CAREER: Effects of River Inflows on Coastal Ecosystem Sustainability under Climate Change, Urbanization, and Flow Regulation

1454297(高)。沿海生态系统在经济和环境可持续性方面发挥着关键作用，但由于气候变化、城市化和水流调节的协同效应，沿海生态系统面临着前所未有的挑战。为了更好地管理沿海生态系统的这些变化并维持它们提供的有价值的服务，对浮游植物生产力(这是生态系统健康的一个强有力指标)的可靠预测是可取的。该项目的研究目标是通过从系统一级观察淡水流入对浮游植物生产力的影响来促进可持续的沿海生态系统。教育目标是通过将实践活动纳入课程和研究培训来推进环境可持续发展教育。该项目旨在实现以下三个研究目标：1)确定流入和浮游植物生产力之间的关系；2)评估城市化和气候变化对流入和浮游植物生产力的影响；以及3)调查浮游植物生产力对流量调节的响应，包括是否存在气候变化和城市化。教育目标是：1)通过与高中教师合作和参与学生活动，向高中生教授环境可持续性；以及2)通过将教育模块整合到课程中并指导学生，促进本科生和研究生的环境可持续性教育。该项目将创造新的知识，从而可靠地预测不断变化的环境下的浮游植物生产力。跨学科研究方法将有助于弥合几个关键的知识差距。首先，通过使用现场观测和最先进的遥感数据相结合，将澄清流入和浮游植物生产力之间的复杂关系。第二，通过实施同时估计流入和生产力的系统级模型，可以直接评估流域管理计划对生态系统的影响。第三，通过在完全分布式的基于物理的水文模型中添加水库模块，可以准确地量化水库运行对生态系统生产力的影响。因此，这项研究将为决策者提供一个强大的工具，以了解气候变化、城市化、流量调节和生态系统可持续性之间的相互作用。虽然重点放在德克萨斯州的河流流域和海湾地区，但该方法的一般性规定了它也可以扩展到其他沿海地区(包括国家和国际)。这项研究使用一套物理和计算机模块，将真实世界的课程整合到高中、本科和研究生课程中。通过直接与高中教师合作，通过向参加Camp Build的高中生提供建议，以及通过在参与学校安装雨量计站，大约1000名学生的教育将受到直接影响。高等教育活动将影响800名本科生和研究生。反过来，研究(特别是地方规模的研究)可以从教育活动中受益--利用高中生提供的降雨信息和环境调查信息。

1454297 (Gao). Coastal ecosystems play a key role in economic and environmental sustainability, but are facing unprecedented challenges caused by the synergistic effects of climate change, urbanization, and flow regulation. To better manage these changes to coastal ecosystems and sustain the valuable services they provide, reliable predictions of phytoplankton productivity (which are a strong indicator of ecosystem health) are desirable. The research goal of this project is to promote sustainable coastal ecosystems through a systems-level view of the effects that freshwater inflows have on phytoplankton productivity. The educational goal is to advance environmental sustainability education through incorporating hands-on activities into curricula and research training. This project intends to achieve the following three research objectives: 1) Identifying the relationship between inflows and phytoplankton productivity; 2) Evaluating the impacts of urbanization and climate change on inflows and phytoplankton productivity; and 3) Investigating the responses of phytoplankton productivity to flow regulation, both with and without co-occurring climate change and urbanization. The educational objectives are: 1) Teaching environmental sustainability to high school students by working with high school teachers and participating in student events; and 2) Promoting undergraduate and graduate environmental sustainability education by integrating education modules into courses and mentoring the students. This project will create new knowledge leading to reliable predictions of phytoplankton productivity under a changing environment. The interdisciplinary research approaches will help close several critical knowledge gaps. First, by using a combination of in situ observations and state-of-the-art remote sensing data, the complex relationships between inflows and phytoplankton productivity will be clarified. Second, by implementing a systems-level model that estimates inflows and productivity simultaneously, impacts of watershed management plans on ecosystems can be evaluated directly. Third, by adding a reservoir module into a fully distributed physically based hydrological model, the modification of ecosystem productivity due to reservoir operations can be accurately quantified. Thus, the research will provide decision makers with a powerful tool to understand the interactions among climate change, urbanization, flow regulation, and ecosystem sustainability. While the focus is on Texas river basins and bay areas, the generality of the methodology provides for its extension to other coastal regions (both nationally and internationally) as well. The research deals with real-world lessons incorporated into high school, undergraduate, and graduate curricula using a set of physical and computer modules. By working with high school teachers directly, by advising high school students who attend Camp BUILD, and by installing rain gauge stations at participating schools, education for about 1000 students will be directly impacted. The higher education activities will affect 800 undergraduate and graduate students. In turn, research (especially at the local scale) can benefit from the educational activities - with both rainfall information and the environmental survey information provided by high school students.