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。随着海岸附近人口的增加，对沿海生态系统提供的自然资源和服务的需求也将增加，从而进一步加重这些生态系统的压力。佛罗里达海岸大沼泽地LTER(FCE)是了解海岸生态系统动态如何响应和影响人类活动的优秀实验室。低营养化是FCE的一个明显特征，而研究区域的河口在生物地球化学上是颠倒的，因为限制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，重点是低盐交错带的动力学；影响这些动态的水文、气候学和人类驱动因素；以及调节上游淡水沼泽湿地和河口本身向交错带的生物物理输入的过程。FCE II的总体主题遵循了这一理念的演变：在沿海大沼泽地景观中，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。这一现象在低盐交错带中得到了最好的例证，在那里，这些因素相互作用最强，并在许多时间和空间尺度上变化。FCE将继续跟踪从运河到海洋的水流，沿着大沼泽地国家公园的两个横断面。几项新的倡议包括新的研究水文学(特别是地下水水文学)和人的层面。大沼泽地修复是FCE的试验性、BACI风格的模板；在下一轮融资中，一个主要的修复项目将拆除其中一个横断面头部的关键堤坝。这项宏大的实验将导致只有一个样带的淡水流量大幅增加，中心假设旨在了解这一重大变化的结果。FCE II将继续密切参与南佛罗里达州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交错带地区，从而填补生态系统间模拟的关键空白。最后，FCE II将继续谨慎地平衡连续性(对任何成功的长期计划至关重要)和对新想法和倡议的支持，扩大项目领导力，将FCE I PI和后起之秀的初级教师包括在内。FCE总部设在FIU，这是一所少数族裔占多数的公立大学，是美国最大的拉美裔服务机构之一。FCE学生群体庞大、活跃和多样化。FCE K-12课程中89%的受影响学生是西班牙裔学生，该计划将通过包括新的高中课程开发和加强指导来加强。对南佛罗里达社区(超过60%是西班牙裔)的宣传将变成完全双语。方便用户、信息丰富的FCE网站将继续是主要的外联门户网站。FCE II将进一步实现将FCE科学与大沼泽地恢复相联系的目标，以提供从基本生态理论到开发更有效的环境管理和恢复/恢复计划的可靠、持续和不断增长的知识转移。

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.