Andrew T. Smith, Ph.D. - US grants

This is a two.year collaborative project between two American principal investigators .. Andrew T. Smith of Arizona State University and F. Stephen Dobson of Auburn University .. and Wang Xuegao of the Northwest Plateau Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. This institute is located in the city of Xining in the Qinghai.Xizang (Tibetan) Plateau. Direct observation of the number of offspring produced in a lifetime by each member of a known set of individuals, or "Lifetime Reproductive Success (LRS)" is an important measure indicating fitness differences between the sexes or among individuals that live under different social or ecological conditions. Studies of LRS are essential for a broad understanding of adaptation in a social context. Professors Smith and Dobson will measure LRS for a natural population of black.lipped pikas ( Ochotona curzoniae ), small mammals related to rabbits that inhabit alpine meadows on the Qinghai.Tibetan Plateau. Black.lipped pikas present a model system for such an investigati on because: 1) high mortality rates cause a nearly complete annual turnover in the population; 2) high population density ensures a large number of cohesive families (the primary social unit); 3) most environmental factors associated with LRS can be easily measured; 4) among families a variety of mating systems (monogamy, polygyny, polyandry) are simultaneously present; and 5) these mating systems are formed annually during a short episode of male dispersal, and once formed each family mating system remains stable throughout the year. These characteristics allow for contrast of LRS between males and females concurrently occupying different mating systems.

This workshop will bring together US and foreign researchers to develop and enhance methodology to expand the role of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as tool for monitoring trends in biodiversity. The International Union of Conservation of Nature's Red List is widely recognized as the most comprehensive, apolitical global system to evaluate the conservation status of plant and animal species. To enable the Red List to function as an indicator of the state of biodiversity, the state of species, and the state of ecosystems, two major changes are required. The first is much better documentation of each species entry in the list, in particular, whether its population is increasing, decreasing, or stable. The second change is agreement on the core taxonomic coverage of the Red List. This needs to include groups that are broadly representative of the major ecosystems of the world, that are taxonomically tractable, that are reasonably well-known, and for which expertise networks exist or could be developed. The outcome of this workshop will be to develop indices from Red List criteria that will provide a valuable tool for biodiversity planners and to serve as the basis for strategic development of the Red-list program.

Grassland degradation is a global concern, affecting not only wild species and pastoralists who rely on healthy grasslands for their survival, but also non-local people who suffer from resultant hydrological disturbances, dust storms, commodity scarcity, and social consequences of uprooted people. Livestock grazing is the dominant form of land use in Central Asia, and pastures of the Tibetan highlands are located upstream and upwind of roughly 40 percent of the world's human population. Grasslands on the Tibetan plateau usually are described as increasingly degraded. Causes for this grassland degradation are variously attributed to over-stocking of livestock, poor livestock management, historical-cultural factors, alteration of land-tenure arrangements, rapid changes in socioeconomic systems, climate change, and excessive herbivory and soil disturbance from wildlife. Prior research has yet to provide clear support for any putative causative agents, however, and previous studies have not examined interactions and complexity among these factors. As a result, policy choices to reduce or reverse grassland degradation often are made without a clear rationale and are based more on prejudice or convenience than evidence of their effectiveness. This interdisciplinary project will examine multiple correlates of grassland status and trends simultaneously, using replicated measurements at permanent plots in a multi-strata design, measuring the strength of evidence for various competing hypotheses. The investigators will link ecological measurements directly to current and recent historical actions by pastoralists, which in turn are affected by cultural norms, economic incentives, and policies of central and provincial governments. In addition to biophysical attributes of each site, livestock density and pasture usage patterns will be quantified. Each site also will be described by the particular grazing strategy employed by the pastoralist managing it, and that strategy, in turn, will be related to the complex of economic and policy incentives and historical determinants that pastoralists face. These data will be used to develop models that link broad historical, policy, economic, and cultural factors to local grassland conditions as mediated by the agency of individual pastoralists. The models can also be used to evaluate the implications of different policy interventions.

This project will deepen basic understanding of the complex interactions involving geophysical, biological, social, and policy factors and feedback systems that affect grassland status. Because multiple factors affect grasslands simultaneously and interactions are critical, the interdisciplinary, the systems-approach adopted by this project is fundamental. Enhanced understanding of this socioecological system will provide important input for policies on grassland restoration, biodiversity, and economic development in arid ecosystems worldwide. In addition to the education and training of students, the project will train a number of Tibetan field assistants, and the researchers will coordinate their work closely with local and provincial grassland and forestry officials. Direct collaboration with Chinese scientists and officials as well as facilitated workshops will enable research results to be understood by policy makers. Direct interactions with local pastoralists will allow immediate, practical applications of project results. This project is supported by the NSF Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH) Program.