Doctoral Dissertation Research: Human-Environmental Interactions in Deglaciating Landscapes

博士论文研究：冰川消融景观中的人类与环境相互作用

• 批准号: 2105826
• 负责人: Timothy Beach
• 金额: $ 1.38万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Austin
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-05-01 至 2022-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2105826&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Human; Environmental

The doctoral dissertation project investigates plant establishment and soil formation in recently deglaciated alpine landscapes. Most mountain glaciers are predicted to disappear by the end of the 21st century, leaving significant ice-free land. People and ecosystems depend on these glaciers, but as the glaciers melt, natural resources (e.g., water and pastures, ecosystems services (e.g., carbon storage), cultural identities, and tourism decline. These new lands, however, offer opportunities to study social and ecological adaptations. This study will show how communities adapt to the loss of glaciers. One experiment will be to study the role of grazing animals in enhancing proglacial landscape formation. The project reinforces partnerships between local communities, governmental entities, NGOs, and researchers working across continents to promote scientific advancements of social and ecological adaptations in proglacial landscapes. Melting mountain glaciers are exposing large new land areas and this project investigates how postglacial ecosystems could contribute to indispensable services for local and downstream populations in future glacier-free valleys. This doctoral dissertation project uses plot studies of plant species, soil fertility, and geomorphic surfaces across a range of alpine landscapes where glaciers have melted over the last hundred years. By studying the migration of alpine plant communities to higher elevations and ecosystem formation, the research characterizes the main processes occurring in these ice-free landscapes. The study also combines intensive sampling, UAV (drone) surveys, satellite imagery, and an experiment to test if introducing grazing animals can accelerate ecosystem formation. By applying the same research design in multiple locations, this project provides reproducible data and generalizable knowledge regarding social and ecological adaptations in deglaciating landscapes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该博士论文项目研究了最近消融的高山景观中的植物建立和土壤形成。预计大多数山区冰川将在 21 世纪末消失，留下大量无冰土地。人类和生态系统依赖于这些冰川，但随着冰川融化，自然资源（例如水和牧场）、生态系统服务（例如碳储存）、文化特征和旅游业都会下降。然而，这些新土地提供了研究社会这项研究将展示社区如何适应冰川的消失，该项目将研究放牧动物在增强冰川前景观形成中的作用。当地社区、政府实体、非政府组织和各大洲的研究人员致力于促进冰期前景观社会和生态适应的科学进步，融化的山地冰川正在暴露出大片新的土地，该项目调查冰期后生态系统如何为当地和当地提供不可或缺的服务。该博士论文项目对冰川所在的一系列高山景观的植物物种、土壤肥力和地貌表面进行了绘图研究。在过去的一百年里已经融化了。通过研究高山植物群落向更高海拔的迁移和生态系统的形成，该研究描述了这些无冰景观中发生的主要过程。该研究还结合了密集采样、无人机调查、卫星图像和一项实验，以测试引入放牧动物是否可以加速生态系统的形成。通过在多个地点应用相同的研究设计，该项目提供了有关冰川消融景观中社会和生态适应的可重复数据和通用知识。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响进行评估，被认为值得支持审查标准。

项目成果

The need for stewardship of lands exposed by deglaciation from climate change

• DOI: 10.1002/wcc.753
• 发表时间: 2021-12
• 期刊: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change
• 作者: Anaïs Zimmer;T. Beach;J. Klein;J. Recharte Bullard