EAGER: Spatial patterns of nutrient limitation and carbon storage in South African coastal lowland landscapes

从地理上看，非洲是了解陆地-大气碳交换的最薄弱环节之一。这项研究的目标是(1)采用一种新的实验设计来确定养分有效性的变化如何决定草原碳生产力的空间格局，以及(2)首次对南非东南沿海两个优先自然保护区内的沿海和沙丘森林的碳储量进行量化。每个保护区内的火和植被模式的对比将使人们能够在景观尺度上发展关于非洲碳储存的新的热解地理视角。通过研究南非沿海优先保护区的碳储存，这项研究将加深对非洲景观在保护管理和全球生态系统科学中的作用的理解。目前缺乏对火、气候和养分循环之间复杂相互作用的了解，阻碍了生态系统对气候变化反应的广泛建模。这一问题对非洲尤为严重，因为非洲是火灾产生的碳排放的最大来源，对非洲的碳储量估计很少。正如本项目所探讨的那样，直接测量新地点的碳储量并确定其在多个尺度上的限制因素，对于未来诊断建模工作的发展至关重要。了解火和土壤养分如何支配这些模式，将有助于该地区和全球的景观和保护管理。这项研究还将有助于培养国际合作科学方面的研究生，这是一项关键的国家教育优先事项。

Geographically, Africa is one of the weakest links in understanding land-atmosphere carbon exchange. The objectives of this research are to (1) employ a novel experimental design to determine how variation in nutrient availability determines spatial patterns in grassland carbon productivity and (2) provide the first-ever quantification of carbon storage in coastal and dune forests within two priority nature reserves in the southeastern coast of South Africa. Contrasting fire and vegetation patterns within each reserve will allow for the development of new pyrogeographic perspectives on African carbon storage at landscape scales. By studying carbon storage in priority conservation areas in coastal South Africa, this research will establish a deeper understanding of the role of African landscapes in conservation management and global ecosystem science. A current lack of understanding of complex interactions among fire, climate, and nutrient cycling hinders broad-scale modeling of ecosystem response to climate change. This issue is particularly acute for Africa, which represents the largest source of fire-derived carbon emissions and for which carbon storage estimates are scarce. Direct measurement of carbon storage in new locations and identification of its limiting factors across multiple scales, as explored in this project, are critical for the development of future diagnostic modeling efforts. Understanding how fire and soil nutrients govern these patterns will contribute to landscape and conservation management in the region and globally. This research will also contribute to the training of graduate students in collaborative international science which is a key national educational priority.