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未见的前所未有的环境变化，包括农业和发展扩张带来的大规模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缓解全球人类引起的环境变化、减少大气温室气体以及恢复失去的生态系统功能和服务方面发挥至关重要的作用。然而，虽然全世界大部分被砍伐的森林都在经历再生，但它们很少恢复到最初的原始生长功能和条件。支撑这种复苏的具体机制仍不确定，特别是在受人类活动严重影响的景观中。该项目旨在通过研究景观结构如何与传播种子的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。这项研究将在马达加斯加高度濒危的雨林中进行，这些雨林的特点是土地利用模式复杂。这项研究获得的见解将对确定不同的景观情景产生更广泛的影响，在这些情景中，森林更有可能再生为原始森林条件，从而有助于减缓气候变化和保护生物多样性。为了实现这一目标，一个国际多学科团队将与当地合作伙伴合作，吸引来自代表性不足群体的本科生，并让艺术家参与进来，提供不同的观点并与多个利益相关者进行创造性的沟通。 该项目将研究景观结构对人为景观中热带森林再生过程中性状介导的种子传播的直接和间接影响。已知景观特性，如栖息地数量、破碎化和基质质量，可以调节几个关键的传播过程，包括种子雨、种子来源的多样性和种子传播者的多样性，所有这些都会影响传播后幼苗的补充和由此产生的群落植被再生。这些过程可能受到植物传播特征的影响，例如果实和种子的类型、形状和大小。我们假设景观结构直接充当非生物过滤器和间接充当生物过滤器，分别通过确定种子可用性和种子传播器可用性来影响再生森林中的种子多样性。在此框架内，该项目将通过使用综合的多尺度方法来解决知识方面的基本差距，该方法结合了种子群落组装和性状介导的种子传播的测量、预测建模和空间明确的升级，以深入了解景观结构如何影响森林再生。具体来说，研究人员将（1）沿着不同景观背景下再生热带森林的演替梯度（时间顺序）对种子多样性进行分析； (2) 研究景观结构和种子传播者如何相互作用以影响再生森林中的植物多样性； (3) 结合使用遥感和基于空间显式代理的模型，得出景观结构如何在多个空间尺度影响森林恢复的机制解释。通过关注可以说是最重要的再生阶段，该项目将增进人们对如何根据景观环境稳定、延迟或加速热带森林再生的认识。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并被认为值得通过以下方式获得支持：使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估。