Collaborative Research: On Topographic Imprint of Hillslope Aspect: Deciphering Aspect Controls on Vegetation and Landforms in Central New Mexico

合作研究：在山坡地形的印记方面：在新墨西哥州中部的植被和地貌的破译方面的控制本项目将调查方面和植被在调节速率和景观演变过程中的作用，在中部新墨西哥州，在沙漠海拔方面起着主导作用的生态系统结构。在半干旱生态系统中，特别是在美国西南部的长期生态研究地点，研究了植被格局对径流和侵蚀的影响。研究已经确定了植被变化对景观尺度影响的关键问题，并提出了可检验的假设。然而，长期的影响，植被侵蚀的相互作用对产沙量和地形演变还没有得到充分的记录和模拟。本研究将研究中度至低救济集水区在中部新墨西哥州（西北部的塞维利亚国家野生动物保护区），北向斜坡的特点是由杜松草稀树草原，和南向斜坡灌木丛，与其他因素，如降水，岩性和海拔相对均匀。据信，该遗址现有的植被格局自全新世中期以来一直存在，在此之前，该地区主要是松树-杜松-橡树林地。相反的山坡在现场表现出普遍的差异，在他们的形态与朝北的斜坡通常更陡峭，更平面比朝南的斜坡，并在其生态水文响应季风降水。这项工作将利用各种基于过程的研究方法，包括生态水文监测（土壤水分、径流、蒸散、生物量），调查土壤、植被和地形的共同演变;测定表层沉积物的年代，以估算全新世侵蚀率;以及生态水文和景观演变的数值模拟。更广泛的影响：该项目将培养两名研究生。两个机构将共同开发一个项目网站，报告研究结果、数据和数值模型实验的可视化。这项跨学科的研究将对塞维利亚国家野生动物保护区正在进行的生态系统监测研究产生重大影响。特别是，我们的建模方法将提供预测生物群落过渡和土地利用变化对区域水文和泥沙产量的影响的能力。这样的建模工作是至关重要的栖息地保护，恢复和土地利用规划工作在美国西南部以及在世界各地的其他半干旱地区。

Collaborative Research: On Topographic Imprint of Hillslope Aspect: Deciphering Aspect Controls on Vegetation and Landforms in Central New Mexico This project will investigate the role of aspect and vegetation in modulating rates and processes of landscape evolution in desert elevations of central New Mexico, where aspect plays a dominant role on ecosystem structure. The influence of vegetation patterns on runoff and erosion have been studied in semiarid ecosystems, especially in the Long Term Ecological Research sites in the southwest US. Research has identified critical concerns about the landscape scale impacts of vegetation change, and resulted in testable hypotheses. Yet, long-term implications of vegetation-erosion interactions on sediment yields and landform evolution have not been adequately documented and modeled. This research will study moderate- to low-relief catchmets in central New Mexico (northwest part of the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge), where north-facing slopes are characterized by a juniper-grass savanna, and south-facing slopes by shrublands, with other factors such as precipitation, lithology, and elevation are relatively uniform. Existing vegetation patterns in this site are believed to have been present since the mid Holocene, before which pinon-juniper-oak woodlands dominated the region. The opposing hillslopes in the site show pervasive differences in their morphologies with north-facing slopes usually steeper and more planar than south-facing slopes, and in their ecohydrological response to monsoon precipitation. This work will investigate the co-evolution of soils, vegetation and topography using a variety of process-based research methods including ecohydrological monitoring (soil moisture, runoff, evapotranspiration, biomass); dating of surface sediments to approximate Holocene erosion rates; and numerical modeling of ecohydrology and landscape evolution. Broader Impacts: This project will train two graduate students. A project website will be jointly developed between the two institutions, reporting research results, data, and visualization of numerical model experiments. This interdisciplinary research will have a significant impact on the ongoing efforts in ecosystem monitoring studies in the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge. In particular, our modeling approach will offer capabilities in predicting the impacts of biome transition and land-use change on regional hydrology and sediment yields. Such modeling efforts are of critical importance in habitat conservation, restoration, and land-use planning efforts across the southwest US as well as in other semiarid regions worldwide.