Collaborative Research: Fire, ecosystem, and landscape dynamics in Afroalpine environments in a warmer world

山区对气候变化很敏感，最近的变暖导致物种变化，水资源减少，火灾日益严重。气候变化、野火和水循环之间的相互作用在许多山区都得到了很好的研究，比如美国西部，那里的森林火灾非常频繁。最近的事件表明，野火也可能是对热带山区环境的一个新的威胁，因为那里的自然火灾被认为是罕见的。野火对热带山区森林组成和水资源的影响知之甚少。该项目的目标是调查热带山区，特别是乌干达鲁文佐里山脉国家公园的火灾、植被和洪水变化的原因。这项研究将提高我们预测热带山区系统对未来气候变化的反应的能力，并为这些生态系统中与火灾有关的管理战略奠定基础。该项目将为许多研究生和本科生提供进行研究的机会，将提供关于气候和植被建模的短期课程，并将开发新的课堂模块，用于普罗维登斯公立学校系统。这项研究将调查气候，火灾制度，植被组成和洪水之间的相互作用，通过分析从高山环境中的鲁文佐里山脉，一个以其生物多样性而闻名的网站恢复湖泊沉积物芯。该项目将检验热带山区环境火灾状况的变化受温度变化影响的假设。还将研究改变火灾状况在影响植被组合和催化洪水事件方面的作用。该项目将根据沉积物岩心的几个方面产生新的古生态和古气候记录：化石炭和花粉成分、有机地球化学数据和沉积物成分。 这些分析将侧重于时间间隔，如全新世中期，当温度比现在温暖，以调查温暖的温度如何影响生态系统动态。预计这些结果将有助于了解生态系统的动态和弹性研究不足的非洲高山环境。该项目由地貌学和土地利用动力学计划共同资助。该奖项反映了NSF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。

Mountain regions are sensitive to climate change, where recent warming has contributed to changes in species, declines in water resources, and increasingly intense fires. The interactions between climate change, wildfire, and water cycles are well-studied in many mountain regions, such as the western United States, where forest fires are very frequent. Recent events suggest that wildfire may also be an emerging threat to tropical mountain environments, where natural fires are thought to be rare. The effects of wildfires on forest composition and water resources in tropical mountain regions are poorly known. The goal of this project is to investigate the causes of changes in fire, vegetation, and flooding in tropical mountains, specifically in the Rwenzori Mountains National Park, Uganda. This research will improve our ability to predict the responses of tropical mountain systems to future climate change and establish a basis for management strategies related to fire in these ecosystems. The project will provide opportunities for many graduate and undergraduate students to conduct research, will deliver a short course on climate and vegetation modeling, and will develop new classroom modules to be used in the Providence Public School System. This research will investigate the interactions between climate, fire regimes, vegetation composition, and flooding through analysis of lake sediment cores recovered from alpine environments in the Rwenzori Mountains, a site famous for its biodiversity. The project will test the hypothesis that changes in fire regimes in tropical mountain environments are influenced by temperature change. The role of changing fire regimes in influencing vegetation assemblages and catalyzing flood events will also be examined. The project will generate new paleoecological and paleoclimatological records based on several aspects of the sediment cores: fossil charcoal and pollen composition, organic geochemical data, and sediment composition. These analyses will focus on time intervals such as the mid-Holocene, when temperatures were warmer than the present day, to investigate how warm temperatures influenced ecosystem dynamics. The results are expected to contribute to the understanding of ecosystem dynamics and resilience in poorly-studied Afroalpine environments. This project is co-funded by the Geomorphology and Land-use Dynamics Program.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.