Collaborative Research: Geomorphic Control of the Lowland Tropical Forest Nitrogen Cycle

合作研究：低地热带森林氮循环的地貌控制

• 批准号: 1264031
• 负责人: Cory Cleveland
• 金额: $ 27.15万
• 依托单位: University of Montana
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-06-15 至 2018-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1264031&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Geomorphic; Control; Lowland

Tropical forests are one of Earth?s most important and threatened biomes. They house a large fraction of the planet?s biodiversity, and they exchange more carbon and energy with the atmosphere each year than any other major terrestrial ecosystem type. This carbon and energy exchange is strongly regulated by the nature and strength of nutrient limitation, typically due to shortages of nitrogen, phosphorus or a combination of both elements. Tropical forests also contain enormous heterogeneity at every scale in the factors that control key aspects of nitrogen and phosphorus cycling, rendering large-scale predictions of nutrient limitation very difficult. This work will target a largely unexplored but potentially important driver of the lowland tropical forest nitrogen cycle: The role of geomorphology. The investigators will combine techniques from ecosystem ecology, biogeochemistry, geomorphology and remote sensing to assess variations in both nitrogen and phosphorus cycling across a regional scale, with a focus on how changes in landform topography and evolution affect nutrient limitation. The project also includes a first-of-its-kind partnership that combines on-the-ground techniques in biogeochemistry with the use and interpretation of airborne remote sensing data derived from a platform that includes both laser and optical sensors. The ultimate goal of the research is to produce better predictive models of tropical ecosystem function. The project results will contribute to an improved ability to predict how one of Earth?s most critical but least-understood biomes may change in the future, thus aiding a variety of management and conservation goals. This project will also help extend a long record of outreach and public communication by the PI's. It will include a new partnership with the University of Colorado Center for Environmental Journalism (CEJ) and its Scripps Environmental Fellowship Program, where a Scripps Fellow (a visiting professional journalist) will be ?embedded? with the project. The CEJ team will also include a Masters student in journalism. The CEJ will provide access to multiple communication platforms to enhance this partnership; these include an award-winning video podcast (CU Science Update), and The Boulder Stand, a student-run multi-media magazine. A suite of communication strategies, ranging from traditional magazine-style articles, to video podcasts, to live blogging and the use of social media, will be assessed via formal surveys of classes at each participating institution, as well as of members of the Aldo Leopold Leadership and Google Science Communication networks. Finally, the AToMS remote sensing system used in this project led directly to those to be used in the new NEON Airborne Observing Platforms (AOP), and the work done in this project will help inform NEON goals of integrating AOP data with a suite of ground- and modeling-based approaches to resolving ecological dynamics at continental scales.

热带森林是地球上最重要和最受威胁的生物群落之一。它们容纳了地球上大部分的生物多样性，每年与大气交换的碳和能量比任何其他主要的陆地生态系统类型都多。这种碳和能量交换受到营养限制的性质和强度的强烈调节，通常是由于氮、磷或这两种元素的组合的短缺。热带森林在控制氮磷循环关键方面的因素在各个尺度上也存在巨大的异质性，使得大规模预测养分限制非常困难。这项工作将针对低地热带森林氮循环的一个很大程度上未经探索但可能重要的驱动因素：地貌的作用。研究人员将结合生态系统生态学、生物地球化学、地貌学和遥感技术来评估区域范围内氮和磷循环的变化，重点关注地貌地形和进化的变化如何影响营养限制。该项目还包括一种史无前例的合作伙伴关系，将生物地球化学的实地技术与来自激光和光学传感器平台的机载遥感数据的使用和解释相结合。该研究的最终目标是建立更好的热带生态系统功能预测模型。该项目的结果将有助于提高预测地球上最关键但最不为人所知的生物群落之一未来可能发生变化的能力，从而有助于实现各种管理和保护目标。该项目还将有助于扩大 PI 的长期外展和公众沟通记录。它将包括与科罗拉多大学环境新闻中心（CEJ）及其斯克里普斯环境奖学金计划建立新的合作伙伴关系，其中将“嵌入”斯克里普斯研究员（访问专业记者）。与该项目。 CEJ 团队还将包括一名新闻学硕士生。 CEJ 将提供多个沟通平台，以加强这种伙伴关系；其中包括屡获殊荣的视频播客（CU Science Update）和学生经营的多媒体杂志 The Boulder Stand。将通过对每个参与机构以及奥尔多·利奥波德成员的正式调查来评估一系列沟通策略，从传统杂志风格的文章到视频播客，再到实时博客和社交媒体的使用领导力和 Google 科学传播网络。最后，该项目中使用的 AToMS 遥感系统直接导致了新的 NEON 机载观测平台 (AOP) 中使用的系统，该项目中所做的工作将有助于实现 NEON 将 AOP 数据与一套地面数据集成的目标。 - 以及基于模型的方法来解决大陆尺度的生态动态。