CAREER: Accelerating natural self-organization and restoring coastal ecosystem services with reef-mimicking substrate arrays

职业生涯：生物工程可以提高海岸恢复的性能吗？PI姓名：克莉丝汀安吉莉娜求婚编号：1652628为了满足日益减少的生态系统服务的社会需求，包括清洁的水，清洁的空气，增加粮食供应和防洪，必须恢复退化的栖息地。 这个关于牡蛎床恢复的项目突出了一个整合生态学和工程学全球专业知识的新范式。 尽管自1990年以来，已经启动了近1,000个项目，并花费了8000万美元来恢复美国河口受威胁的东部牡蛎礁，但这些努力只恢复了不到2%的珊瑚礁面积，而这些珊瑚礁面积在上个世纪已经消失。由于牡蛎礁在世界范围内仍然处于功能性灭绝状态，沿海居民无法获得这些生态系统提供的宝贵服务，包括保护海岸线免受风暴和侵蚀，改善水质以及为各种动物群落提供栖息地。因此，沿海社区的持久性取决于我们开发新技术的能力，以加快恢复的步伐，并培养下一代学生成为创新的恢复生态学家和工程师。PI将开发新的方法，以显着提高牡蛎产量产生相对于当代恢复方法，部署大土丘的基板。教育工作将侧重于加强学生参与跨学科和国际教育计划，使他们成为全球有能力和创新的恢复生态学家和工程师。 这项研究利用了一系列的实验，在结构工程和流体动力学的专业知识，以及地面激光扫描技术，研究牡蛎礁组装过程在小（1米）和更大的空间尺度。PI将测试牡蛎恢复元素（ORE）的大小，粗糙度和空间配置如何介导牡蛎生长，促进生物多样性，并在佛罗里达东海岸和西海岸的退化珊瑚礁中提供增强的生态系统服务。通过这项研究获得的知识将为更有效地恢复沿海生态系统提供强有力的见解。这项工作将建立一个新的研究领域，重点是利用流体力学，物种的相互作用和基质设计，以提高恢复的性能。教育计划将侧重于改善本科工程咨询，并创建新的课程和项目，使学生能够获得跨学科的国际教育。这些活动利用现有的基础设施在佛罗里达的大学，以解决两个因素，拴工程专业的学生到校园，并阻止他们钻研研究的互补领域：学生的看法，体验式的程序-包括出国留学，实地课程，和非工程未成年人学位-是不符合严格的学位要求和有限的学生访问这些程序。

Title: CAREER: Can Bioengineering Improve the Performance of Coastal Restoration?PI Name: Christine AngeliniProposal Number: 1652628 To meet rising societal demand for shrinking ecosystem services including clean water, clean air, increased food supply, and flood protection, degraded habitats must be restored. This project on oyster bed restoration highlights a new paradigm integrating global expertise in ecology and engineering. Although nearly 1,000 projects have been initiated and $80 million has been spent since 1990 to restore imperiled Eastern oyster reefs in US estuaries, these efforts have resulted in the restoration of less than 2% of the reef area lost over the last century. Because oyster reefs remain functionally extinct worldwide, coastal residents are not deriving the valuable services these ecosystems provide, including shoreline protection from storms and erosion, water quality enhancement, and habitat for diverse animal communities. Thus, the persistence of coastal communities hinges upon our ability to develop new technologies to accelerate the pace of restoration and to train the next generation of students to be innovative restoration ecologists and engineers. The PI will develop new approaches to significantly enhance the yield of oysters generated relative to contemporary restoration methods that deploy large mounds of substrate. Education efforts will focus on enhanced student participation in interdisciplinary and international education programs that will prepare them to be globally competent and innovative restoration ecologists and engineers. This research utilizes a series of experiments, expertise in structural engineering and fluid dynamics, and terrestrial laser scanning technology to study oyster reef assembly processes at small (1 meter) and larger spatial scales. The PI will test how Oyster Restoration Element (ORE) size, roughness, and spatial configuration mediate oyster growth, promote biodiversity, and provide enhanced ecosystem services in degraded reefs on the east and west coasts of Florida. Knowledge gained through this research will provide powerful insight into more efficient coastal ecosystem restoration. This work will establish a new area of study focused on harnessing hydrodynamics, species' interactions and substrate design to elevate the performance of restoration. The education plans will focus on improving undergraduate engineering advising and creating new courses and programs in which students can acquire an interdisciplinary, international education. These activities leverage existing infrastructure at the University of Florida to tackle two factors that tether engineering students to campus and prevent them from delving into complementary fields of study: student perceptions that experiential programs--including study abroad, field courses, and non-engineering minor degrees--are incompatible with strict degree requirements and limited student access to these programs.