, avalanches and snow - creep, and grazing (by both native ungulates and livestock). The surmise that as plant predators, pocket gophers have potent effects on ecological succession is thus far relatively untested. ***