Collaborative Research: Identifying the Footprints of Human Colonization on Australian Ecosystems and Climate

合作研究：确定人类殖民对澳大利亚生态系统和气候的足迹

• 批准号: 0502632
• 负责人: Gifford Miller
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Colorado at Boulder
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-06-01 至 2009-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0502632&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Identifying; Footprints; Human

The project seeks to address the scientific question: Did systematic burning by early human colonizers sufficiently alter Australian vegetation to produce a distinctly non-linear disruption of climate and biota? The researchers will address this question using a series of testable predictions to evaluate the hypothesis using tracers in dateable geological archives. The research team will integrate field and analytical data to provide environmental scenarios that can be tested with mesoscale climate models to evaluate the impact of hypothesized human-induced vegetation change on monsoon rainfall.Over the past 60,000 years, modern humans have branched out of their ancestral African home to colonize many lands. Australia, isolated from the rest of the world for 50 million years, provides a unique setting to evaluate the footprint of human activity. A joint US-Australian team has reconstructed ecosystem and climate change across portions of semi-arid Australia. Recent efforts by this team have centered on using biogeochemical tracers in eggshells of large, flightless birds that document the extinction of megafauna and an irreversible loss of vegetation at the time of human colonization. An emerging scenario is that prior to human colonization, arid-zone vegetation included a diverse mixture of grasses and drought-tolerant trees and shrubs, supporting large marsupial herbivores (most now extinct) and marsupial and reptilian carnivores. When global conditions favored strong monsoonal rainfall, the Australian summer monsoon regularly penetrated well into the interior of Australia. However, megafauna became extinct following human colonization when vegetation diversity was much reduced and monsoon rains failed to materialize, even when global forcing was strong and other monsoon systems were reinvigorated. The education component will be undertaken in collaboration with the Carnegie Institution's Academy of Science Education (CASE). Several undergraduate students and a postdoctoral scholar will be supported with the research. CASE will test various learning modules and the best will be made available to a wider audience through the group's website. Three activities are planned: 1) an activity using geographic information systems (GIS) software written for students teaching the principles of GIS as well as the science of ecosystem change in terms of Australia; 2) Educational sections on Australia's climate, fauna, and flora will be on the project's website to augment the GIS activities; and 3) Connecting schools in Washington DC with a sister school(s) in Australia.

该项目试图解决一个科学问题：早期人类殖民者的系统燃烧是否足够改变了澳大利亚植被以产生对气候和生物群的明显非线性破坏？研究人员将使用一系列可测试的预测来解决这个问题，以使用示踪剂来评估数据地质档案中的示踪剂。研究团队将整合现场和分析数据，以提供环境方案，可以通过中尺度的气候模型对其进行测试，以评估假设的人类诱发的植被变化对季风降雨的影响。在过去的60，000年中，现代人类已从其祖先的非洲家中分支出来，以殖民许多土地。澳大利亚与世界其他地区隔离了5000万年，为评估人类活动的足迹提供了独特的环境。美国 - 澳大利亚联合团队重建了澳大利亚半干旱地区的生态系统和气候变化。该团队的最新努力集中在大型无飞鸟的蛋壳中使用生物地球化学示踪剂，这些鸟类记录了大型巨型的灭绝和人类殖民时植被的不可逆转损失。一种新兴的情况是，在人类的殖民化之前，干旱地区的植被包括各种草，耐旱的树木和灌木，支持大型的有袋动物的食草动物（现在最灭绝的），袋鼠和爬行动物的食肉动物。当全球条件有利于强烈的季风降雨时，澳大利亚夏季季风经常渗透到澳大利亚内部。但是，当植被多样性大大降低并且季风降雨未能实现，即使全球强迫且其他季风系统得到重现时，大型植被多样性大大降低并且季风多样性也未能实现。教育部分将与卡内基学会的科学教育学院合作进行。这项研究将支持几名本科生和一名博士后学者。案例将测试各种学习模块，最好通过该小组的网站向更广泛的受众提供。计划了三个活动：1）使用地理信息系统（GIS）软件为学生编写的一项活动，以教授GIS的原理以及澳大利亚的生态系统变化科学； 2）有关澳大利亚气候，动物区系和植物区系的教育部分将在该项目的网站上增加GIS活动； 3）将华盛顿特区的学校与澳大利亚的一所姊妹学校联系起来。