CAREER: Holocene Histories of Amazonian Ecotonal Environments

9732951 布什 这个职业建议结合了一个令人兴奋的实地研究计划和创新的教育计划，重点是亚马逊的低地热带森林。这些生态系统长期以来一直受到生态学家和保护生物学家的关注，但关于生物多样性的时间模式的信息相对较少。最近的证据表明，在过去的7,000年里，这些低地森林发生了深刻的变化，布什博士将重点讨论这个问题。 利用亚马逊河流域全新世中期湖泊的岩芯，他将记录过去7,000年来森林多样性的变化，这一点可以通过岩芯中不同地层的花粉组成来证明。 利用这些岩心的其他特征，如木炭、古地磁和体积密度，他将试图重建该地区的古气候历史。 在仔细选择地点的基础上，预计这项研究将能够评估过去7 000年来人类人口对亚马逊河流域低地热带森林生物多样性的影响。布什教授最近出版的教科书《变化中的地球生态学》已经表明了他对本科教育的明显承诺。“通过这份职业建议书，他将扩展这本书中的思想，将他的研究计划中的现实生活经验融入目前正在设计的课程中。特别是他的计划包括使用地理信息系统，让学生更仔细地了解景观水平的变化及其对生物多样性的影响。

9732951 Bush This Career Proposal combines an exciting field research program and innovative educational program focused on lowland tropical forests of Amazonia. These ecosystems have long been of interest to ecologists and conservation biologists but relatively little information is available on the temporal patterns of biodiversity. Recent evidence suggests profound changes have taken place in these lowland forests during the last 7,000 years and Dr. Bush will focus on this problem. Using cores from mid-Holocene-aged lakes in Amazonia, he will record changes over the last 7,000 years in forest diversity, as evidenced through pollen composition at different strata in the cores. Using other characteristics of these cores such as charcoal, paleomagnetic, and bulk density he will attempt to reconstruct paleoclimate histories for this region. Based on the careful selection of sites, it is anticipated that this research will be able to evaluate the impact of human populations over the past 7,000 years on biodiversity of lowland tropical forests of Amazonia. Professor Bush has already demonstrated a marked commitment to undergraduate education by his recently published textbook "Ecology of a Changing Planet." Through this Career Proposal he will expand on the ideas in that book, integrating real-life experiences from his research program into courses currently being designed. In particular his plans include use of geographic information systems to allow students a closer look at landscape level changes and their impact on biodiversity.