McKane Robert B, Halama Jonathan J, Barnhart Bradley L, Brookes Allen F, Djang Kevin S, Chokshi Sonali, Pettus Paul P, Groskinsky Brenda, Grier Gina, Hawkins Andy, Watson Douglas, Prentice Jayson, Blair John M, Goodin Douglas G, Johnson Loretta C, Skibbe Adam M, Stieglitz Marc, Pan Feifei, Abdelnour Alex
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, Corvallis, OR 97333, USA.
Inoventures, Inc., Corvallis, OR 97333, USA.
Landsc Ecol. 2025 Jan 15;40(24):1-27. doi: 10.1007/s10980-024-02034-4.
The > 25,000 km Flint Hills ecoregion in eastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma, USA, is an economically and ecologically important area encompassing the largest remaining tallgrass prairie ecosystem in North America. Prescribed fires are used routinely to control invasive woody species and improve forage production for the beef-cattle industry. However, burning releases harmful pollutants that, at times, contribute to air quality problems for communities across a multi-state area.
Establish a modeling framework for synthesizing long-term ecological data in support of Flint Hills tallgrass prairie management goals for identifying how much, where, and when rangeland burning can be conducted to maximize ecological and economic benefits while minimizing regional air quality impacts.
We used EPA's VELMA ecohydrology model to synthesize long-term experimental data at the 35 km Konza Prairie Biological Station (KPBS) describing the effects of climate, fire, grazing, topography, and soil moisture and nutrient dynamics on tallgrass prairie productivity and fuel loads; and to spatially extrapolate that synthesis to estimate grassland productivity and fuel loads across the nearly 1000 times larger Flint Hills ecoregion to support prescribed burning smoke trajectory modeling using the State of Kansas implementation of the U.S. Forest Service BlueSky framework.
VELMA provided a performance-tested synthesis of KPBS data from field observations and experiments, thereby establishing a tool for regionally simulating the combined effects of climate, fire, grazing, topography, soil moisture, and nutrients on tallgrass prairie productivity and fuel loads. VELMA's extrapolation of that synthesis allowed difficult-to-quantify fuel loads to be mapped across the Flint Hills to support environmental decision making, such as forecasting when, where, and how prescribed burning will have the least impact on downwind population centers.
Our regional spatial and temporal extrapolation of VELMA's KPBS data synthesis posits that the effects of integrated ecohydrological processes operate similarly across tallgrass prairie spatial scales. Based on multi-scale performance tests of the VELMA-BlueSky toolset, our multi-institution team is confident that it can assist stakeholders and decision makers in realistically exploring tallgrass prairie management options for balancing air quality, tallgrass prairie sustainability, and associated economic benefits for the Flint Hills ecoregion and downwind communities.
美国堪萨斯州东部和俄克拉荷马州东北部面积超过25000平方公里的弗林特山生态区，是一个在经济和生态方面都很重要的地区，包含了北美现存最大的高草草原生态系统。规定火烧被常规用于控制入侵木本物种，并提高肉牛产业的草料产量。然而，燃烧会释放有害污染物，有时会给多个州的社区带来空气质量问题。
建立一个建模框架，综合长期生态数据，以支持弗林特山高草草原的管理目标，确定可以在多少面积、何处以及何时进行牧场焚烧，以在使区域空气质量影响最小化的同时，最大化生态和经济效益。
我们使用美国环境保护局（EPA）的VELMA生态水文学模型，综合在35公里长的孔扎草原生物站（KPBS）的长期实验数据，这些数据描述了气候、火灾、放牧、地形以及土壤水分和养分动态对高草草原生产力和燃料负荷的影响；并在空间上外推该综合数据，以估算面积几乎大1000倍的弗林特山生态区内的草地生产力和燃料负荷，以支持使用美国森林服务局蓝天框架的堪萨斯州实施方案进行规定火烧烟雾轨迹建模。
VELMA对来自实地观测和实验的KPBS数据进行了经过性能测试的综合，从而建立了一个用于区域模拟气候、火灾、放牧、地形、土壤水分和养分对高草草原生产力和燃料负荷综合影响的工具。VELMA对该综合数据的外推，使得难以量化的燃料负荷能够在弗林特山地区进行绘制，以支持环境决策，例如预测规定火烧在何时、何地以及如何对下风向人口中心产生最小影响。
我们对VELMA的KPBS数据综合进行的区域时空外推表明，综合生态水文过程的影响在高草草原空间尺度上的运作方式相似。基于VELMA - 蓝天工具集的多尺度性能测试，我们的多机构团队相信，它可以帮助利益相关者和决策者切实探索高草草原管理选项，以平衡空气质量、高草草原可持续性以及弗林特山生态区和下风向社区的相关经济效益。
