Collaborative Research: Toward an Improved Understanding of Blue Carbon: The Role of Seagrasses in Sequestering CO2

该项目将对控制海草草甸碳循环的因素进行定量了解，这将提高我们量化其作为蓝色（海洋）碳汇的潜力的能力，并预测其未来对气候变化的反应，包括海平面上升，海洋变暖和海洋酸化。该研究将推进新一代生物光学地球化学模型和工具（ECHOES），这些模型和工具有可能改变我们测量和预测浅水系统碳动力学的能力。该奖项还将用于培养下一代年轻科学家，支持一位早期职业科学家的研究，两位博士。学生，至少2名本科生，和至少两名实习生从海洋湖高中（弗吉尼亚州）。海滩）数学科学学院，在PI的联合监督下。所有学生都将参与实验设计，实施和数据分析，并将在每年的主要国际科学会议上展示他们的研究成果，并在顶级同行评审期刊上发表他们的成果。PI齐默尔曼与弗吉尼亚水族馆海洋科学中心保持着持续的外展合作，以促进该项目的教育解释和编程的发展，该项目将专门针对每年70万水族馆游客。水族馆的物理环境将被用作一个论坛，让游客与水族馆工作人员和志愿者就气候变化的更广泛问题进行对话。齐默尔曼正在与弗吉尼亚水族馆合作，帮助设计和实施额外的教育计划，资源和展览，包括开发一个新的切萨皮克湾坦克，将房子生活海草。该项目的成果将纳入弗吉尼亚水族馆为期一年的青年科学家指导计划，并作为标准教材，供水族馆在学校、童子军和普通观众的计划中使用。在整个项目的不同时间，PI和学生将参加弗吉尼亚水族馆的科学讲座系列，这些讲座免费向公众开放，以帮助我们的研究与当地社区联系起来。这项研究将利用先进的方法来评估氧气和碳交换（欧拉和涡度协方差技术）结合生物量，沉积，和水柱测量，以开发和测试数字模型，这些模型可以按比例扩大，以量化西大西洋大陆边缘温带和热带环境中海草草甸的碳循环和固存动态，包括硅质岩和碳酸盐岩沉积物跨纬度和地球化学梯度的比较分析将解决不同物种和地球化学过程的相对贡献，以更好地限制海草固碳对全球地球化学循环的作用。具体而言，研究将量化：（一）碳储量和不同物种的生物量之间的关系，不同的生活史和结构的复杂性，（二）地上和地下代谢对碳交换的影响，和（三）沉积物类型（硅质与碳酸盐）对蓝碳储存的影响。将测量海草生物量、生长率、碳含量和同位素组成（地上和地下）、有机碳沉积和输出。将确定沉积速率和PIC、POC和硫化铁沉淀物的同位素组成，以及溶解硫化物、CO2、碱度和盐度的孔隙水浓度，以便建立一个生物-光学-地球化学模型，预测海草代谢对控制浅水沃茨碳循环的沉积物地球化学过程的影响。模型预测将验证对直接测量的DIC和O2交换在海草草甸，使调查人员能够扩大密度依赖的过程，以预测海草分布和密度对碳循环和封存的影响整个海底景观。

This project will develop a quantitative understanding of the factors controlling carbon cycling in seagrass meadows that will improve our ability to quantify their potential as blue (ocean) carbon sinks and predict their future response to climate change, including sea level rise, ocean warming and ocean acidification. The research will advance a new generation of bio-optical-geochemical models and tools (ECHOES) that have the potential to be transform our ability to measure and predict carbon dynamics in shallow water systems. The award will also be used to train the next generation of young scientists by supporting the research of an early career scientist, two Ph.D. students, at least 2 undergraduate students, and at least two interns from the Ocean Lakes High School (Va. Beach) Math & Science Academy, under the combined supervision of the PIs. All students will participate in experimental design, implementation and data analysis and will present the findings of their research at major international scientific meetings each year as well as publishing their results in top-ranked peer reviewed journals. PI Zimmerman maintains an ongoing outreach collaboration with the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center to facilitate the development of educational interpretation and programming from this project that will be specifically targeted to the 700,000 Aquarium visitors annually. The physical setting of the Aquarium will be used as a forum to engage the visitors in dialogue about the broader issue of climate change with Aquarium staff and volunteers. Zimmerman is collaborating with the Virginia Aquarium to help design and implement additional educational programs, resources, and exhibits including the development a new Chesapeake Bay tank that will house living seagrasses. The results from this project will be incorporated into Virginia Aquarium's year-long Mentoring Young Scientists program and as standards-based educational materials for use at the Aquarium in programs for schools, scouts and general audiences. At various times throughout project, the PIs and students will participate in the Virginia Aquarium's Speaking of Science lecture series, which are free to general public to help connect our research with the local community.The study will utilize cutting-edge methods for evaluating oxygen and carbon exchange (Eulerian and eddy covariance techniques) combined with biomass, sedimentary, and water column measurements to develop and test numerical models that can be scaled up to quantify the dynamics of carbon cycling and sequestration in seagrass meadows in temperate and tropical environments of the West Atlantic continental margin that encompass both siliciclastic and carbonate sediments. The comparative analysis across latitudinal and geochemical gradients will address the relative contributions of different species and geochemical processes to better constrain the role of seagrass carbon sequestration to global biogeochemical cycles. Specifically the research will quantify: (i) the relationship between C stocks and standing biomass for different species with different life histories and structural complexity, (ii) the influence of above- and below-ground metabolism on carbon exchange, and (iii) the influence of sediment type (siliciclastic vs. carbonate) on Blue Carbon storage. Seagrass biomass, growth rates, carbon content and isotope composition (above- and below-ground), organic carbon deposition and export will be measured. Sedimentation rates and isotopic composition of PIC, POC, and iron sulfide precipitates, as well as porewater concentrations of dissolved sulfide, CO2, alkalinity and salinity will be determined in order to develop a bio-optical-geochemical model that will predict the impact of seagrass metabolism on sediment geochemical processes that control carbon cycling in shallow waters. Model predictions will be validated against direct measurements of DIC and O2 exchange in seagrass meadows, enabling the investigators to scale-up the density-dependent processes to predict the impacts of seagrass distribution and density on carbon cycling and sequestration across the submarine landscape.