RAPID: Using open-source ecology to examine tree physiological response and mortality across species during the 2012 United States drought

RAPID：利用开源生态学检查 2012 年美国干旱期间各物种的树木生理反应和死亡率

• 批准号: 1249256
• 负责人: Christopher Field
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: Carnegie Institution of Washington
• 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: 2012-08-01 至 2015-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1249256&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Using; open; source; ecology

This exploratory project examines how drought affects tree death across the continental United States. Research on drought and tree mortality is typically carried out at particular locations and on few species, in part because major droughts at the regional scale are relatively rare, hard to anticipate and hard to study. In contrast, this project uses a uniquely collaborative approach, referred to as open-source ecology, in order to develop a broader perspective of tree vulnerability to water stress based on the on-going major western regional drought of 2012. The project will document the physiological status, growth and annual mortality of trees across a number of different locations and species, leveraging data from national monitoring programs, such as the Forest Inventory and Analysis and NEON, and involving many institutions, investigators and students, to demonstrate how a coordinated continental measurement program could be fully implemented in the future. Drought-induced tree mortality is an important but poorly understood process that leads to major uncertainties regarding the impacts of climate change on biodiversity, ecological communities, and the terrestrial carbon cycle. For example, current models of the carbon cycle either assume long-term background rates of mortality, or that mortality can be modeled in response to disturbances like fire, not in response to particular stressors that are well known to be important. In fact, no predictive model of drought-driven tree death across species or ecosystems currently exists. To carry out this pilot, more than 45 scientists have committed to work with many undergraduate and graduate students on field and lab measurements. A kick-off meeting at the 2012 Ecological Society of America Meeting will galvanize these commitments and enable recruitment of a more diverse national student group through the ESA program, Strategies for Ecology Education, Diversity and Sustainability. The project will also lay the foundation for national and potentially international coordination across disciplines beyond ecology, including atmospheric modeling, physiology, hydrology, remote sensing, and biogeochemistry. Finally, broad support from multiple communities assembled by the project creates a unique intellectual forum for a shared, collaborative, and open approach to developing the understanding and tools necessary to predict and manage drought impacts on forest ecosystems.

该探索性项目研究了干旱如何影响整个美国大陆的树木死亡。关于干旱和树木死亡率的研究通常是在特定地点和几种物种上进行的，部分原因是区域尺度上的重大干旱相对较少，难以预测和难以研究。相比之下，该项目采用一种独特的协作方法（称为开源生态学），以根据2012年不断正在进行的西方主要区域干旱的更广泛的看法，对树木脆弱性的水压力。调查人员和学生，以证明未来如何完全实施协调的大陆测量计划。干旱引起的树木死亡率是一个重要但知之甚少的过程，这导致了气候变化对生物多样性，生态社区和陆生碳循环的影响的主要不确定性。 例如，碳循环的当前模型要么假定长期背景死亡率，要么可以根据诸如火灾之类的干扰而建模死亡率，而不是响应众所周知的特定压力源。实际上，目前不存在跨物种或生态系统的干旱驱动树死亡的预测模型。为了执行此试点，有45位科学家致力于与许多本科和研究生进行实地和实验室测量。在2012年美国生态学会会议上举行的开球会议将通过ESA计划，生态教育，多样性和可持续性策略来招募这些承诺，并能够招募更多样化的国家学生团体。该项目还将为跨生态学以外学科的国家和潜在国际协调奠定基础，包括大气建模，生理学，水文学，遥感和生物地球化学。最后，该项目组成的多个社区的广泛支持为共同的，协作和开放的方法创建了一个独特的知识论坛，以开发预测和管理对森林生态系统的干旱影响所必需的理解和工具。