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

0096706 Coughenour该论文增强补助金支持美国研究生Jeffrey沃登先生在Michael Coughenour教授的指导下与科罗拉多州立大学的自然资源生态学实验室合作，在肯尼亚的Kajiado区进行一项关于东非稀树草原人类-野生动物-植被相互作用的研究。肯尼亚的大部分野生动物生活在官方的马赛兰保护区之外，因此，它与马赛人的放牧模式密不可分。 但是，在过去的30年里，马赛人越来越多地使用土地进行放牧，导致牲畜和野生动物数量下降。 沃登假设：1）马赛人定居点的变化和不断升级的牧场土地使用将显示出定居化过程的证据，这将人口密集区附近的高密度地区与中等和低使用地区隔离开来; 2）植被复杂性和异质性最高的地区将存在于适度牧场土地使用的中间地区;（3）在中度牧区，野生动物密度和多样性最高。 这项研究将在东非的Kajiado地区进行，该地区以拥有大量的生物多样性和马赛文化遗产而闻名。 将利用航空图像、实地调查和当地访谈对卡贾多区未受保护地区的三个区域地点进行检查。 收集到的数据将在多个尺度（当地，景观和区域）进行分析，以检查整体假设，即植被多样性和景观异质性应该是更大的中间使用的地区，由人口。预计研究结果将确定不断变化的牧场土地利用模式对植被资源的影响，以及植被变化如何影响野生动物种群。 罗宾·里德博士和国际牲畜研究所的其他研究人员将为沃登先生提供关于这个项目的指导。 研究结果有望增加当前有关稀树草原和牧区生态系统的景观生态学和人-环境相互作用的知识，并对生态学家、社会科学家和资源管理者具有价值。 该项目还将在优秀研究生的职业生涯早期提供国际研究经验。 该项目由国际方案司和环境生物学司联合资助。

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.