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

这个跨学科的研究项目将探讨小规模的、以社区为基础的恢复项目在促进人类和生态系统增强复原力方面的作用。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内有益反馈的过程的认识。它将加强对恢复破坏退化生态系统和影响人类行为的具体途径的理解。将收集大量互补的综合数据集，使该项目能够提供与海岸恢复有关的生态系统服务的系统级评估。该项目还将探索人类感知变化的潜力，以及通过改变影响自然系统动态的人类行为来产生反馈的地方感。除了其基本的知识价值外，该项目还将产生一系列积极而广泛的影响。它将量化恢复成功与沿海生态系统内部和人类与自然组成部分之间的影响之间的关系，以提高未来恢复有效降低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。他们还将通过实践研讨会，让中小学教育工作者和学生参与研究，重点是利用数字技术讲故事、绘制地图和数据分析。人们对自然资源的退化和开发给予了极大的关注，但生态系统恢复是人类寻求改善自然系统的一种活动。尽管在恢复方面的投资不断增加，但在理解什么是“成功”以及传统上接受的恢复成功指标（如植物存活率或参与志愿者的数量）是否真正表明可衡量的“影响”（如改善生态功能或增强利益相关者的支持）方面，仍然存在一个关键的知识鸿沟。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51,000多名志愿者。他们将生成实验数据，以检查修复对当地和区域生物地球化学、水力学、沉积物运输、休闲渔业和受威胁或濒危涉禽的影响。将这些恢复影响措施与场地和泻湖尺度生态系统响应的传统恢复成功指标相结合，将提供对恢复结果更完整和定量的理解。他们还将对利益相关者的看法、态度以及在修复后和周围自然系统中创造“地方感”进行全面评估。研究成果将创造高度可转移的关于恢复和当地社区参与的关键属性的知识，这些知识将在人类和恢复的生态系统之间形成有益的反馈。本项目由美国国家科学基金会自然与人类系统耦合动力学（CNH）项目资助。

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.