LTER: The Interacting Effects of Hydroclimate Variability and Human Landscape Modification in the Southern Appalachian Mountains

阿巴拉契亚山脉南部是一个生物多样性热点，正在迅速发展。它们拥有独特的物种和组合，是淡水的来源，也是附近大都市地区人口的娱乐目的地。在可预见的未来，阿巴拉契亚南部地区的农村和城市人口总数预计将继续以两位数的速度增长，同时林地将转变为发达地区。阿巴拉契亚南部的森林是在水分丰富的气候条件下发展起来的，随着人类对水的需求增加和气候变化，可能特别容易受到干旱增加的影响。这项长期研究解决了生物体对水分状况变化的复杂性，将基础研究的结果与其实际意义联系起来。Coweeta听力项目和Coweeta Scholyard项目翻译和交流社区相关的研究成果，使社会参与阿巴拉契亚山脉南部的科学。教育活动包括基于实地的环境教育和对中学教师和学生的课堂支持，以及针对土地所有者的关于河岸走廊完整性的重要性的外展计划。该项目将继续研究水文气候变化和人类改造的景观如何单独和交互地改变阿巴拉契亚山脉南部的生态系统过程和生物群落，反过来，影响区域社会生态系统的脆弱性。这项研究建立在对考维塔盆地内外众多永久性地块的长期研究基础上，其中包括20多年的树木人口数据，代表了超过35万棵树。一套草本，无脊椎动物和脊椎动物物种的性能和丰度将在考维塔盆地内外进行测量。一个大规模的实验将被用来评估后杜鹃花的植被动态，土壤微生物群落，土壤胞外酶活性，养分库和通量的恢复去除率。治疗将检查过程中的陆地和河流生态系统之间的界面上密集的地块规模和广泛的达到规模的测量。过去和现在的水文气候变化的建模将用于建立生态系统功能和风险，从当地到区域地理。如果生态科学要预测、应对和减轻这些变化和相关的脆弱性，就必须了解生态系统、生物体及其对水文气候变化和人类活动的反应之间的关系。

The southern Appalachian Mountains are a biodiversity hotspot undergoing rapid development. They harbor unique species and assemblages, and are the source of freshwater as well as a recreational destination for human populations in nearby metropolitan areas. The total rural and urban population of the southern Appalachian region is expected to continue growing at double-digit rates for the foreseeable future, accompanied by conversion of forested land to developed areas. Forests such as those in southern Appalachia have developed under moisture-rich climates, and may be particularly susceptible to the increased droughts predicted as human demand for water increases and as climate changes. This long-term research addresses the complexity of organismal responses to increasing variability in moisture regimes, linking results of basic research to their practical implications. The Coweeta Listening Project and the Coweeta Scholyard Program translate and communicate community-relevant research results to engage society with science in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Educational activities include field-based environmental education and in-classroom support for middle school teachers and students, as well as outreach programs to land owners on the importance of riparian corridor integrity.This project will continue to examine how hydroclimate variability and the human-modified landscape separately and interactively alter southern Appalachian Mountain ecosystem processes and biotic communities that, in turn, affect the vulnerabilities of regional socio-ecological systems. The research builds on long-term studies across numerous permanent plots within and beyond the Coweeta Basin that include over 20 years of tree demographic data representing more than 350,000 tree-years. Performance and abundance of a suite of herbaceous, invertebrate, and vertebrate species will be measured within and beyond the Coweeta Basin. A large-scale experiment will be used to assess the post-rhododendron removal rates of recovery for vegetation dynamics, soil microbial communities, soil extracellular enzyme activity, and nutrient pools and fluxes. Treatments will examine processes at the interface between terrestrial and stream ecosystems based on intensive plot-scale and extensive reach-scale measurements. Modeling of past and present hydroclimate variability will be used to establish ecosystem function and risks from local to regional geographies. Understanding the relationships between ecosystems, organisms, and their responses to the forces of hydroclimate variability and human activities on the land are essential if ecological science is to anticipate, respond to, and mitigate these changes and the associated vulnerabilities.