RAPID Response to the High Park Fire, Larimer County, Colorado

在过去的一个月里，科罗拉多州北部High Park的一场野火烧毁了超过3.5万公顷的土地，由于火灾的范围、严重程度和持续时间，野火被定义为最糟糕的火灾。这一快速奖励将提供资金，以记录High Park大火对烧毁地区的森林、土壤和地貌的影响。为收集关于森林组成、结构和三维分布、土壤生物群以及侵蚀和沉积速率的基线信息而开展的有针对性的实地活动将与利用霓虹灯航空天文台(AOP)遥感数据(可见光到短波红外成像光谱仪、小足迹波形激光雷达和高分辨率数码相机)在受火灾干扰的地区和邻近的未烧毁地区进行遥感数据采集相协调。这是一个前所未有的机会，可以使用这一新的研究工具来量化这种规模的生态事件。由于这是一项快速反应建议，因此重点放在基本数据收集上，以确定火灾后情况的特征，但数据收集工作是在两大类科学问题的背景下设计的，用于未来的研究：1.火灾前的条件如何影响火灾行为和影响？2.火灾的严重程度和模式如何影响火灾后的轨迹？这一快速奖提供了资金，以收集应对这场自然灾害的数据；它的紧迫性来自于火灾后地面条件迅速发生变化的可能性很高。夏季降雨将引发火灾后的侵蚀和沉积；管理活动将改变景观特征，植被将开始再生。智力的优势既来自科学问题，也来自于利用AOP收集前所未有的规模(厘米到公里)的地形、地貌、生物和化学信息的能力。将实地数据集和遥感数据集结合起来，将能够对火灾的影响进行前所未有的评估，为科学界和管理界提供有用的数据产品，并支持今后对火灾后轨迹的研究。这项研究的发现将对该地区的多个利益相关者产生重大兴趣，包括美国和国家林业局以及柯林斯堡和格里利市，这两个城市的供水都将受到火灾后侵蚀的影响。将举办一次研讨会，与利益攸关方协调研究结果，并转让在处理干旱、火灾和供水之间的复杂反馈方面获得的数据产品和知识。

Over the past month a wildfire in High Park in Northern Colorado burned over 35,000 ha and was defined as a worst-case scenario fire due to the extent, severity, and duration of the fire. This RAPID award will provide funds to document the impact of the High Park fire on the forests, soils and geomorphology of the burned area. A targeted field campaign to collect baseline information on forest composition, structure and three-dimensional distribution, soil biota, and rates of erosion and sedimentation will be coordinated with remote sensing data acquisition using NEON's Airborne Observatory (AOP) remotely sensed data (visible-to-shortwave infrared imaging spectrometer, small footprint waveform lidar, and high resolution digital camera) over the area disturbed by the fire and adjacent unburned areas. This is an unprecedented opportunity to use this new research tool to quantify an ecological episodic event of this magnitude. Because this is a rapid response proposal, the focus is on essential data collection to characterize post-fire conditions, but data collection efforts are designed in the context of two broad categories of science questions for future research: 1. How did conditions prior to the fire affect fire behavior and impacts? and 2. How does fire severity and pattern affect post-fire trajectories? This RAPID award provides funds to gather data in response to this natural disaster; its urgency derives from the high probability that conditions on the ground will change rapidly after the fire. Summer rains will initiate post-fire erosion and sedimentation; management activities will alter the landscape characteristics, and vegetation will begin to regenerate. The intellectual merit derives from both the science questions but also the ability gather topographic, geomorphic, biological, and chemical information on unprecedented scales (cm to km) with the AOP. Combining the field and remote sensing datasets will allow an unprecedented assessment of the impact of the fire, provide data products useful to the scientific and management communities, and support future research on post-fire trajectories. Findings from this research will be of significant interest to multiple stakeholders in the region, including the US and State Forest Service and the Cities of Fort Collins and Greeley, who both have water supplies that will be affected by post-fire erosion. A workshop will be held to coordinate research results with stakeholders and transfer data products and knowledge gained in addressing complex feedbacks between drought, fire, and water supply.