Collaborative Research: How structural heterogeneity and connectivity of landscapes affect wind dispersal

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。目前和未来的全球变化，如栖息地破碎化和气候变化，可能需要物种依赖于罕见的长距离传播事件的持久性。许多种子、孢子、幼虫、花粉和真菌的运动都依赖于风力。 景观连通性和栖息地结构的变化强烈影响空气的流动，特别是湍流和抬升的数量，这是已知的驱动长距离扩散的两个关键因素。 过去的机制模型忽略了景观异质性的影响（例如，林冠结构、林隙、廊道和生境片断）。 一个关键的新领域是纳入结构异质性对风驱动的扩散的影响。 我们使用的建模方法来预测风驱动的种子传播异质景观和评估这个模型在复制的大规模栖息地破碎化实验在萨凡纳河网站在南卡罗来纳州。我们将这些预测扩展到多个物种，景观配置和空间尺度，是相关的保护和管理决策。 该项目将支持工程，气象和生态专家之间的跨学科和国际合作，并将协助培训博士后研究员，研究生和几名本科生和技术人员。 此外，这项提议将支持编制研究生课程，将流体动力学、生态学和进化的材料结合起来。调查结果将与包括美国林务局在内的土地管理人员进行沟通，以帮助保护工作。数据将在国家生态分析和综合中心的生物复杂性知识网络存档，供其他研究人员使用。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Current and future global changes such as habitat fragmentation and climate change may require species to depend on rare long distance dispersal events for their persistence. Many seeds, spores, larvae, pollen, and fungi depend on wind dynamics for their movement. Landscape connectivity and changes in habitat structure strongly influence the flow of air, particularly the amount of turbulence and uplifting, two critical factors known to drive long distance dispersal. Past mechanistic models have ignored the effects of landscape heterogeneity (e.g., canopy structure, forest gaps, corridors, and habitat fragments). A critical new frontier is to incorporate the influence of structural heterogeneity on wind-driven dispersal. We use a modeling approach to predict wind-driven seed dispersal in heterogeneous landscapes and evaluate this model in a replicated large-scale habitat fragmentation experiment at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. We will extend these predictions to multiple species, landscape configurations, and spatial scales that are relevant to conservation and management decisions. This project will support an interdisciplinary and international collaboration among engineering, meteorology, and ecology experts and will assist in training a postdoctoral researcher, a graduate student, and several undergraduate students and technicians. In addition, this proposal will support the development of graduate courses that integrate material on fluid dynamics and ecology and evolution. Results will be communicated with land managers including the U.S. Forest Service to aid in conservation efforts. Data will be archived with the Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis to be made available to other researchers.