Long-term Ecological Research at the North Inlet Estuary

重新强调内部基于流程的互动和反馈 北汊生态系统将得到实施。 的耦合 正在进行的长期抽样方案将以过程为基础， 实验和跨生态梯度的样带分析， 计划好了 基于对长期时间的良好描述， 生态系统结构的可变性，项目重点将转移 旨在解释这种变化的实验。 这些 面向过程的研究将集中在沼泽地区， 栖息地正在侵蚀沿海森林 断面 在这个流域内将进行采样，以监测空间和 营养物质的时间变化，有机物的沉积 物质、植物和动物生物量、鱼类洄游和水 动作 沿样条沿着选择位置， 对沼泽演化等长期过程的深入了解。 这些测量将与营养物质的实验相结合。 循环，沉淀，分解，初级生产， 施肥、营养动态和补充， 强调交换和转化过程的努力。 各种时空尺度的生态系统模型将 发展。 他们将描述和总结 内主要结构和功能生境的复杂性 北湾，测试假设，组织我们的实地实验， 并最终融入大的景观/气候 模型 模型将把我们的注意力集中在一般系统上 动力学以及化学、物理和生物相互作用 其调节系统级过程。 这一重点将反过来， 将North Inlet LTER项目置于有利地位， 评估干扰事件的影响（例如，飓风）， 全球气候变化与区域土地利用变化 各种规模的过程。 关键的长期数据集将延长到第二个十年。 这种与过去的连续性提供了长期的测量- 河口结构的长期变化， 观察到变化。 短期统计分析 这些长期数据集的可变性表明， 环境控制参数，如叶绿素 鱼类的季节性迁徙， 可预测的，而其他更多的生物控制参数， 例如浮游动物的丰度或 底栖生物，是不可预测的，可能会有很大的变化， 季节之间。

A new emphasis on process-based interactions and feedbacks within the North Inlet ecosystem will be carried out. The coupling of ongoing long-term sampling programs will process-based experiments and transect analyses across ecological gradients is planned. Based upon good descriptions of the long-term temporal variability in ecosystem structure, project emphasis will shift toward experiments designed to explain that variation. These process-oriented studies will concentrate on areas where marsh habitats are encroaching into the coastal forest. Transects within this watershed will be sampled to monitor spatial and temporal variations in nutrients, the deposition of organic matter, plant and animal biomass, fish migrations, and water movements. Select locations along a transect will provide insights on very long-term processes such as marsh evolution. These measurements will be combined with experiments on nutrient cycling, sedimentation, decomposition, primary production, fertilization, trophic dynamics and recruitment in a coordinated effort that emphasizes exchange and transformation process. Ecosystem models at a variety of spatial and temporal scales will be developed. They will characterize and summarize the complexity of the major structural and functional habitats within North Inlet, test hypotheses, structure our field experiments, and ultimately, be incorporated into large landscape/climate models. Models will focus our attention on general systems dynamics and the chemical, physical and biological interactions which regulate system level processes. This focus will, in turn, place the North Inlet LTER project in a strong position to evaluate the impacts of disturbance events (e.g., hurricanes), global climate change and regional land-use change on system processes at various scales. Key long-term datasets will be extended into a second decade. This continuity with the past provides the measurements of long- term variations in the estuarine structure, the indices by which change is observed. Statistical analyses of the short-term variability in these long-term data sets have shown that certain environmentally controlled parameters, such as chlorophyll concentrations or seasonal fish migrations, are reasonably predictable, while other more biological controlled parameters, such as the zooplankton abundance or recruitment success of benthos, were unpredictable and likely to vary greatly within and between seasons.