RCN: Drought Impacts on Regional Ecosystems Network (DIREnet): Coordinating Studies on Southwest Forests & Woodlands.

干旱对区域生态系统的影响网络(DIREnet)将促进关于干旱影响和全球气候变化潜在作用的生态研究的协调和综合。过去九年的严重区域性干旱迅速而显著地改变了西南地区的森林和林地生态系统。DIRENet将促进和整合解决只能通过区域网络解决的关键问题所需的研究。DIREnet将把研究人员和土地管理者聚集在一起，通过会议评估干旱的影响，这些会议将促进新的研究并综合现有的研究。学生研究人员交流计划将促进新的研究机会，并促进技术转让。一个复杂的在线论坛(西南生态研究论坛[SERF])将作为一个全球可访问的数据交换中心，提供先进的分析和可视化以及科学讨论和交流的论坛。总而言之，这些努力将极大地促进我们理解干旱如何影响主要生态系统，包括改变火灾制度和栖息地退化，以及气候变化情景可能如何改变未来的干旱动态。与美洲原住民和普通公众的接触将有助于改进自然资源利用规划和政策制定。DIREnet将为网络技术提供一个模式，这些网络技术需要将分布在不同地理位置的跨学科科学界聚集在一起，共同开展研究工作，重点解决广泛的研究问题。

The Drought Impacts on Regional Ecosystems Network (DIREnet) will promote the coordination and synthesis of ecological research on drought effects and the potential role of global climate change. A severe regional drought in the last nine years has rapidly and dramatically altered Southwest forest and woodland ecosystems. DIREnet will promote and integrate research needed to address key questions that can only be addressed with a regional network. DIREnet will bring researchers and land managers together to assess the impacts of the drought through conferences that will foster new research and synthesize existing research. A student researcher exchange program will promote novel research opportunities, and facilitate technology transfer. A sophisticated online forum (Southwest Ecological Research Forum [SERF]) will serve as a globally accessible data clearinghouse, providing advanced analysis and visualization and a forum for scientific discussion and communication. In combination, these efforts will greatly promote our understanding of how droughts impact major ecosystems, including altered fire regimes and habitat degradation, and how climate change scenarios may alter drought dynamics in the future. Outreach to Native Americans and the general public will help improve natural resource use planning and policy development. DIREnet will provide a model for network technologies that are needed to bring together interdisciplinary, geographically-distributed scientific communities in a common research effort focused on addressing broad research issues.