Collaborative Research: RAPID: The 2011 Atchafalaya River Flood and a possible altered system state for the Atchafalaya River Delta Estuary

这一快速研究项目将研究密西西比河200年来的洪水对生态系统和生物地球化学的影响，从阿查法拉亚河到墨西哥湾北部的阿查法拉亚河横断面，阿查法拉亚河除了已经很高的洪水外，还从摩根萨溢洪道获得大量的水输入。研究人员将重点研究与湿地和泛滥平原沼泽有广泛互动的河流系统中的极端事件如何改变碳质量、营养物质和向墨西哥湾的沉积物运输，以及这些生物地球化学变化如何影响生态系统呼吸和食物网。研究的更广泛影响包括对人力资源开发和管理问题的贡献。该项目将与现有的本科生研究体验计划相结合，为学生提供在泛滥平原河流中研究极端事件的第一手经验。由于这样的极端事件预计将在未来变得更加常见，这项研究将为管理者提供重要信息，他们目前必须基于对此类事件对生态系统影响的有限了解来做出关于河流和洪水管理的决策。

This RAPID research project will examine ecosystem and biogeochemical impacts of a 200-year flood of the Mississippi River along a transect from the Atchafalaya River, which is receiving massive inputs of water from the Morganza Spillway in addition to already high flood waters, to the Atchafalaya River Delta Estuary, to the northern Gulf of Mexico. The researchers will focus on how an extreme event in a river system having extensive interaction with wetlands and floodplain swamps alters carbon quality, nutrients, and sediment transport to the Gulf, as well as how these biogeochemical changes affect ecosystem respiration and the food web.The broader impacts of the research include contributions to human resource development and to management issues. The project will interface with an existing Research Experience for Undergraduates program, affording students an opportunity to gain first-hand experience studying an extreme event in a floodplain river. Because extreme events such as this are expected to become more common in the future, this study will provide important information to managers, who currently must make decisions about river and flood management based on limited knowledge of the ecosystem effects of this type of event.