International Research Fellowship Program: A Comparison of HAB Dynamics in Two Upwelling Regions Using Novel Technology

0853106卢卡斯该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行9到24个月的研究。 该计划的奖项提供了联合研究的机会，以及使用独特或互补的设施，专业知识和国外的实验条件。该奖项将支持安德鲁J卢卡斯博士与南非海洋和海岸管理的格兰特皮彻博士，开普敦大学的弗兰克希灵顿博士，加州大学的拉斐尔库奇博士，圣克鲁斯和加州大学戴维斯分校的John Largier博士。有害藻类水华（HABs）是一个日益严重的全球性问题，每年造成数亿美元的经济、环境和健康损失。自主式波浪动力剖面仪（Wirewalkers，WW）正被用于从拉格朗日（自由漂移）和欧拉（系泊）角度研究赤潮动态。这些研究是在本格拉海流系统和加州海流系统中进行的，研究人员来自海洋和海岸管理（南非政府的一个部门）、南非开普敦大学海洋学系、圣克鲁斯加州大学和戴维斯加州大学。自主波驱动的WW剖面仪提供了第一个拉格朗日数据集的足够的分辨率，明确测试的假设对流与原位变化的赤潮人口。这项研究的结果是加强正在进行的比较研究，在南部本格拉和北方蒙特雷湾上升流系统的赤潮动态。 上升流系统的物理动力学和浮游植物（HAB）水华形成之间的相互作用还没有完全了解。这一事实限制了预测单个赤潮事件的发生和严重程度以及全球气候变化对赤潮频率、强度和地理范围的影响的能力。正在进行的研究提供了第一套良好的解决，同时测量的物理和生物变量的角度系泊和拉格朗日测量的条件下，活跃的上升流和在放松期间。 这个独特的详细的数据集是推进我们的小规模的物理动力学，控制浮游植物水华的启动，维护和运输到沿海沃茨的赤潮。我们对这些物理控制的机械理解的增加将允许改进HAB事件的预测能力。 通过低成本监测、卫星产品和数值模型相结合，准确地预测赤潮事件可以提供巨大的社会效益，特别是在赤潮缓解战略不断发展的情况下？这可能节省大量资金，最重要的是，保护受影响沿海社区的人类健康。 强烈的长期变化，在CCS，全球气候变率的驱动下，改变了物理环境，并导致甲藻赤潮发生增加。在全球变化的强迫下，CCS的水文特性的变化表明，它变得更像BCS。因此，BCS和CCS之间的比较研究，如目前的项目，正在增加我们对全球变暖驱动的CCS和BCS中的重大生物变化的潜力的理解。

0853106LucasThis award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twenty-four-month research fellowship by Dr. Andrew J. Lucas to work with Dr. Grant Pitcher at Marine and Coastal Management in South Africa, Dr. Frank Shillington at the University of Cape Town, Dr. Raphael Kudela at the University of California, Santa Cruz and with Dr. John Largier at the University of California, Davis.Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) are a growing global problem, causing hundreds of millions of dollars of economic, environmental, and health losses each year. Autonomous, wave-powered profiling instruments (Wirewalkers, WW) are being used to study HAB dynamics from a Lagrangian (freely-drifting) and Eulerian (moored) perspective. These studies are being performed in the Benguela Current System (BCS) and California Current System (CCS) in collaboration with researchers from Marine and Coastal Management (a Department of Government of South Africa), the Department of Oceanography, University of Cape Town, South Africa, the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the University of California, Davis. The autonomous wave-driven WW profilers are providing the first Lagrangian dataset of sufficient resolution to explicitly test hypotheses concerning advective versus in situ change in HAB populations. The results from this study are augmenting ongoing comparative studies of HAB dynamics in the southern Benguela and northern Monterey Bay upwelling systems. The interplay between the physical dynamics of upwelling systems and phytoplankton (HAB) bloom formation is not fully understood. This fact limits the ability to predict the onset and severity of individual HAB events as well as the influence of global climate change on HAB frequency, intensity, and geographic extent. The ongoing research is providing the first set of well-resolved, simultaneous measurements of physical and biological variables from the perspective of moored and Lagrangian measurements under conditions of active upwelling and during periods of relaxation. This uniquely detailed dataset is advancing our understanding of the small-scale physical dynamics that control phytoplankton bloom initiation, maintenance, and transport of HABs to coastal waters. Our increased mechanistic understanding of these physical controls will permit an improved predictive capability of HAB events. Accurately forecasting HAB events from a combination of low-cost monitoring, satellite products, and numerical models can provide enormous societal benefit, particularly as HAB mitigation strategies evolve?potential saving significant sums of money and, most importantly, safeguarding human health in impacted coastal communities. Strong secular change in the CCS, driven by global climate variability, has modified the physical environment and led to increased occurrences of dinoflagellate HABs. Changes in hydrographic properties of the CCS show that it is becoming more like the BCS under forcing by global change. Thus comparative studies between the BCS and the CCS, such as the current project, are increasing our understanding of the potential for significant biological change in the CCS and BCS driven by global warming.