LTER-PIE: Interactions Between External Drivers, Humans and Ecosystems in Shaping Ecological Process in a Mosaic of Coastal Landscapes and Estuarine Seascapes

LTER-PIE：外部驱动因素、人类和生态系统之间的相互作用，塑造沿海景观和河口海景的生态过程

• 批准号: 1238212
• 负责人: Anne Giblin
• 金额: $ 392万
• 依托单位: Marine Biological Laboratory
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-10-01 至 2017-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1238212&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: LTER; PIE; Interactions; Between; External

Intellectual Merit: The Plum Island Ecosystems (PIE) LTER has, since its inception in 1998, been working towards a predictive understanding of the long-term response of coupled land-estuary-ocean ecosystems to changes in three drivers: climate, sea level, and human activities. The Plum Island Estuary-LTER includes the coupled Parker, Rowley, and Ipswich River watersheds, estuarine areas including a shallow open sound, and extensive tidal marshes. PIE is connected to the Gulf of Maine in the Acadian biogeographic province, which is a cold water, macrotidal environment that is geographically and biologically distinct from coastal ecosystems to the south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Over the next four years the LTER will build upon the progress they have made in understanding the importance of spatial patterns and connections across the land-margin ecosystem. The overarching goal is to understand how external drivers, ecosystem dynamics, and human activities interact to shape ecological processes in a mosaic of coastal landscapes and estuarine seascapes. Understanding how landscapes and seascapes evolve and change, and how those changes control ecosystem processes, is both a fundamental science question and a critical management question. During the remainder of PIE III LTER researchers will continue to address the role of temporal change and variability in climate, sea-level rise and human activities on ecological processes in our long-term monitoring but they will also initiate new activities that examine spatial arrangements and connectivity. LTER research questions are focused around two themes: 1) What controls the spatial arrangements and connectivity between ecological habitat patches in the coastal zone? 2) How do the spatial arrangement and the connectivity between ecological habitat patches in coastal watersheds and the estuarine seascape influence ecological processes? To address their goal researchers will: 1) Quantify recent changes in spatial arrangements and connectivity in the watershed and estuary and investigate their drivers. 2) Supplement long-term monitoring with additional measurements in the watershed and estuary to understand how ecosystem processes are influenced by different spatial arrangements and connectivity. In the watershed these include areas where the river network has been modified by suburbanization and beaver dams. In the estuary LTER investigators will examine feedbacks between form and function in contrasting areas that appear to be responding very differently to sea-level rise; in one case maintaining the marsh platform and in another losing marsh area, forming ponds and transitioning to a lower elevation. 3) Continue existing and add new large scale manipulative experiments to increase mechanistic understanding of ecological processes in various critical land and seascape patches and their responses to drivers. 4) Develop and apply models to understand how biogeochemical and trophic processes emerge at broader scales in a spatially complex coastal environment. Long-term data collection, however, will remain a central activity as many of the hypotheses, as to the importance of geomorphic change to ecosystems processes, have come from our observations that spatial arrangements and their connections at PIE are rapidly changing, on the time scale of decades. Further, the LTER continues to expand efforts to understand how management decisions are influenced by both geomorphic and ecosystem changes. These interactions and feedbacks are important drivers of change at PIE and as a consequence LTER researchers have increasingly integrated human activities within the PIE conceptual framework. Broader Impacts: The LTER K-12 schoolyard program, "Salt Marsh Science", serves over 1,000 students in grades 5-12 in ten schools and the LTER hopes to continue to expand this into more schools. LTER education coordinator, Ms. Duff, has co-founded an effort to eradicate perennial pepperweed that involves over 1000 students and adults. This effort has attracted regional attention and partners. The LTER serves college undergraduates through internships, research projects and field trip. REU opportunities for undergrads exist through the PIE-LTER, the NSF funded Clark "HERO" program, the MBL-Brown partnership, and the U. of New Hampshire. The LTER will continue the collaboration with the MBL-Brown IGERT Program, where graduate students are exploring the intersection between modern genomics and ecosystems science. Outreach is an important part of the PIE LTER mission and includes inter-LTER efforts and participation in the MBL's science journalism program. The LTER has close connections with nearly all of the management agencies and NGOs in the region and LTER researchers serve on many advisory boards. All data collected by the PIE LTER are centralized and made available though a web site.

学术价值：梅岛生态系统（PIE） LTER自1998年成立以来，一直致力于预测陆地-河口-海洋耦合生态系统对气候、海平面和人类活动三个驱动因素变化的长期响应。梅岛河口- lter包括耦合的帕克，罗利和伊普斯维奇河流域，河口地区包括一个浅开放的声音，和广泛的潮汐沼泽。PIE与阿卡迪亚生物地理省的缅因湾相连，这是一个冷水，大潮汐环境，在地理和生物学上与马萨诸塞州科德角以南的沿海生态系统不同。在接下来的四年里，LTER将以他们在理解整个陆地边缘生态系统的空间格局和联系的重要性方面所取得的进展为基础。总体目标是了解外部驱动因素、生态系统动力学和人类活动如何相互作用，在沿海景观和河口景观的马赛克中塑造生态过程。了解景观和海景如何演变和变化，以及这些变化如何控制生态系统过程，既是一个基础科学问题，也是一个关键的管理问题。在PIE III LTER的剩余时间里，研究人员将继续在我们的长期监测中解决气候的时间变化和变率、海平面上升和人类活动对生态过程的作用，但他们也将开展新的活动，研究空间安排和连通性。LTER的研究问题主要围绕两个主题展开：1)是什么控制了海岸带生态栖息地斑块之间的空间布局和连通性？2)沿海流域生态生境斑块与河口景观的空间布局和连通性如何影响生态过程？为了实现这一目标，研究人员将：1)量化流域和河口空间布局和连通性的近期变化，并调查其驱动因素。2)在流域和河口进行长期监测，了解不同空间布局和连通性对生态系统过程的影响。在流域中，这些区域包括河网因郊区化和海狸水坝而改变的地区。在河口，LTER研究人员将在对海平面上升的反应非常不同的对比区域检查形式和功能之间的反馈；在一种情况下维持沼泽平台，在另一种失去沼泽地区，形成池塘并过渡到较低的海拔。3)继续现有的并增加新的大规模可操作实验，以增加对各种关键陆地和海洋斑块的生态过程及其对驱动因素的响应的机理认识。4)开发和应用模型，以了解在空间复杂的沿海环境中，生物地球化学和营养过程如何在更广泛的尺度上出现。然而，长期数据收集仍将是一项核心活动，因为许多关于地貌变化对生态系统过程重要性的假设都来自于我们的观察，即在几十年的时间尺度上，PIE的空间安排及其联系正在迅速变化。此外，LTER继续努力了解管理决策如何受到地貌和生态系统变化的影响。这些相互作用和反馈是PIE变化的重要驱动因素，因此，LTER研究人员越来越多地将人类活动纳入PIE概念框架。更广泛的影响：LTER的K-12校园项目“盐沼科学”为10所学校5-12年级的1000多名学生提供服务，LTER希望继续将其扩展到更多的学校。LTER教育协调员达夫女士与人共同创立了一个根除多年生胡椒草的项目，涉及1000多名学生和成年人。这一努力吸引了区域的注意和伙伴。LTER通过实习、研究项目和实地考察为大学本科生提供服务。REU为本科生提供的机会包括PIE-LTER、国家科学基金会资助的克拉克“英雄”计划、MBL-Brown合作伙伴关系和新罕布什尔大学。LTER将继续与MBL-Brown IGERT项目合作，该项目的研究生正在探索现代基因组学与生态系统科学之间的交集。外联是PIE LTER任务的重要组成部分，包括LTER之间的努力和MBL科学新闻计划的参与。拉丁美洲经委会与该区域几乎所有的管理机构和非政府组织都有密切联系，拉丁美洲经委会的研究人员在许多咨询委员会任职。PIE LTER收集的所有数据都是集中的，并通过一个网站提供。