Collaborative Research: The Ecological Drill Hypothesis: Biotic Control on Carbonate Dissolution in a Low Relief Patterned Landscape

生物过程在塑造土地方面发挥着重要但未被充分认识的作用。 事实上，在某些地方，动植物是控制地形变化的最重要因素，因此也是控制陆地表面生境和水文格局的最重要因素。 这项工作探讨了生物学在塑造大柏树国家保护区（BICY）的土地表面中的作用，这是一个复杂而美丽的柏树湿地，松树高地和佛罗里达西南部深水沼泽的马赛克。 BICY是一种喀斯特地貌，地表有石灰岩基岩。 虽然景观几乎是完全平坦的，但石灰岩上雕刻的小湿地洼地对于储存水至关重要，从而为各种植物和动物提供栖息地。 这些湿地洼地的起源不明。 这项研究将确定这些凹陷及其在景观上的显著规则间距是否是由湿地中自然发生的生物过程造成的，这些生物过程加速了石灰石溶解的速度。 这创造了一种诱人的可能性，即这些湿地中的生物正在通过启动和扩大地形凹陷来慢慢创造自己的栖息地。 研究团队由不同学科的科学家组成，包括水文学家，地质学家，生物学家和建模师，创建了回答这些类型的研究问题所需的协作集成类型。将卫星和航空数据与详细的实地测量相结合，将使团队能够解决这些凹陷形成的方式和速度，这对区域水流和水质意味着什么，以及地形和陆地表面栖息地的模式是如何形成的。这项工作有助于了解生态和地质过程如何共同作用塑造陆地表面。 地球表面的图案是由植物和动物，以及岩石和水之间的相互作用自发产生的，这一中心思想提醒我们，生态系统中存在着强大的，有时甚至是令人惊讶的联系。 在这种情况下，湿地生态系统被认为通过溶解岩石在数千年内改变了土地的形状。 这种类型的洞察力将有助于了解这一景观的起源，这支持了一系列显着的生物和栖息地。 它还将提高对水文特征的理解，以及水运动对大南佛罗里达系统的影响，包括大沼泽地的重要组成部分。 此外，这项工作将有助于预测生态系统和生物过程可能如何变化，因为海平面上升改变了这种非常低的海拔景观。 最后，这项工作的影响超出了南佛罗里达，因为该项目将有助于了解喀斯特地貌是如何形成的（占地球陆地表面的20%），以及地理上孤立的小湿地如何与周围环境相互作用，这是一个与联邦湿地保护有关的主题。 已经与国家公园管理局的科学家建立了伙伴关系，以帮助交流工作成果，研究人员将带领图尔斯参观，让公众欣赏这一迷人景观的微妙之处。 学生参与者将接触到各种各样的学科和方法，这是不可或缺的培训，以解决社会面临的复杂问题和挑战。

Biological processes play an important but under-appreciated role in shaping the land. Indeed, in some places, plants and animals are the most important factors controlling variation in topography and thus patterns of habitats and hydrology on the land surface. This work explores the role of biology in shaping the land surface in Big Cypress National Preserve (BICY), a complex and beautiful mosaic of cypress wetlands, pine uplands and deep water sloughs in southwest Florida. BICY is a karst landscape, where limestone bedrock is present at the land surface. While the landscape is almost perfectly flat, small wetland depressions carved into the limestone rock are crucially important for storing water and thus providing habitat for a wide array of plants and animals. The origin of these wetland depressions is unknown. This research will determine if these depressions, and their remarkably regular spacing on the landscape, are created by biological processes that naturally occur in wetlands that accelerate the rate at which limestone dissolves. This creates the tantalizing possibility that the organisms populating these wetlands are slowly creating their own habitat by initiating and expanding topographic depressions. The research team consists of scientists across a variety of disciplines, including hydrologists, geologists, biologists and modelers, creating the type of collaborative integration required to answer these types of research questions. Combining satellite and airborne data with detailed field measurements will allow the team to address how and how fast these depressions form, what that means for regional water flow and water quality, and how the topography and resulting patterns of habitats on the land surface were created.This work contributes to an understanding of how ecological and geological processes work together to shape the land surface. The central idea that patterns on the earth's surface arise spontaneously from interactions between plants and animals, on one hand, and rocks and water on the other, is a reminder of the strong and sometimes surprising links that exist in ecosystems. In this case, wetland ecosystems are thought to change the shape of the land over thousands of years by dissolving rock. This type of insight will contribute to understanding the origins of this landscape, which supports a remarkable array of organisms and habitats. It will also improve understanding of hydrologic characteristics, and the impact of water movements on the greater South Florida system, including important elements of the Everglades. Moreover, this work will help predict how ecosystem and biological processes may change as this very low altitude landscape is altered by sea-level rise. Finally, the impacts of this work extend beyond south Florida because the project will contribute to an understanding of how karst landscapes form (20% of the earth's land surface) and how small geographically-isolated wetlands interact with their surroundings, a topic relevant to federal wetland protections. A partnership with scientists within the National Park Service has been established to help communicate the results of the work, and the researchers will lead tours that allow the public to appreciate the subtleties of this captivating landscape. The student participants will be exposed to a wide variety of disciplines and approaches, which is integral to training to address the complex questions and challenges society faces.