US - Kenya Dissertation Enhancement: Maasai Settlement, Landscape Mosaics, and the Spatial Patterning of Vegetation and Wildlife in East African Savannas

0096706Coughenour本学位论文增强基金支持美国研究生Jeffrey Worden先生在科罗拉多州立大学自然资源生态实验室Michael Coughenour教授的指导下，在肯尼亚卡加多区进行一项关于东非大草原人-野生动物-植被相互作用的研究。肯尼亚的许多野生动物生活在官方Maasailand保护区之外，因此与Maasai牧群模式有着千丝万缕的联系。但在过去的30年里，马赛人不断升级的土地畜牧化利用导致了牲畜和野生动物数量的下降。Worden假设：1)马赛聚落的变化和不断升级的牧地利用将显示出定居过程的证据，这将人口稠密地区附近的高强度区域与中等和低利用地区分开；2)中等牧地利用的中等地区将存在最高水平的植被复杂性和异质性；以及3)中等牧地利用地区的野生动物密度和多样性将最高。这项研究将在卡加多区进行，这是东非的一个地区，以拥有大量的生物多样性而闻名，同时也包含了马赛人的文化遗产。将使用航空图像、实地调查和当地采访来检查Kajiado区未受保护地区的三个区域地点。收集的数据将在多个尺度(本地、景观和区域)进行分析，以检验总体假设，即在人类人口使用的中间区域，植被多样性和景观异质性应该更大。预计结果将确定牧场土地利用模式的变化对植被资源的影响，以及植被变化如何影响野生动物种群。罗宾·里德博士和国际畜牧研究所的其他研究人员将为沃登先生提供这个项目的指导。研究结果可望加深对稀树草原和牧场生态系统的景观生态学和人-环境相互作用的认识，对生态学家、社会科学家和资源管理者具有一定的参考价值。该项目还将支持一名优秀研究生在职业生涯早期的一次国际研究经历。该项目由国际项目部和环境生物学部共同资助。

0096706CoughenourThis dissertation enhancement grant supports a US graduate student, Mr. Jeffrey Worden, working under the guidance of Professor Michael Coughenour, with the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University, to conduct a study in the Kajiado District of Kenya on the human-wildlife-vegetation interactions in an East African savanna.Much of Kenya's wildlife lives outside the official Maasailand conservation areas, and as a result it is inextricably linked to the Maasai pastoral herding patterns. But the Maasai's escalating use of land for pastoral purposes has resulted in a decline in both livestock and wildlife populations during the last 30 years. Worden hypothesizes that: 1) changes in Maasai settlements and escalating pastoral land use will show evidence of the process of sedentarization, which segregates areas of high intensity near populated areas from areas of intermediate and low usage; 2) the highest levels of vegetative complexity and heterogeneity will exist in intermediate areas of moderate pastoral land use; and 3) that wildlife density and diversity will be highest in the intermediate pastoral land usage areas. The study will be conducted in the Kajiado District, an area of East Africa that is noted for having a large amount of biological diversity as well as containing the cultural heritage of the Maasai. Three regional locations in unprotected areas of the Kajiado District will be examined using aerial imagery, field surveys, and local interviews. The collected data will be analyzed at multiple scales (local, landscape, and regional) to examine the overall hypothesis that vegetation diversity and landscape heterogeneity should be greater in areas of intermediate use by human populations. The results are expected to identify the impact that changing patterns of pastoral land use have on vegetation resources, as well as how the vegetation changes affect wildlife populations. Dr. Robin Reid and other researchers at the International Livestock Research Institute will provide guidance on this project to Mr. Worden. The results are expected to increase the current knowledge about landscape ecology and human-environment interactions of savanna and pastoral ecosytems, and should be of value to ecologists, social scientists, and resource managers. This project will also support an international research experience very early in the career of an outstanding graduate student. This project is being jointly funded by the Division of International Programs and the Division of Environmental Biology.