RAPID: Collaborative Research: Forest Ecosystem Responses to Interacting Bark Beetle and Fire Disturbance are set up by Regeneration in the First Year

在过去的20年里，美国西部的森林经历了树皮甲虫侵扰的增加和森林火灾的更高发生率。由此导致的树木死亡会产生生态系统反应，影响水的数量和质量、碳储存和养分循环，并对未来的森林生产和健康产生影响。了解这两种压力是如何影响森林的，对于美国西部的水资源管理和可获得性至关重要。该奖项将对预测碳、氮和水在这些森林中移动的位置和速度的生态系统模型做出重大贡献。这项研究的结果将通过怀俄明州水论坛与地区水和森林管理者分享。未被充分代表的第一代大学预科学生将通过怀俄明大学的“夏季研究学徒计划”参与该项目。该奖项将量化与后甲虫火灾强度相关的碳和水通量，将这些通量划分为林下植物、地上植物和土壤的贡献。研究人员将进一步评估后甲虫火灾和植被再生之间的互动影响，特别是在土壤水分和有效土壤氮方面。研究人员将利用最近的一场大火，烧毁了怀俄明州烟囱公园一片受甲虫影响的松林。烧伤严重程度的异质性分布和现有的烧毁前数据提供了一个独特的机会，可以了解在连续和相互作用的干扰之后，控制森林生态系统内水、碳和氮循环的物理和生物过程。研究人员将使用涡旋协方差、树干液流、电阻率断层扫描、植被调查和生物地球化学技术来测量不同后甲虫燃烧强度(仅限树皮甲虫、树皮甲虫加上林下火、树皮甲虫和以林代火)的森林斑块中的生态系统池和二氧化碳、水和氮素的通量。这项研究将利用现有设备，并从广泛的干扰前数据集中获益。该奖项将对这些森林中的生物(例如，植物电导率控制的蒸腾作用)和/或物理(例如，土壤蒸发和光秃秃的树枝)驱动因素进行预测和归因。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Over the past two decades, forests in the western US have experienced increases in bark beetle infestations and higher incidence of forest fires. The resulting tree mortality produces ecosystem responses that affect water quantity and quality, carbon storage, and nutrient cycling, with implications for future forest production and health. Understanding how these two stresses affect forests is critical to the management and availability of water in the western US. This award will significantly contribute to ecosystem models that predict where and how fast carbon, nitrogen and water move in these forests. Results from this study will be shared with regional water and forest managers using the Wyoming Water Forum. Underrepresented and first-generation pre-college students will be involved in the project through the University of Wyoming "Summer Research Apprentice Program".This award will quantify carbon and water fluxes in relation to post-beetle fire intensity, partitioning these fluxes into contributions from the understory plants, overstory plants, and soil. The researchers will further assess the interactive effects between post-beetle fire and vegetation regrowth, specifically in regard to soil water and available soil N. The researchers will take advantage of a recent fire that burned through a beetle-affected lodgepole pine forest in Chimney Park Wyoming. The heterogeneous distribution of burn severity and existing pre-burn data provide a unique opportunity to understand the physical and biological processes that control the water, carbon, and nitrogen cycles within a forest ecosystem following sequential and interacting disturbances. The researchers will measure ecosystem pools and fluxes of carbon dioxide, water, and nitrogen in forest patches of different post-beetle burn intensities (bark beetles only, bark beetles plus understory fire, bark beetles and stand replacing fire) using eddy covariance, sap flow, electrical resistivity tomography, vegetation surveys, and biogeochemical techniques. This study will leverage existing equipment and benefits from an extensive pre-disturbance data set. This award will develop predictions and attribution to biological (e.g. transpiration controlled by plant conductance) and/or physical (e.g. soil evaporation and interception from bare branches) drivers in these forests.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.