Doctoral Dissertation Research: Intermediate-severity wind disturbance and cultural fire in the maintenance of mixedwood forests

随着气候变化改变推动森林生长的生态条件，全世界的森林生态系统在下个世纪预计将面临越来越大的压力。与生物多样性较少的系统相比，包含广泛植物物种的生物多样性森林被认为对干扰事件和森林压力更具抵抗力和弹性。但目前尚不清楚未来对森林系统的压力将如何影响不同类型森林的生物多样性。该项目量化了中等严重风扰动对栎松混交林中短叶松林群落演替和发展的影响。该项目还记录了以短叶松树为主的混交林中规定的火的影响，以前没有受到规定的焚烧的影响。森林管理者越来越多地将增强生物多样性作为改善生态系统适应潜力的管理目标，该项目为从事混交木树种组合工作的森林管理者提供了新的数据和分析。了解混交林的干扰和发展模式对于建立森林管理系统至关重要，这些系统可增强当地森林的多样性，维持重要的生态系统功能，并在经济上可持续和对社会负责的同时提高复原力。在这些森林管理系统中，树木采伐和其他作业都是在自然过程之后进行的，这两个过程都改变了树种随时间的分布。这个项目探索了一种假设，即中等严重程度的树冠干扰和火灾是维持理想物种组合的关键过程。该项目利用不同森林实验区的实地测量，量化(1)中等强度的树冠干扰对森林演替和发展的影响，(2)规定火对森林生态系统条件的影响。这项研究为森林管理者和利益相关者提供了数据和报告，涉及未来气候变化背景下森林系统的生态完整性和森林管理。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。

Forest ecosystems worldwide are projected to face increasing stress over the next century as climate change modifies the ecological conditions driving forest growth. Biodiverse forests that contain a wide range of plant species are hypothesized to be more resistant and resilient to disturbance events and forest stresses than systems with less biological diversity. But it is not clear how future stresses to forest systems will affect biodiversity in different types of forests. This project quantifies the impacts of intermediate-severity wind disturbance on forest succession and development of shortleaf pine neighborhoods in a mixed oak-pine forest. This project also documents the effects of prescribed fire in shortleaf pine dominated mixed oak-pine forests previously unaffected by prescribed burns. Forest managers are increasingly embracing biodiversity enhancement as a management goal to improve ecosystem adaptation potential and this project provides new data and analysis to forest managers working with mixedwood species assemblages. The understanding of disturbance and development patterns in mixedwood forests is essential to create forest management systems that enhance native forest diversity, maintain critical ecosystem functions, and promote resiliency while also being economically sustainable and socially responsible. In these forest management systems, tree harvesting and other operations are patterned after natural processes both of which modify the distribution of tree species over time. This project explores the hypothesis that intermediate-severity canopy disturbance and fire are critical processes essential to perpetuate desirable species assemblages. This project uses field measurements in different forest experimental plots to quantify (1) the impacts of intermediate-severity canopy disturbance on forest succession and development and (2) the effects of prescribed fire on forest ecosystem conditions. This research provides data and reports to forest managers and stakeholders vested in the ecological integrity of forest systems and managing forests in the context of future climate change.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.