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

该RAPID研究项目将检查密西西比河沿着阿查法拉亚河的一个断面发生的200年一遇洪水对生态系统和地球化学的影响，除了已经很高的洪水沃茨外，阿查法拉亚河还从莫甘扎溢洪道接收大量的水输入到阿查法拉亚河三角洲河口，再到北方墨西哥湾。研究人员将重点关注与湿地和洪泛平原沼泽广泛相互作用的河流系统中的极端事件如何改变碳质量，营养物质和沉积物向海湾的输送，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经验计划相结合，为学生提供机会，获得第一手的经验，研究在洪泛区河流的极端事件。由于这样的极端事件预计将在未来变得更加普遍，这项研究将提供重要的信息，管理人员，谁目前必须作出决定，河流和洪水管理的基础上有限的知识，这种类型的事件的生态系统影响。

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.