BIOCOMPLEXITY-- INCUBATION ACTIVITY: Spatiotemporal Coupling of Ecological and Geological Dynamics in the Nebraska Sand Hills

University Of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln NE

Investigators

Abstract

0084075 Wedin The Nebraska Sand Hills is the largest sand dune area in the Western Hemisphere. Today these dunes are stable and covered by native grassland. However, in the not too distant past (perhaps as recently as 1000 years ago), most of these dunes were active. To ecologists, geologists and Sand Hills ranchers, this ecosystem is a "desert in disguise". How do short- and long-term climate change interact with ecological processes such as grazing and fire to destabilize this massive sand dune system, or, on the other hand, restabilize large areas of moving sand? What role do the numerous interdunal wetlands and lakes of the region play in stabilizing the grassy Sand Hills uplands? Geologists, soil scientists, climate specialists, grassland ecologists, landscape ecologists, and modelers will be assembled to address these questions. By combining ecological studies of the region's current wetlands and grasslands, with geological studies of climate change, sand dune movement and wetland dynamics over the last 3000 years the interdisciplinary team will develop a model of the Sand Hills that will facilitate predicting the future of this region under various scenarios of management and climate change.