On Landscape Development and Ecological Processes in a Tide-dominated Barrier-Lagoon Complex

将对弗吉尼亚州大西洋海岸的堤坝-河口系统进行长期的生态研究计划。这个1000平方公里的系统是在全新世海平面上升时期形成的。该项目旨在纳入时间和空间尺度的广泛领域。研究长期气候变化、海平面变化、岛屿运动以及沼泽生长和发展之间的相互关系，将用来自年代沉积岩心的数据进行研究。将利用遥感图像、实地和实验室实验的数据，以及对种群分布和分解和元素循环等过程的直接实地观测，研究当前气候环境、随机气候扰动和地表景观过程(如植物和动物演替)之间的相互关系。一个由三个耦合模型组成的系统，包括生物地球化学过程模型、演替模型和景观模型，将用于指导和综合对不同时间和空间尺度上发生的过程的研究。这项研究工作将由一个真正卓越的跨学科研究小组进行，每个小组的成员都是一位杰出的科学家。该小组是以完全整合和协作的方式组织起来的，应该会产生重大的协同效应。弗吉尼亚大学将为这项工作提供出色的校园设施，这将是部门级的中心工作，需要大量分配新的支持资源。该研究网站的所有者自然保护协会除了承担网站完整性和安全性的所有费用外，还将通过直接和实物方式参与该项目的支持。整个项目团队的组织方式非同寻常。该项目和科学小组从一开始就做好了充分的准备，以便在景观规模的同时进行的类似研究工作中占据领导地位。已经在执行计划，以便在科学和技术领域开展几种协作努力，这对取得重大进展是适当和重要的。除了高质量的基础生态研究的明显特点外，该项目还将提供影响沿海地区关键和脆弱自然资源管理的机会。生态系统研究计划建议为这项为期五年的持续奖励的第一年提供资金。

A long-term ecological research program will be conducted on the barrier-estuarine system on the Atlantic coast of Virginia. This 1,000-km2 system has developed during the period of Holocene sea level rise. This project is designed to incorporate a wide domain of scales of time and space. The interrelationships of secular climate change, sea-level change, island movement, and marsh growth and development will be studied with data from dated sediment cores. The interrelationships of the current climatic environment, stochastic climatic disturbances and surficial landscape processes such as plant and animal succession will be studied with data from remotely-sensed imagery, field and laboratory experimentation, and direct field observation of population distributions and processes such as decomposition and element cycling. A system of three coupled models, including a biogeochemical process model, a succession model and a landscape model, will be used both to guide and to synthesize studies of processes occurring on different scales of time and space. This research undertaking will be conducted by a truly remarkable interdisciplinary research group each member of which is an outstanding scientist in his own right. The group is organized in a completely integrated and collaborative fashion and a major synergism should result. The University of Virginia will provide excellent on-campus facilities for the work which will be a department-level centerpiece commanding a significant allocation of new support resources. The Nature Conservancy, owners of the research site, will participate in the support of the project by both direct and in-kind avenues in addition to assuming all costs for site integrity and security. The organization of the total project team is extraordinary. The project and scientific group come fully prepared at the outset to assume a leadership position within the family of concurrent similar research efforts at the landscape scale. Plans are already being implemented for several kinds of collaborative efforts in areas of science and technology appropriate and important to the achievement of major progress. In addition to the obvious characteristics of high quality fundamental ecological research this project will offer the opportunity to affect the management of critical and fragile natural resources of the coastal zone. The Ecosystem Studies Program recommends that funding be made available for the first year of this five-year continuing award.