CNH-L: Restoration and Resilience in Coupled Human-Natural Systems: Reciprocal Dynamics of a Coastal Lagoon

这一跨学科研究项目将探索以社区为基础的小规模恢复项目在促进提高人类和生态系统的复原力方面的作用。该项目将增加对人类参与生态系统恢复促进沿海生态系统有益反馈的过程的了解。它将增进对恢复破坏退化的生态系统并影响人类行为的具体途径的理解。将汇集大量互补的综合数据集，使该项目能够提供与沿海恢复有关的生态系统服务的系统级评估。该项目还将探索通过改变影响自然系统动力学的人类行为来改变人类感知和地方感觉的可能性。除了其基本的学术价值外，该项目还将产生一系列积极的、更广泛的影响。它将量化沿海生态系统人类和自然组成部分内部和之间的恢复成功与影响之间的关系，以提高未来恢复将有效减少人类脆弱性和改善生态功能的可能性。调查人员将让当地的研究参与者，如渔民和企业主，参与生态恢复和使用参与式地理信息系统等技术。他们还将通过动手研讨会吸引中小学教育工作者和学生参与研究，重点是使用数字技术讲故事、绘制地图和数据分析。自然资源的退化和开发受到了极大的关注，但生态系统恢复是人类寻求改善自然系统的一项活动。尽管对修复的投资在增加，但在了解什么是“成功”以及传统上接受的修复成功的衡量标准(如种植成活率或参与的志愿者人数)是否真的能反映可衡量的“影响”(如生态功能的改善或利益攸关方的接受程度)方面，知识差距依然存在。调查人员将利用长达十年的监测数据集，对80多个牡蛎礁和活的海岸线恢复项目进行监测，这些项目涉及佛罗里达州印第安河泻湖沿岸的5.1万多名志愿者。他们将产生实验数据，以检查恢复对当地和区域生物地球化学、水力学、沉积物输送、休闲渔业以及受威胁或濒危涉禽的影响。将这些恢复影响措施与站点和泻湖规模生态系统响应的传统恢复成功指标相结合，将提供对恢复结果的更完整和更定量的了解。他们还将对利益相关者的看法、态度以及在恢复后的和周围的自然系统中创造“地方感”进行全面评估。研究产品将创造关于恢复和当地社区参与的关键属性的高度可转让的知识，这些知识将级联成人类和恢复的生态系统之间的有益反馈。该项目得到了美国自然与人类耦合系统动力学(CNH)计划的支持。

This interdisciplinary research project will explore the role of small-scale, community-based restoration projects in facilitating enhanced resilience within both human and ecological systems. This project will increase knowledge of the processes through which human engagement in ecosystem restoration promotes beneficial feedbacks within coastal ecosystems. It will enhance understanding about the specific pathways through which restoration disrupts degraded ecosystems and influences human behavior. A large number of complementary, integrated datasets will be assembled, allowing the project to provide a system-level assessment of ecosystem services related to coastal restoration. The project also will explore the potential for changes in human perception and a sense of place to create feedbacks through altered human behavior that impact natural system dynamics. In addition to its fundamental intellectual merit, the project will yield a diverse set of positive broader impacts. It will quantify relationships between restoration success and impact within and between human and natural components of coastal ecosystems in order to improve likelihoods that future restorations will effectively reduce human vulnerability and improve ecological function. The investigators will engage local research participants, such as fishermen and business owners, in ecological restoration and in the use of techniques like participatory geographic information systems. They also will engage elementary and secondary school educators and students in research through hands-on workshops focused on using digital technologies for storytelling, mapping, and data analysis.Significant attention has been given to the degradation and exploitation of natural resources, but ecosystem restoration represents an activity through which humans seek to improve natural systems. Despite growing investments in restoration, a critical knowledge gap persists in understanding what constitutes "success" and whether traditionally accepted metrics of restoration success (such as the survival rate of plantings or the number of volunteers who participate) are truly indicative of measurable "impacts" (such as improvements to ecological function or enhanced stakeholder buy-in). The investigators will leverage a decade-long monitoring dataset for more than 80 oyster reef and living shoreline restoration projects that have involved over 51,000 volunteers spanning along Florida's Indian River Lagoon. They will generate experimental data to examine restoration impacts on local and regional biogeochemistry, hydraulics, sediment transport, recreational fisheries, and threatened or endangered wading birds. Combining these restoration-impact measures with traditional restoration success metrics for both site- and lagoon-scale ecosystem responses will provide a more complete and quantitative understanding of restoration outcomes. They also will conduct a comprehensive assessment of stakeholder perceptions, attitudes, and the creation of a "sense of place" within the restored and surrounding natural system. Research products will create highly transferable knowledge regarding the critical attributes of restoration and local community engagement that cascade into beneficial feedbacks between humans and restored ecosystems. This project is supported by the NSF Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH) Program.