BoCP-Implementation: Cascading Impacts of Landscape Structure on Forest Regeneration

BoCP-实施：景观结构对森林再生的级联影响

• 批准号: 2325844
• 负责人: Onja Razafindratsima
• 金额: $ 120.79万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-03-01 至 2029-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2325844&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: BoCP; Implementation; Cascading; Impacts; Landscape

The Earth is undergoing unprecedented environmental changes not seen for millennia including massive transformation of landscapes for agricultural and development expansion and a biodiversity extinction crisis. Recent studies suggest that the regeneration of tropical forests will play a crucial role in mitigating global human-induced environmental change, reducing atmospheric greenhouse gasses, and recovering lost ecosystem functions and services. However, while a large proportion of cleared forests worldwide undergo regeneration, they rarely recover to initial old-growth functions and conditions. The specific mechanisms that underpin this recovery remain uncertain, particularly in landscapes heavily influenced by human activity. This project aims to address this knowledge gap by examining how landscape structure interacts with seed-dispersing animals to influence the regeneration of tropical forests. The study will take place in highly endangered rainforests in Madagascar, which are characterized by complex land-use patterns. The insights gained from this research will have broader implications for identifying different landscape scenarios where forests are more likely to regenerate to old-growth forest conditions, thus contributing to climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation. To accomplish this, an international, multidisciplinary team will collaborate with local partners, engage undergraduate students from underrepresented groups, and involve artists to provide diverse perspectives and communicate creatively with multiple stakeholders. This project will investigate the direct and indirect effects of landscape structure on trait-mediated seed dispersal in regenerating tropical forests in anthropogenic landscapes. Landscape properties such as habitat amount, fragmentation and matrix quality, are known to modulate several crucial dispersal processes, including seed rain, diversity of seed sources, and diversity of seed dispersers, all of which affect post-dispersal seedling recruitment and the resulting community of regenerating vegetation. These processes can be influenced by plant dispersal traits, such as fruit and seed type, shape, and size. We hypothesize that landscape structure acts directly as an abiotic filter and indirectly as a biotic filter that influences seed diversity in regenerating forests by determining seed availability and seed disperser availability, respectively. Within this framework, the project will address fundamental gaps in knowledge by using an integrated, multi-scale approach that combines measurements of seed community assembly and trait-mediated seed dispersal, predictive modeling, and spatially explicit upscaling to gain insights into how landscape structure influences forest regeneration. Specifically, the researchers will (1) conduct an analysis of seed diversity along successional gradients (chronosequence) of regenerating tropical forests in different landscape contexts; (2) investigate how landscape structure and seed dispersers interact to influence plant diversity in regenerating forests; and (3) use a combination of remote sensing and a spatially explicit agent-based models to derive mechanistic explanations for how landscape structure influences forest recovery at multiple spatial scales. By focusing on arguably the most important stage of regeneration, this project will advance the knowledge of how tropical forest regeneration can be stabilized, delayed, or accelerated according to the landscape context.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.

地球正在经历数千年没有发生的前所未有的环境变化，包括大规模的农业和发展扩张景观转变，以及生物多样性灭绝危机。最近的研究表明，热带森林的再生将在减轻全球人类引起的环境变化，减少大气温室气体以及恢复损失的生态系统功能和服务方面发挥至关重要的作用。但是，尽管全世界大部分清除的森林都经历了再生，但它们很少恢复到最初的旧增长功能和条件。支撑此恢复的具体机制仍然不确定，尤其是在受到人类活动影响很大的景观中。该项目旨在通过研究景观结构如何与种子散布动物相互作用以影响热带森林的再生来解决这一知识差距。该研究将在马达加斯加的高度濒危雨林中进行，其特征是复杂的土地利用模式。从这项研究中获得的见解将对识别森林更有可能再生到旧增长的森林状况的不同景观情景具有更大的影响，从而有助于缓解气候变化和生物多样性。为此，一个国际多学科的团队将与当地合作伙伴合作，与来自代表性不足的团体的本科生互动，并让艺术家参与以提供各种观点，并与多个利益相关者进行创造性的交流。 该项目将研究景观结构对人为景观中的热带森林的特质介导的种子扩散的直接和间接影响。已知景观特性，例如栖息地数量，破碎和基质质量，可以调节几种关键的分散过程，包括种子雨，种子来源的多样性以及种子分散器的多样性，所有这些都会影响后分散的幼苗募集招募和由此产生的再生植被社区。这些过程可能会受到植物分散性状的影响，例如水果和种子类型，形状和大小。我们假设景观结构直接充当非生物过滤器，并间接用作生物过滤器，该过滤器分别通过确定种子的可用性和种子分散剂的可用性来影响再生森林中的种子多样性。在此框架内，该项目将使用一种集成的多尺度方法来解决知识中知识的基本差距，该方法结合了种子社区组装和特质介导的种子分散，预测性建模以及空间显式的高度升级以获得洞察力，以了解景观结构如何影响森林的再生。具体而言，研究人员（1）将对在不同景观环境中再生的热带森林的继任梯度（Chronosequence）进行种子多样性进行分析； （2）研究景观结构和种子分散者如何相互作用以影响再生森林中的植物多样性； （3）结合遥感和基于空间代理的模型的组合来得出景观结构如何在多个空间尺度上影响森林恢复的机理解释。通过可以说是最重要的再生阶段，该项目将根据景观环境可以稳定，延迟或加速热带森林的再生知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用该基金会的智力功能和广泛的影响来评估NSF的法定任务。