Plum Island Ecosystems LTER

智力优势：梅岛生态系统（PIE）LTER是一个综合的研究，教育和推广计划，其目标是发展对陆地-海洋界面流域和河口生态系统对气候，土地利用和海平面变化的长期反应的预测性理解。主要的研究地点是位于新英格兰东部印第安人地理省的普拉姆岛湾河口。研究地点包括耦合的帕克，罗利和伊普斯维奇河流域，其潮汐沼泽，以及缅因州湾周围的海洋。沿海流域的土地使用变化和城市化正在改变物质和水流向沿海生态系统的规模和时间。这些来自陆地的水流变化，加上气候变化和海平面上升，将对沿海地区的物质和能源转化方式产生重要但仍知之甚少的后果。它也将对那些重视这些生态系统的人们产生重要影响，这些生态系统是为了食物，娱乐和风暴保护。该项目的首要问题是解决全球变化在沿海地区的生态后果：外部驱动因素，生态系统动态和人类活动如何相互作用，以塑造有机物和营养物质的转换在相连的流域和沿海生态系统？该项目遵循先前的LTER研究的海洋地球化学，食物网，和人口生物学在梅岛流域，河口，和潮间带沼泽。 在PIE LTER研究的下一阶段，将更加强调各组成生态系统之间的联系和反馈，包括人的方面。研究人员还将更加重视地貌和地貌变化在生态系统动态中的作用。为了组织这项研究，研究人员将研究分为四个方案领域，每个领域都解决了一个对回答我们的首要问题至关重要的问题：Q1流域-流域间物质转移、流域内生态系统连通性和地貌的人类改变如何与气候相互作用，从而影响流域至河口的水、有机物和营养物通量的生态系统调节，这些变化又是如何反馈到人类行为中，进而改变流域功能的？Q2沼泽-PIE盐沼的相对海拔是否与海平面平衡，如果不是，对初级生产、生物地球化学循环和沼泽与河口之间的物质交换有何影响？Q3河口-人类活动和气候变化如何影响与流域、潮间带沼泽和海洋的耦合，从而形成河口潮沟和海湾中的有机物和营养物转化？问题4高营养水平-生态系统空间结构和动态变化对食物网生产力的结构和转移以及对河口生态系统高营养水平的功能有什么影响？为了解决这些问题，LTER研究人员将使用多种方法：1）收集关键生态系统驱动因素和生态系统响应的长期数据，2）短期和长期实验，3）比较生态系统研究，以及4）建模。PIE LTER收集的所有数据都将集中在一起，PIE-LTER科学家，地方，区域和州合作伙伴以及更广泛的科学界都可以轻松访问。更广泛的影响：通过与当地教育工作者和非政府组织的合作，PIE LTER的教育和推广计划得到了极大的加强。 LTER人员将继续与马萨诸塞州奥杜邦和州长学院合作，开展LTER校园项目，该项目为5-12年级的学生提供了动手科学培训。“盐沼科学”目前每年为1000多名学生和50名教师提供服务。在今后六年中，LTER计划扩大教师培训，并将重点放在环境管理上。本科生将在PIE科学家的指导下，专注于个人项目的密集研究经验。本科生和研究生的参与将随着新的PI的增加而增加。PIE将通过与许多地方和区域非政府组织的合作，包括缅因州研究所、埃塞克斯县绿地、伊普斯维奇河协会和帕克清洁水协会，保持积极的外展计划。PIE科学家通过担任地方，州和国家层面政策制定者的顾问，帮助将科学信息纳入政策，这一角色将继续增长。

Intellectual Merit: The Plum Island Ecosystems (PIE) LTER is an integrated research, education and outreach program whose goal is to develop a predictive understanding of the long-term response of watershed and estuarine ecosystems at the land-sea interface to changes in climate, land use, and sea level. The principal study site is the Plum Island Sound estuary located in the Acadian biogeographic province in eastern New England. The study sites include the coupled Parker, Rowley, and Ipswich River watersheds, their tidal marshes, and the surrounding ocean of the Gulf of Maine. Land use change and urbanization of coastal watersheds are altering both the magnitude and timing of the flow of materials and water to coastal ecosystems. These changes in flows from land, coupled with climate change and sea level rise, will have important, but still poorly understood consequences for the ways in which materials and energy are transformed in the coastal zone. It will also have important consequences for the people who value these ecosystems for food, recreation, and storm protection. The overarching question of this project addresses the ecological consequences of global change in the coastal zone: How do external drivers, ecosystem dynamics, and human activities interact to shape organic matter and nutrient transformations in linked watershed and coastal ecosystems? This project follows from prior LTER studies of biogeochemistry, food webs, and population biology in the Plum Island watersheds, estuary, and intertidal marshes. In this next phase of PIE LTER research there will be more emphasis on linkages and feedbacks between the component ecosystems, including the human dimension. LTER Researchers will also place a greater emphasis on the role of geomorphology and geomorphic change in ecosystem dynamics. To organize this research the investigators have divided the study into four programmatic areas, each of which addresses an issue critical to answering our overarching question: Q1 Watersheds - How do human alterations of inter-basin material transfers, within-basin ecosystem connectivity, and geomorphology interact with climate to impact ecosystem regulation of water, organic matter, and nutrient fluxes through the watershed to the estuary, and how do these changes feed back to human behaviors that further alter watershed function? Q2 Marsh - Are the relative elevations of salt marshes at PIE in equilibrium with sea level, and if not, what are the consequences for primary production, biogeochemical cycling, and material exchanges between the marsh and estuary? Q3 Estuary - How do human activities and variations in climate that affect the coupling with watersheds, intertidal marshes, and the ocean shape organic matter and nutrient transformations in estuarine tidal creeks and bays? Q4 Higher Trophic Levels - What are the consequences of changes in ecosystem spatial configuration and dynamics for the structure and transfer of productivity in food webs, and for the function of higher trophic levels in estuarine ecosystems? To address these questions LTER Researchers will use a combination of approaches: 1) the collection of long-term data on key ecosystem drivers and ecosystem responses, 2) short and long-term experiments, 3) comparative ecosystems studies, and 4) modeling. All data collected by the PIE LTER will be centralized and easily accessible to PIE-LTER scientists, local, regional and state partners, and the broader scientific community. Broader Impacts: The educational and outreach program at PIE LTER is greatly strengthened through partnerships with local educators and NGOs. LTER personnel will continue to collaborate with Massachusetts Audubon and the Governor's Academy for the LTER schoolyard program, which has brought hands-on science training to students in grades 5-12. "Salt marsh Science" currently serves more than 1000 students and 50 teachers a year. Over the next six years the LTER plans to expand teacher training, and include a focus on environmental stewardship. Undergraduates will be served by intensive research experiences focusing on individual projects under the mentorship of PIE scientists. Both undergraduate and graduate student involvement will increase with the addition of new PIs. PIE will maintain an active outreach program through collaboration with many local and regional NGOs including the Gulf of Maine Institute, Essex County Greenbelt, the Ipswich River Association, and the Parker Clean Water Association. PIE scientists help bring scientific information into policy by serving as advisors to policy makers at the local, state, and national level, a role that continues to grow.