CAREER: The Boston-Area Climate Experiment

职业：波士顿地区气候实验

• 批准号: 0546670
• 负责人: Jeffrey Dukes
• 金额: $ 62.5万
• 依托单位: University of Massachusetts Boston
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-04-01 至 2012-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0546670&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Boston; Area; Climate; Experiment

Scientists agree that Earths climate is changing. However, there remains uncertainty about the rate at which temperatures will rise, how precipitation will change, and for how long the warming will continue. To date, several experiments have advanced our understanding of how ecosystems will respond to changes in temperature or precipitation, but few have studied both factors simultaneously. In addition, almost all experiments that have warmed ecosystems have examined the effect of one sudden and sustained temperature increase. In reality, climate will change gradually, and the endpoint of this change is unknown. Will the processes and properties of communities and ecosystems respond linearly to changes in temperature, or are there important threshold temperatures that could be reached? To what extent does an ecosystems response to warming depend on precipitation patterns? The Boston-Area Climate Experiment is designed to answer these questions. The experiment will warm plots of an old-field ecosystem by five different amounts, while subjecting the plots to three different precipitation regimes (wet, ambient, and dry). Researchers will measure responses of several variables, including growth of herbs, grasses, and tree seedlings.This experiment will improve our understanding of how ecosystems and the services they provide will respond to climate change. Some of these ecosystem responses will determine how the planets biota will affect the rate of climate change. The experiment will also have a broad community impact, both directly, as a public education installation, and by involving K-12 students and teachers, student educators, and university students.

科学家同意地球气候正在发生变化。 但是，关于温度升高，降水将如何变化以及变暖将继续多长时间的速度仍然存在不确定性。 迄今为止，一些实验已经提出了我们对生态系统如何应对温度或降水变化的理解，但是很少有人同时研究这两个因素。 此外，几乎所有使生态系统变暖的实验都检查了突然且持续的温度升高的效果。 实际上，气候将逐渐变化，这种变化的终点尚不清楚。 社区和生态系统的过程和特性会对温度变化有线性响应，还是可以达到重要的阈值温度？ 生态系统对变暖的反应在多大程度上取决于降水模式？ 波士顿地区气候实验旨在回答这些问题。 该实验将使旧视野生态系统的图减少五个不同的量，同时将该地块受到三种不同的降水状态（湿，环境和干燥）。 研究人员将衡量几种变量的反应，包括草药，草和树幼苗的生长。此实验将提高我们对生态系统及其提供的服务如何应对气候变化的理解。 这些生态系统反应中的一些将决定生物群如何影响气候变化速率。 该实验还将作为公共教育设施，以及与K-12的学生和老师，学生教育者和大学生有关，还将产生广泛的社区影响。