NSF Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY2008

该行动资助了2008财年NSF少数民族博士后奖学金。该奖学金支持奖学金获得者在主办实验室的研究和培训计划，该奖学金获得者还提出了扩大生物学参与的计划。为Marcelo Ardon-Sayao提供的研究和培训计划的题目是“加速水文循环下沿海湿地生态系统的养分循环”。赞助科学家是杜克大学的艾米丽·s·伯恩哈特博士。据预测，全球气候变化将通过改变极端天气事件的频率和强度来影响社会和生态系统。风暴强度和频率的增加可能会损害沿海湿地防止水质问题的能力，例如沿海生态系统的养分径流增加。本研究的主要目标是通过解决以下问题，建立经验关系，描述日益变化的湿地水文对营养丰富的沿海平原生态系统中氮（N)和磷(P)保留的影响：1）风暴的时间和频率如何影响N和P在最近恢复的湿地生态系统中的命运和运输？2)降雨的时间变化如何影响湿地土壤氮、磷的转化？3)实验水位快速下降过程中，景观N、P通量如何变化？研究将主要在北卡罗来纳州提勒尔县一个400公顷的湿地缓解项目中进行。培训目标包括学习新的实验和分析技术，以研究不同尺度的水文变化对湿地营养转化的影响，并与不同学科的科学家、政府官员、顾问和土地所有者建立长期合作关系，以进一步将研究应用于公共政策。更广泛的影响包括增加未被充分代表的少数民族在博士后水平的参与，指导本科生进行生态研究，努力让未被充分代表的少数民族学生参与进来。这项研究将有助于预测东南沿海平原生态系统在未来水文变化更大的情况下营养输出的可能变化方向。

This action funds an NSF Minority Postdoctoral Fellowship for FY 2008. The fellowship supports a research and training plan in a host laboratory for the Fellow who also presents a plan to broaden participation in biology. The research and training plan for this fellowship to Marcelo Ardon-Sayao is entitled "Nutrient cycling in coastal wetland ecosystems under an accelerating hydrologic cycle." The sponsoring scientist is Dr. Emily S. Bernhardt at Duke University.Global climate change is forecasted to impact society and ecosystems by altering the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Increased intensity and frequency of storms could impair the ability of coastal wetlands to prevent water quality problems, such as increased nutrient runoff to coastal ecosystems. The main goal of this research is to develop empirical relationships describing the effects of increasingly variable wetland hydrology on nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) retention in nutrient rich coastal plain ecosystems by addressing the following questions: 1) How does timing and frequency of storms affect the fate and transport of N and P across a recently restored wetland ecosystem? 2) How does the temporal variability of rainfall affect transformations of N and P in wetland soils? 3) How do landscape fluxes of N and P change during rapid experimental reductions of water level? Research will be conducted primarily within a 400-ha wetland mitigation project in Tyrell County, NC. The training goals include learning new experimental and analytical techniques to examine the effects of altered hydrology on nutrient transformation in wetlands across different scales and establishing long-term collaborations with scientists in different disciplines, government officials, consultants, and land owners to further the application of research to public policy. Broader impacts include increasing the participation of under-represented minorities at the postdoctoral level and mentoring undergraduate students in ecological research, making an effort to involve underrepresented minority students. This research will aid predictions of the likely direction of change of nutrient exports as a result of a more hydrologically variable future for southeastern coastal plain ecosystems.