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，由于持续的山松甲虫 (MPB) 侵扰，科罗拉多州和怀俄明州超过 400 万英亩的森林正在死亡。垂死的森林和死亡的森林的视觉效果令人惊叹，但落基山脉西部重要流域（包括普拉特河和科罗拉多河源头）水循环的无形变化可能是 MPB 的更持久的遗产。这项工作的目标是通过定义和量化气候变化、MPB 影响改变的森林生态系统、生物地球化学过程和资源管理实践之间的反馈，确定 MPB 流行造成的潜在水资源变化。 被甲虫杀死的树木将改变控制森林源头集水区水量和水质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。对甲虫杀死的森林和流域管理的担忧正在推动市政当局实施水费上涨，而与此问题相关的如何最有效地改善流域健康却存在困惑。我们的跨学科研究团队将结合现场观察、实验室实验、综合水文模型和高性能计算，以提高我们对社会面临的关键问题的理解和预测能力：森林前所未有的变化导致水资源供应和质量的变化。这项工作将得到受影响社区的基于地点的协作学习以及与水处理城市的研讨会的补充。这些研讨会将是双向的，将有助于了解 MPB 影响的问题和经验以及交流结果。利益相关者的看法和管理层的回应相结合将进一步丰富我们对供水的科学分析，并有助于我们研究愿景的独特性。除了利益相关者外展和情景规划之外，还将开发一些模块，向 K-12 教师和学生传达关键的水资源问题，并为本科生、研究生和博士后学者提供培训、研究和教育机会。这项工作不仅将为管理普拉特河流域和科罗拉多河流域的流域生态系统提供更好的科学依据，从而有助于确保为超过 3000 万居民用户和 180 万英亩的灌溉农业提供安全可靠的水资源，还将改善我们对落基山脉西部受 MPB 影响的地区的供水和水量挑战的科学和社会理解。