RAPID: Does riparian vegetation state mediate consequences of climate change-induced extreme flooding for stream-riparian food webs and communities?

RAPID：河岸植被状况是否会调节气候变化引起的极端洪水对河岸食物网和社区的影响？

• 批准号: 2244011
• 负责人: Colden Baxter
• 金额: $ 9.99万
• 依托单位: Idaho State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-01-01 至 2024-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2244011&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Does; riparian; vegetation; state

In June 2022, Northern Yellowstone National Park experienced rain-on-snow events leading to a 1 in 500-year flood, devastating local infrastructure and capturing public attention as a high-profile consequence of human-caused climate change. Extreme disturbances, whether they be category 5 hurricanes, severe wildfires, or extreme droughts, are becoming more frequent and intense. Natural resource managers and policy makers need to understand the consequences of such extreme disturbances and find ways to support ecosystem resiliency. Historically, ecologists thought that though ecosystems were resilient to, or even benefitted from, mild or moderate disturbances, extreme disturbances “reset” ecosystems to some uniform, baseline state. NSF has approved RAPID support for this project, to evaluate extreme disturbance in the context of Northern Yellowstone. The study area contains considerable biodiversity throughout a mosaic of distinct habitats. One source of this complexity comes from the restoration of predators like wolves and grizzly bears, their interactions with herbivores such as elk and bison, and the subsequent changes to plant communities. As a result, willows and alders have regrown around some streams and rivers while others, just miles away, remain dominated by grasses and sedges. Previous investigations showed that different plant communities influence the diversity and productivity of streams and rivers, but in ways mediated by local context that result in a mosaic of ecosystem states. Just as the restoration of predators has not uniformly changed this ecosystem, responses to the recent extreme flooding may have been mediated by local context. In turn, results from this study may inform management decisions and influence public perceptions regarding consequences of such disturbances, as indeed past ecological studies have done for wildfire in this region.Through the opportunistic use of a natural experiment and by comparing stream-riparian ecosystems before and after the extreme flooding, this project will evaluate whether a homogenous “reset” of stream-riparian ecosystems occurred, or if terrestrial wildlife dynamics that influence riparian vegetation state, as well as pre-flood traits of aquatic communities, mediated heterogeneous responses of stream-riparian organisms and ecosystem processes. This project will collect parallel measurements after flooding to those collected before, including stream-riparian habitat characteristics, herbivory and riparian plant community composition and structure, stream ecosystem organic matter dynamics, productivity and food web interactions of aquatic invertebrates and fish, and riparian spider and bird communities. If organism, community, or food web traits shape resistance, resilience, and trajectories of change following the extreme flood, this will provide an opportunity to evaluate how such “ecological memory” constrains responses to future extreme events. If traits of organisms and communities are indeed important to mediating responses to extreme disturbances, this project may highlight the importance of conserving such complexity in the face of climate change and the biodiversity crisis.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.

2022年6月，北黄石国家公园（Northern-Yellownote National Park）经历了雨后事件，导致了500年的洪水中有1个，毁灭了当地基础设施，并引起了公众的关注，这是人为引起的气候变化的引人注目的后果。极端灾难，无论是5级飓风，严重的野火还是极端的干旱，都变得越来越频繁而激烈。自然资源经理和政策制定者需要了解这种极端令人惊讶的后果，并找到支持生态系统弹性的方法。从历史上看，生态学家认为，尽管生态系统对轻度或中度令人惊讶，令人惊讶的“重置”生态系统具有弹性，甚至受益于某些统一的基线状态。 NSF批准了对该项目的快速支持，以评估北黄石公园的极端令人惊讶。该研究区域通过不同栖息地的镶嵌物包含相当大的生物多样性。这种复杂性的一种来源来自狼群和格拉兹熊等捕食者，它们与麋鹿和野牛等草食动物的相互作用以及随后对植物群落的变化。结果，遗嘱和奥尔德斯在一些溪流和河流周围进行了改革，而其他距离英里的河流则由草和莎草占据主导地位。先前的调查表明，不同的植物群落会影响流和河流的多样性和生产力，但以局部环境介导的方式导致生态系统状态的镶嵌。正如捕食者的恢复并没有统一改变这一生态系统一样，对最近的极端洪水的反应可能是由当地环境介导的。反过来，这项研究的结果可能会为管理层的决策提供依据，并影响公众对这种灾难后果的看法，就像过去的生态学研究在该地区为野火所做的那样。通过对自然实验的机会主义使用以及通过比较河流生态系统在极端洪水之前和之后进行比较，该项目将评估该项目是否会影响流动性的流动性，如果发生了狂暴的狂热，则构成了狂野的狂野，如果发生了狂潮，则构成了狂暴的生态，如果是狂野的生态型，或者是否会发生狂热的生态式，或者会影响流动性的生态型，并且会影响流动性的生态系统。植被状态以及水生群落的灌木前特征，介导了河流生物和生态系统过程的异质反应。该项目将在洪水泛滥后收集到以前收集到的平行度量，包括河流栖息地特征，草食和河岸植物群社区组成和结构，溪流生态系统有机物动态，生产力和水生无脊椎动物和鱼类的食品网络相互作用，以及河岸蜘蛛蜘蛛和鸟类社区。如果有机体，社区或食物网状特征会在极端洪水之后塑造抵抗力，韧性和变化的轨迹，那么这将提供一个机会，以评估这种“生态记忆”如何限制对未来极端事件的反应。如果组织和社区的特征对于调解对极端灾难的反应确实很重要，那么该项目可能会强调在面对气候变化和生物多样性危机时保护这种复杂性的重要性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用该基金会的知识分子优点和广泛的影响来评估NSF的法定任务，并被认为是宝贵的支持。