LTER: Changing Disturbances, Ecological Legacies, and the Future of the Alaskan Boreal Forest

在过去的一个世纪里，阿拉斯加变暖的速度是全球平均速度的两倍，其北部森林的内部出现了大幅增长。这种更温暖、更干燥的气候引发了区域野火、虫害和病原体暴发以及永久冻土融化的重要变化。Bonanza Creek长期生态研究(BNZ LTER)计划将促进对气候变化和干扰机制对阿拉斯加北部针叶林的影响的了解，并探索对气候系统反馈的相关区域后果。BNZ LTER计划将与阿拉斯加原住民社区以及州和联邦土地管理机构合作，识别脆弱性并探索适应环境变化的机会。该计划将增加对生态学理论以及北方生物群和永冻土在地球系统中的作用的理解。BNZ LTER将通过校园LTER接触学生和教育工作者，并为本科生、第一代大学生和普通公众培养科学项目，与更广泛的社区分享成果。这次更新将引入一个新的阿拉斯加原住民咨询委员会，它将把一个充满活力和包容性的阿拉斯加原住民视角引入BNZ计划。这个研究计划将专注于通过传递支持生态系统恢复和稳定的信息和材料来传递过去生态系统的生态遗产。气候或干扰制度的变化可以改变关键的遗产，并促使生态系统迅速重组，进入新的恢复轨道。其中包括向新状态的转移，这些状态不太可能恢复到干扰前的生态系统。生态系统状态的频率和寿命的这种变化可以在景观尺度上重组过程。它们可以影响土壤热状态、水文学、物种组成和生物相互作用、生物地球化学循环、生态系统服务和社会生态系统的动态。BNZ LTER计划解决了以下问题：1)遗产如何约束阿拉斯加北部森林对气候变化的反应；2)这些遗产将如何影响未来的生态系统轨迹；3)这些新兴生态系统轨迹现在和未来对当地、地区和全球的影响是什么？关于遗产在生态系统弹性和变化中的作用的多种机械假说将使用该网站的数据进行测试。将继续收集长期数据，并将其与来自新站点、实验和调查的数据结合起来。这将扩大研究，以调查新类型的干扰影响。统计和基于过程的模拟模型将结合起来，在景观尺度上预测当前和未来的生态动态和反馈。它将确定社会生态脆弱性，并与阿拉斯加原住民和阿拉斯加社区一起探索适应机会。这个长期生态研究站点得到了环境生物学部门和极地计划办公室的支持。这一奖项反映了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 century, Alaska has been warming twice as quickly as the global average, with large increases occurring in its interior boreal forests. This warmer, drier climate has triggered important changes to regional wildfire, pests and pathogen outbreaks, and permafrost thaw. The Bonanza Creek Long-Term Ecological Research (BNZ LTER) program will advance understanding of the impacts of changing climate and disturbance regimes on the Alaskan boreal forest and explore associated regional consequences on feedbacks to the climate system. In collaboration with Alaska Native communities, as well as state and federal land management agencies, the BNZ LTER program will identify vulnerabilities and explore adaptation opportunities to environmental change. The program will increase understanding of ecological theory and the role of the boreal biome and permafrost soils in the Earth System. The BNZ LTER will share results with a broader community via outreach to students and educators through their schoolyard LTER and fostering science programs for undergraduate students, first-generation college students, and the general public. A new Alaska Native Advisory Council, which will bring a dynamic and inclusive Alaska Native perspective into the BNZ program will be introduced with this renewal.This research program will focus on ecological legacies of past ecosystems transmitted through carryover of information and materials that support ecosystem recovery and stabilization. Changes in climate or disturbance regimes can modify key legacies and trigger rapid ecosystem reorganization into new recovery trajectories. These include shifts to new states that are unlikely to recover to the pre-disturbance ecosystem. Such shifts in the frequency and longevity of ecosystem states can restructure processes at the landscape scale. They can influence soil thermal states, hydrology, species composition and biotic interactions, biogeochemical cycles, ecosystem services, and dynamics of social-ecological systems. The BNZ LTER program addresses the following questions: 1) how do legacies constrain the response of the Alaskan boreal forest to climate change, 2) how will these legacies affect future ecosystem trajectories, and 3) what are the local, regional, and global impacts of these emergent ecosystem trajectories now and in the future? Multiple mechanistic hypotheses about the role of legacies in ecosystem resilience and change will be tested using data from the site. Collection of long-term data will be continued and combined with data from new sites, experiments, and surveys. This will expand research to investigate new types of disturbance impacts. Statistical and process-based simulation models will be combined to predict current and future ecological dynamics and feedbacks at the landscape scale. It will identify social-ecological vulnerabilities and explore adaptation opportunities with Alaska Natives and Alaskan communities. This Long Term Ecological Research site is supported by The Division of Environmental Biology and the Office of Polar Programs.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.