FCE LTER II: Coastal Oligotrophic Ecosystems Research

大约50%的美国人口居住在距离海岸80公里的范围内。随着沿海附近人口的增加，对沿海生态系统提供的自然资源和服务的需求也将增加，进一步给这些生态系统带来压力。佛罗里达沿海大沼泽地LTER （FCE）是了解沿海生态系统动态如何响应和影响人类活动的绝佳实验室。少营养是FCE的一个决定性特征，研究区域的河口在生物地球化学上是颠倒的，因为限制性营养物质的来源是海洋，而不是分水岭。FCE II的概念方法是进化的，重点是低盐过渡带动力学；影响这些动态的水文、气候和人类驱动因素；以及调节上游淡水沼泽地沼泽和河口适当的生物物理输入到过渡带的过程。FCE II的总体主题遵循了这一思想的演变：在沿海沼泽地景观中，人口和生态系统水平的动态受到水源、水停留时间和当地生物过程的相对重要性的控制。这种现象在低盐过渡带中得到最好的例证，在那里这些因素相互作用最强烈，并且在许多时间和空间尺度上变化。FCE将沿着沼泽地国家公园的两条横断面继续追踪从运河流向海洋的水流。一些新的倡议包括新的研究水文学（特别是地下水水文学）和人的方面。Everglades Restoration是FCE的实验性、baci式模板；在下一轮资金中，一个主要的修复项目将拆除其中一个横断面顶部的一个关键堤坝。这个宏大的实验只会使一个样带的淡水流量显著增加，而中心假设则是为了理解这一重大变化的结果。FCE II将继续密切参与南佛罗里达的许多现有建模工作，以避免冗余，并将其动态预算模拟模型扩展到过渡带地区，从而填补生态系统之间模拟的关键空白。最后，FCE II将继续谨慎地平衡连续性（对任何成功的长期项目至关重要）与支持新想法和倡议，通过扩大项目领导，包括FCE I pi和新星青年教师。FCE的总部设在FIU，这是一所以少数族裔为主的公立大学，也是美国最大的西班牙裔服务机构之一。FCE的学生群体庞大、活跃、多样化。FCE K-12项目中89%的受影响学生是西班牙裔，将通过包括新的高中课程开发和加强指导来加强该项目。南佛罗里达社区（其中超过60%是西班牙裔）将完全双语化。用户友好、信息丰富的FCE网站将继续作为主要的外联门户。FCE II将进一步将FCE科学与沼泽地恢复联系起来，提供可靠、持续和不断增长的知识转移，从基础生态理论到更有效的环境管理和恢复/恢复计划的发展。

Approximately 50% of the U.S. population lives within 80 km of a coast. As human populations proximal to coasts increase, demands for the natural resources and services that coastal ecosystems provide will also grow, further stressing these ecosystems. The Florida Coastal Everglades LTER (FCE) is an excellent laboratory for understanding how coastal ecosystem dynamics respond to, and influence, human activities. Oligotrophy is a defining characteristic of FCE, and the estuaries of the study area are biogeochemically upside down because the source of limiting nutrients is the ocean, not the watershed. The conceptual approach for FCE II is evolutionary, with emphases on oligohaline ecotone dynamics; hydrologic, climatological, and human drivers that affect those dynamics; and processes that regulate biophysical inputs to the ecotone from upstream freshwater Everglades marshes and the estuary proper. The overarching theme of FCE II follows this evolution of ideas: In the coastal Everglades landscape, population and ecosystem-level dynamics are controlled by the relative importance of water source, water residence time, and local biotic processes. This phenomenon is best exemplified in the oligohaline ecotone, where these factors interact most strongly and vary over many temporal and spatial scales. FCE will continue tracking the flow of water from canals to the ocean along two transects in Everglades National Park. Several new initiatives include new research hydrology (particularly groundwater hydrology) and human dimensions. Everglades Restoration is the experimental, BACI-style template for FCE; in this next round of funding a major restoration project will remove a key levee at the head of one of the transects. This grand experiment will cause a considerable increase in freshwater flow to only one transect, and central hypotheses are directed at understanding the results of this major change.FCE II will continue its close involvement with the many existing modeling efforts in south Florida to avoid redundancies and will expand its dynamic budget simulation modelling to the ecotone regions, thus filling a critical between-ecosystem simulation gap. Finally, FCE II will continue to carefully balance continuity (critical to any successful long-term program) with support for new ideas and initiatives by expanding program leadership to include both FCE I PIs and rising star junior faculty.FCE is based at FIU, a majority-minority public university that is one of the largest Hispanic-serving institutions in the U.S. The FCE student group is large, active, and diverse. The FCE K-12 program, in which 89% of all students impacted are Hispanic, will be strengthened by including new high school curriculum development and enhanced mentoring. Outreach to the South Florida community (which is over 60% Hispanic) will become fully bilingual. The user-friendly, information-rich FCE website will continue to be the primary outreach portal. FCE II will further the goal of linking FCE science with Everglades Restoration to provide reliable, continuous and growing knowledge transfer from basic ecological theory to the development of more effective environmental management and restoration/rehabilitation programs.