CNH2-L: Using Sound to Advance Conceptual Frameworks of Resilience of Integrated Grassland-Pastoralist Systems

世界各地的草地生物群落正在迅速消失，因为它们被转化为农田，被驯化的牲畜开采和放牧。在少数草原地区，当地牧民数千年的使用已经形成了长期可持续的管理系统。这些系统已成为具有复原力的综合社会环境系统的范例。本研究调查了人类-牧区系统的特征，这些特征可能表现出弹性，从而促进可持续性。风、雷、破冰、鹿和鸟的声音，以及其他声音，都可以被牧民用来决定何时迁移到夏季地区，或者破坏性的天气是否会威胁到牛群或家园。牧民通过叫声和歌声将这一知识传递给几代人，将有关环境的信息编纂成法典。这种传统的生态知识帮助牧民平衡草原的利用及其生产力。随着牧民放弃了他们的历史生活方式，失去了这些传统的知识形式，这种知识的丧失对如何可持续地管理草原的未来意味着什么？本研究将通过评估大型完整草原系统中声景-牧民-草地系统的关键方面来回答这个问题和其他问题。从研究中获得的信息将为草原管理者提供有价值的见解。研究人员计划广泛传播研究结果，包括向学生和公众传播如何可持续地管理人类草原系统。该项目让研究人员和牧民作为知识的共同发现者共同参与，提供关键信息，帮助了解牧草地系统的耦合、解耦和重新耦合的潜力。这项工作的独特之处包括将声音作为自然、社会和文化组成部分的“通用变量”，使用被动声学传感器和声学内容分析使用声景来监测草原系统的状态，以及使用民族音乐学方法来理解声音实践对这一综合系统和牧民传统生态知识的作用。这项工作的优点在于使用声音来测量人类和自然系统之间的动态，团队成员和方法的跨学科性质以及与当地草原管理员共同生产知识。它有可能阐明复杂的社会和环境相互作用在可持续生活中的作用。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Grassland biomes are rapidly being lost around the world as they are converted to croplands, mined, and grazed by domesticated livestock. In a few grassland areas, thousands of years of use by native herders has resulted in management systems that are sustainable over time. These systems have become examples of resilient integrated socio-environmental systems. This study investigates features of a human-pastoral system that may demonstrate resiliency, thereby promoting sustainability. Sounds of wind, thunder, ice breaking, deer, and birds, among others, can be used by herders to determine when to move to summer landscapes, or if damaging weather may threaten herds or homes. Herders pass on this knowledge through calls and songs that codify information about the environment through multiple generations. This traditional ecological knowledge has helped herders balance the use of grasslands and its productivity. As herders abandon their historical way of life and lose these traditional forms of knowledge, what does this loss of knowledge mean for the future of how grasslands are managed sustainably? This study will answer this and other questions by evaluating critical aspects of the soundscape-pastoralist-grassland system in a large intact grassland system. The information gained from the research will provide insight that is valuable to grassland managers. The investigators plan to disseminate findings widely, including to students and the general public, on how human-grassland systems can be managed sustainably. This project co-engages researchers and herders as co-discoverers of knowledge that provides critical information to help understand the coupling, decoupling and potential for recoupling of the pastoral-grassland system. Unique aspects of this work include the use of sound as a "universal variable" across natural, social, and cultural components, the use of soundscapes to monitor the status of the grassland system using passive acoustic sensors and acoustic content analysis, and the use of ethnomusicological approaches to understand the role that sonic practices have on this integrated system and the traditional ecological knowledge of herders. The merit of the work results from the use of sound to measure the dynamics across human and natural systems, the transdisciplinary nature of the team members and approaches and the co-production of knowledge with local grassland stewards. It holds the potential to clarify the role of complex social and environmental interactions in sustainable living.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.