RII Track-2 FEC: Sensing and Educating the Nexus to Sustain Ecosystems (SENSE). A Kentucky-West Virginia Partnership

该项目将扩大和增强肯塔基州和西弗吉尼亚州的地表水传感能力，为了解农业和水电生产对水质的影响，特别是与有害藻华有关的影响提供基础。它将汇集工程和水生生态学方面的专家，涉及来自两州三所大学的五个研究小组，共同致力于开发更可持续的水、食品和能源系统。利用地表水质量传感网络和支持的数据可视化和建模能力，该项目将解决三个研究问题：1)在肯塔基州和西弗吉尼亚州，与增加农业生产、改变土地利用模式、气候变化、能源生产和生态系统动态相关的水质问题之间的相互联系是什么？水生环境？2)导致水质变化的环境、物理和生物地球化学特征是什么？如何应用先进技术来更好地了解和监测这些变化？3)土地利用、养分负荷和水控制系统的建模和管理情景如何协同运作，以减少地方和流域尺度上系统的退化？除了其研究重点外，该项目还将致力于增强肯塔基州和西弗吉尼亚州的科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）劳动力并使其多样化，并支持早期职业教师的专业发展。技术描述研究团队将专注于与蓝藻有害藻华的形成和繁殖相关的环境驱动因素。将在两个产生水力的水体和农业用地密集地区的两个流域安装广泛的就地传感基础设施。将获得并部署33台新仪器，用于监测营养物质（氮和磷）、无机碳、溶解氧、pH值、温度、浊度、电导率、藻类色素和细胞数量、水流参数和气象学。网络基础设施升级将包括允许近实时数据收集和可视化。分析将侧重于确定有害藻华的存在、程度和时间，因为它们与测量参数有关。

Non-technical DescriptionThis project will expand and enhance the surface-water sensing capabilities across Kentucky and West Virginia, providing a foundation for understanding the impacts of agricultural and hydropower production on water quality, particularly as it relates to harmful algal blooms. It will bring together experts in engineering and aquatic ecology, involving five research groups from three universities in the two states, jointly motivated to develop more sustainable water, food, and energy systems. Using a surface water-quality sensing network and supporting data visualization and modeling capabilities, the project will address three research questions: 1) What are the interconnections among water quality issues relative to increasing agricultural production, changing land-use patterns, climate change, energy production, and ecosystem dynamics across Kentucky and West Virginia?s aquatic environments? 2) What are the environmental, physical, and biogeochemical features leading to water-quality changes and how might advanced technologies be applied to better understand and monitor those changes? and 3) How might modeling and management scenarios of land use, nutrient loading, and water-control systems operate in concert to reduce degradation of systems at local and basin scales? Along with its research focus, the project will work to enhance and diversify the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workforce in Kentucky and West Virginia and support the professional development of early-career faculty.Technical Description The research team will focus on the environmental drivers associated with the formation and propagation of cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms. Extensive in situ sensing infrastructure will be installed at two hydropower-producing water bodies and along two watersheds in regions with heavy agricultural land use. Thirty-three new instruments will be acquired and deployed to monitor nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), inorganic carbon, dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature, turbidity, conductivity, algal pigment and cell numbers, water flow parameters, and meteorology. Cyberinfrastructure upgrades will be included to allow near real-time data collection and visualization. Analyses will focus on identifying the presence, extent, and timing of the harmful algal blooms as they relate to the measured parameters.