NSF Award Abstract - #0322067| NSF Award Abstract - #0322067 |
AWSFL008-DS3 |
| NSF Org | DEB |
| Latest Amendment Date | November 25, 2003 |
| Award Number | 0322067 |
| Award Instrument | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager |
Henry L. Gholz DEB DIVISION OF ENVIRONMENTAL BIOLOGY BIO DIRECT FOR BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES |
| Start Date | September 1, 2003 |
| Expires | August 31, 2007 (Estimated) |
| Expected Total Amount | $1794730 (Estimated) |
| Investigator |
David A. Wedin dwedin1@unl.edu (Principal Investigator current) David B. Loope (Co-Principal Investigator current) Geoffrey M. Henebry (Co-Principal Investigator current) |
| Sponsor |
U of Nebraska-Lincoln 14th & R Streets Lincoln, NE 685880430 402/472-7211 |
| NSF Program | 7381 ECOSYSTEM SCIENCE CLUSTER |
| Field Application | 0510602 Ecosystem Dynamics |
| Program Reference Code | 1689,9150,9169,EGCH, |
This project addresses the interactions among sand, grass, and water over 58,000 km2 Nebraska Sand Hills, the largest sand dune area in the Western Hemisphere, over the last few thousand years. The geologic record indicates that the Sand Hills have gone through cycles of desertification and restoration several times in the Holocene and most dunes are thought to be less than 9000 years old. Today the dunes are almost entirely stabilized by native grasslands. Major droughts destabilized significant portions of the Sand Hills as recently as 1000 years before the present, but the dunes have maintained their grass cover and resisted mobilization during several subsequent regional droughts.The research proposed here would initiate a large-scale manipulative experiment to test four hypotheses regarding the effect of devegetation on groundwater recharge. Coupled with micrometeorological measurements of surface energy fluxes, the results will provide inputs for mesoscale modeling scenarios of the feedbacks between the (de-)vegetated land surface and the regional climate. The investigators will also use optically stimulated luminescence dating to map the spatial pattern of dune field activity during the last 2500 years, with lake sediment analyses providing a more high resolution (decadal) record of past droughts.
This system will serve as a model for how biogeophysical processes interact to yield landscape resistance and ecological resilience. The structure of the Sand Hills is relatively simple and the area large enough to influence boundary layer dynamics. This will be the first project to understand the Sand Hills using such an integrated, cross-disciplinary project. A range of scientists from such disciplines as paleoecology, geomorphology, ecology, geospatial analysis, and meteorological has been assembled for this task..
In terms of Broader Impacts, this project can serve as a model system for interdisciplinary teaching about complex environmental change both at the K-12 as well as university levels. Nonlinearities and feedbacks are very real to anyone walking through this landscape, especially after recent dune blowouts. The project will incorporates an already successful ongoing K-12 science teacher network, including summer internships and workshops for science educators, and a web site with data visualization tools that puts data in the hands of students. The project will also train over 30 graduate students and undergraduate interns, exposing them to the breadth of contemporary environmental science.
