OPUS: Coupling of Carbon, Nitrogen, Silica and Phosphorus Cycles in Coastal Ecosystems: Climate Effects and Trophic Implications

河口位于陆地、大气和海洋的交界处，由其物理特性和周围的景观决定。这些充满活力的沿海系统对气候和人类活动的变化作出反应，历经数年乃至数十年。许多河口从邻近的生态系统获得大量营养物质，为植物和动物的高生产力提供燃料。河口也是碳、氮、磷和二氧化硅等关键元素密集循环(再利用)的场所。该项目使用切萨皮克湾地区来研究元素循环如何在区域和季节之间同步，不同元素循环之间的联系如何受到河口形状、气候和营养物质增加的影响，以及浮游动物和贝类等生物资源如何对元素循环的变化做出反应。将使用大型监测数据库和简单的计算模型在相连的河口网络中对这些过程进行评估。分区域之间的比较，如不同的河流支流，将产生对一般河口的更广泛的知识。社会将受益于对切萨皮克湾等复杂河口的不同区域和元素循环如何联系并对变化做出反应的更深入的了解，因为这种新知识将为流域管理计划提供信息。这项工作将促进人们对气候如何改变生物资源和水质对营养管理的反应的了解。项目调查人员将与切萨皮克湾资源经理合作分析数据和解释结果，使结果立即用于制定营养废物管理战略，以改善水质和维持生命资源。这项研究还将促进一门新的研究生课程的开发，该课程教授综合研究的逻辑、重要性和方法。

Located at the interface between land, atmosphere and ocean, estuaries are shaped by their physical properties and the surrounding landscape. These dynamic coastal systems respond to changes in climate and human actions over years and decades. Many estuaries receive large inputs of nutrients from adjacent ecosystems that fuels the high productivity of both plants and animals. Estuaries are also sites of intense cycling (re-use) of key elements like carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and silica. This project uses the Chesapeake Bay region to investigate how elemental cycles maybe synchronized over regions and seasons, how linkages between different element cycles are affected by estuary shape, climate and increased nutrients, and how living resources, such as zooplankton and shellfish, respond to changes in element cycles. These processes will be evaluated in linked estuarine networks using a large monitoring database and simple computational models. Comparisons among subregions, such as different river tributaries, will generate a broader knowledge about estuaries in general.Society will benefit from a deeper understanding of how different regions and element cycles of complex estuaries, such as the Chesapeake Bay, are linked and respond to change because this new knowledge will inform watershed management plans. This work will advance knowledge of how climate modifies living resource and water quality responses to nutrient management. Project investigators will collaborate with Chesapeake Bay resource managers to analyze data and and interpret results, making the results immediately useful for developing nutrient waste management strategies that improve water quality and sustain living resources. This study will also stimulate development of a new graduate course that teaches the logic, importance and methods of synthesis research.