RAPID Proposal: Modification of the impact of insect disturbance on carbon cycling by fire

这个快速项目利用2012年夏季的一场野火，研究多重干扰对落基山脉地区松林功能的影响。High Park大火是科罗拉多州历史上规模最大、破坏最严重的火灾，尽管如此规模的大火预计在更温暖的未来将在整个地区变得更加常见。在这种情况下，火区周边范围内的扰动历史为研究火前扰动历史对森林碳和养分循环的影响提供了难得的机会。调查人员将测量被烧毁和未被烧毁的林地中植被、地面和土壤中剩余的活的和死亡的有机物和化学物质的数量和分布，同时也注意到这些林地以前是否曾被山松甲虫侵扰。这将能够测试昆虫暴发和野火的相加影响，并能够对该地区未来潜在的森林状况做出更有见地的预测。大学科学家将在火灾中烧毁的地块安装仪器，这些地块在最近的疫情中也有甲虫出没，并与未烧毁的地块进行比较。美国林业局将在地块中测量树木、地面覆盖物和土壤条件，这些地块可以重新采样，并与未来的测量结果进行比较。新的分析技术将被应用于土壤有机质组成和年龄的表征。最后，国家生态观测网新提供的一架配备高光谱和激光雷达传感器的飞机将飞行，以全面覆盖整个火灾区域的即时火灾后地表条件，以便可以根据地块测量推断结果。该项目涉及科罗拉多州和亚利桑那州的多所大学、霓虹灯和美国林业局的一项新颖合作，将为森林管理人员提供有价值的信息，帮助他们思考更多火灾的未来，以及关于历史如何影响森林生态系统对多种压力的反应的独特科学见解。

This RAPID project takes advantage of a wildfire from the summer of 2012 to study the impacts of multiple disturbances on the functioning of pine forests in the Rocky Mountain region. The High Park Fire was the largest and most damaging in Colorado history, although fires of its magnitude are expected to become more common throughout the region in a warmer future. In this case, the range of disturbance histories within the perimeter of the fire area provides a rare opportunity to study the impact of pre-fire disturbance history on forest carbon and nutrient cycling. The investigators will make measurements of the amounts and distribution of remaining living and dead organic matter and chemicals in vegetation, on the ground and in the soil in burned and unburned forest patches, while also noting whether or not the patches had been previously infested by mountain pine beetles. This will enable tests of the additive impacts of insect outbreaks and wildfire and enable more informed predictions about potential forest conditions in the future in this region. Instruments will be installed by university scientists in plots burned in the fire that were also either infested or not by beetles during the most recent outbreak and compared with unburned plots. The U.S. Forest Service will measure trees, ground cover and soil conditions on the ground in the plots that can be resampled and compared to measurements made in the future. New analytical techniques will be applied to characterize soil organic matter composition and age. Finally, a newly available aircraft from the National Ecological Observatory Network equipped with hyperspectral and LIDAR sensors will be flown to provide blanket coverage of immediate post-fire surface conditions in the entire fire area so that results can be extrapolated from plot measurements. This project involves a novel collaboration of multiple universities in Colorado and Arizona, NEON, and the U.S. Forest Service that will provide valuable information to forest managers as they contemplate a future with more fire, as well as unique scientific insights into how history affects the responses of forest ecosystems to multiple stressors.