Biocomplexity - Incubation Activity: Transcending Boundaries of Scale and Discipline in Environmental Problem Solving

认识和解决环境问题正在成为美国和世界各地的主要研究重点。 解决环境问题需要了解人类活动如何与复杂的自然环境相互作用，包括对气候、海洋、湖泊和河流以及流域的影响。 自然环境在几年到几个世纪的时间里可能是极其动态的，这种自然变化可能使我们对人类引发的环境变化的理解变得复杂。 拟议的研究旨在开发一种新的科学方法，用于整合一系列科学学科，研究与溪流和河流有关的环境问题。 该研究将开发定量工具，明确说明环境系统的自然动态，以及人类活动如何在空间和时间上改变这些动态。 新方法将包括使用计算机模拟模型和新参数，这些模型和新参数描述了全套流域属性以及这些属性如何因自然过程和人类活动而随时间变化。

0083937BendaRecognizing and solving environmental problems are becoming major research priorities in the United States and across the world. Solving environmental problems involves understanding how human activities interact with complicated natural environments, including impacts dealing with climate, oceans, lakes and streams, and watersheds. Natural environments can be extremely dynamic over periods of years to centuries and such natural variability can complicate our understanding of environmental changes triggered by humans. The proposed research aims to develop a new scientific method for integrating across a range of scientific disciplines in the study of environmental problems dealing with streams and rivers. The research will develop quantitative tools that explicitly account for natural dynamics of environmental systems, and how human activities alter those dynamics in space and over time. The new approach will include the use of computer simulation models and new parameters that describe the full suite of watershed attributes and how those attributes change over time due to natural processes and human activities.