LTER: Consequences of Land Use Change in the Southern Appalachian Mountains

自1980年以来，Coweeta LTER研究计划已经从一个基于站点的项目发展到一个基于站点和区域的项目，研究扰动和环境梯度对土壤地球化学循环的影响，以及调节和响应这些循环的潜在流域生态系统过程。拟议的2002-2008年研究的目标是促进对过去200年来阿巴拉契亚山脉南部土地利用和土地利用变化的空间、时间和决策组成部分的科学认识，并预测未来30年的模式。这将通过解决土地使用变化的生态和社会经济方面问题来实现，同时继续对环境梯度和自然扰动机制进行长期研究。其结果将是一个更完整的了解在阿巴拉契亚山脉南部的生态动态，使其未来的生态state.The指导假设的合理预测的发展是可能的建议research. The频率，强度和土地利用的程度代表人类的决策，在社会经济和地球物理条件的后果，级联通过生态系统。研究活动分为三项举措：（1）“社会-自然模板”的特征描述;（2）生态系统对社会-自然模板的反应;（3）预测生态系统对社会-自然模板变化的反应。综合科学研究将描述和解释土地利用的根本原因以及土地利用变化对阿巴拉契亚南部生态系统和社会的影响。因此，它认识到土地使用作为一个过程的复杂性，以及LTER方案和更广泛的科学界和公众所确定的研究和外联需求。

The Coweeta LTER Research Program has evolved since 1980 from a site-based to a site- and region-based project examining the effects of disturbance and environmental gradients on biogeochemical cycling, and the underlying watershed ecosystem processes that regulate and respond to those cycles. The objective for the proposed 2002-2008 research is to advance scientific understanding of the spatial, temporal, and decision-making components of land use and land-use change in the southern Appalachian Mountains over the last 200 years, and forecast patterns into the future 30 years. This will be accomplished by addressing ecological and socioeconomic aspects of land-use change while continuing long-term studies of environmental gradients and natural disturbance regimes. The result will be a more complete understanding of ecological dynamics in the southern Appalachian Mountains that makes possible the development of reasonable forecasts of its future ecological state.The guiding hypothesis for the proposed research is that the frequency, intensity, and extent of land use represents human decision-making in response to socioeconomic and biogeophysical conditions with consequences that cascade through ecosystems. The research activities are organized into three initiatives: (1) characterization of the "socio-natural template," (2) ecosystem responses to the socio-natural template, and (3) forecasting ecosystem responses to changes in the socio-natural template. The integrated scientific research will provide both a description as well as an explanation of the underlying causes of land use and the consequences of land-use change for southern Appalachian ecosystems and society. It thus recognizes the complexity of land use as a process and the research and outreach needs as defined in the LTER Program and the broader scientific and public communities.