Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Great Basin CESU

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The U.S. Geological Survey Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science center (USGS FRESC) is offering a cooperative-agreement opportunity to member universities in the Great Basin CESU that have the ability to conduct research on “Quantifying vulnerability of quaking aspen woodlands and associated bird communities to global climate change in the northern Great Basin” and that meet the objectives listed below. The general goal of this research is to address the effects of climate change, land use, and disturbance dynamics on aspen woodlands and associated bird communities in the northern Great Basin. Quaking aspen populations are declining in much of the west due to altered fire regimes, competition with conifers, herbivory, drought, disease, and insect outbreaks. Aspen stands typically support higher avian biodiversity and abundance than surrounding habitat types, and maintaining current distribution and abundance of several avian species in the northern Great Basin is likely tied to the persistence of aspen in the landscape. Given the potential threats to this important natural community, we have identified four key research questions that could be helpful to land management and wildlife agencies responsible for aspen management and ecology: 1) What is the current successional, structural, and spatial distribution of aspen on the landscape, and how do these factors affect abundance of avian species? 2) How have aspen stand condition and distribution, and avian abundance and distribution, been shaped by disturbance, e.g., grazing and fire? 3) How is global climate change likely to affect aspen condition and distribution, and what are the implications for avian species? and 4) How are today’s management strategies, or adaptive adjustments to those strategies, likely to affect long-term risks and persistence of aspen and associated avian communities? To address these questions, a spatially-explicit, dynamic, landscape-simulation model must be developed using the LANDIS-II program that meets the following objectives: 1) utilizes empirical data acquired from aspen woodlands in the Great Basin (collected by USGS scientists); 2) simulates aspen community and disturbance dynamics under various land use and climate change scenarios; 3) reflects dynamic interactions between management decisions (e.g., prescribed fire), disturbance regimes (e.g., drought, wildfire), and climate change; and 4) can be coupled with empirical data models of avian-habitat relationships. Another major objective is to advance scientific understanding of both northern Great Basin aspen woodlands and aspen ecosystem dynamics in general. Thus, while the LANDIS-II model must be developed for the relatively isolated aspen populations that are characteristic of mountain ranges in northern Nevada, model results should also be applicable to a regional northern Great Basin landscape (eastern Oregon, southern Idaho, northern Nevada, and western Utah) and relevant to management agencies and conservation organizations addressing aspen ecology and management throughout North America. All research-based proposals must address the above objectives. However, proposal scoring criteria, documented in the Proposal Evaluation section below, will reward proposals that address the selected research topics listed below.

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