WSC-CATEGORY 2 COLLABORATIVE: WATER QUALITY AND SUPPLY IMPACTS FROM CLIMATE-INDUCED INSECT TREE MORTALITY AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN WEST

WSC-2 类合作：落基山西部气候引起的昆虫树死亡率和资源管理对水质和供水的影响

• 批准号: 1204787
• 负责人: Reed Maxwell
• 金额: $ 230.76万
• 依托单位: Colorado School of Mines
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1204787&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: WSC; CATEGORY; COLLABORATIVE; WATER; QUALITY

It is estimated that over 4 million acres of forests in Colorado and Wyoming are dying due to the ongoing mountain pine beetle (MPB) infestation. The visual impact of dying and dead forests is stunning, but the invisible changes to the water cycle in vital watersheds in the Rocky Mountain west, including the Platte and Colorado River headwaters, may be a longer-lasting legacy of the MPB. The objective of this work is to determine potential water resource changes resulting from the MPB epidemic by defining and quantifying feedbacks between changes in climate, forested ecosystems altered by MPB impacts, biogeochemical processes and resource management practices. Beetle-killed trees will alter hydrologic and biogeochemical processes that govern water quantity and quality in forested headwater catchments. When coupled with natural resources management practices, these changes can potentially affect the ability to fulfill downstream water user demands and challenge ecological and human health needs. This project will directly address the social and physical science factors that govern water resource availability and quality under ecological and climate change. Concern about beetle-killed forest and watershed management is driving municipalities to implement water rate increases, and there is confusion about how to most effectively improve watershed health as it relates to this issue.Our interdisciplinary research team will merge field observations, laboratory experiments, integrated hydrologic models, and high-performance computing to increase our understanding and predictive capabilities for a critical problem facing society: changes to water availability and quality from an unprecedented change to our forests. This work will be complimented by place-based collaborative learning for impacted communities and workshops with water treatment municipalities. These workshops will be two-way and will serve to both understand concerns and experiences with MPB impacts as well as communicate results. Integration of stakeholder perceptions and management responses will further inform and enrich our scientific analysis of water supply and contribute to the uniqueness of our research vision. In addition to stakeholder outreach and scenario planning, modules will be developed that convey key water resource issues to K-12 teachers and students as well as provide training, research and educational opportunities for undergraduate, graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. Not only will this work provide an improved scientific basis for managing watershed ecosystems in the Platte and Colorado River basins, thus helping to ensure safe and reliable water resources to more than 30 million residential users and 1.8 million acres of irrigated agriculture, it will also improve our scientific and social understanding of the water supply and quantity challenges for MPB-impacted areas across the Rocky Mountain West.

据估计，由于正在进行的山松甲虫（MPB）的侵扰，科罗拉多州和怀俄明州的400万英亩森林正在死亡。垂死和死森林的视觉影响令人惊叹，但是落基山西的重要流域（包括普拉特和科罗拉多河源头）的水周期的不可见变化可能是MPB的持久遗产。这项工作的目的是通过定义和量化气候变化，随着MPB影响，生物地球化学过程和资源管理实践改变的气候变化，森林生态系统的变化之间的反馈来确定MPB流行病所带来的潜在水资源变化。 甲虫杀性的树木将改变控制森林源水集水区水量和质量的水文和生物地球化学过程。当与自然资源管理实践相结合时，这些变化可能会影响满足下游用水用户需求并挑战生态和人类健康需求的能力。 该项目将直接解决在生态和气候变化下控制水资源可用性和质量的社会和物理科学因素。人们对甲虫杀性的森林和流域管理的关注正在推动市政当局以实施水路的增加，并且对如何最有效地改善与这个问题相关的水分健康存在困惑。我们的跨学科研究团队将合并现场观察，将实验室实验合并，实验室实验，以使我们的水文模型和高度的能力变化，并具有良好的水平计算能力：良好的水平能力范围：良好的能力范围：一种质量的能力，并且是一种质量的能力，并具有良好的能力。前所未有的变化对我们的森林。这项工作将通过对受影响的社区和水上治疗市政当局的受影响社区和研讨会的基础协作学习表示赞赏。这些研讨会将是双向的，并且将有助于了解MPB影响的担忧和经验以及传达结果。利益相关者的看法和管理反应的整合将进一步为我们对供水的科学分析提供信息，并为我们的研究愿景的独特性做出贡献。除了利益相关者的外展和场景计划外，还将开发模块，以向K-12教师和学生传达关键的水资源问题，并为本科，研究生和博士后学者提供培训，研究和教育机会。这项工作不仅会为管理普拉特和科罗拉多河流域的流域生态系统提供改进的科学基础，从而有助于确保超过3000万居住使用者和180万英亩的灌溉农业的安全可靠的水资源，还将改善我们对MPB-Imprimpacted山区的水供应和量化的科学和社会理解。