CAREER: Trajectories of ecosystem recovery in coastal wetlands under a changing climate: connecting the dots with student research, citizen science, and classroom data analyses

沿海湿地提供重要的生态系统服务，如防洪、野生动物栖息地和水质改善。尽管它们的宝贵服务得到了认可，但当地的土地使用和全球气候变化正在推动沿海湿地的丧失。该项目将促进我们对沿海湿地结构和功能的理解，同时回答与有助于防止湿地丧失的管理相关的问题。 该项目将确定北卡罗来纳州沿海湿地在气候变化下继续提供生态系统服务的能力。该项目将通过创建新的课程、实地练习、研究生课程和公民科学移动终端应用程序，使中学教师、本科生和研究生以及公民科学家参与长期的生态研究。该项目将在五年内资助三名研究生、五名本科生和四名中学教师。该项目还将促进一名年轻调查员的职业生涯，他是一个代表性不足的群体的成员。 这项研究将采用最近开发的方法来确定“早期预警信号”，这将表明森林湿地和沼泽对干旱，风暴和盐度增加的恢复能力，并有助于预测沿海湿地的损失。该项目将利用遥感、树木年轮分析、实地调查和实验以及新的统计方法来研究干旱、风暴和盐度增加对森林湿地和沼泽的影响。拟议的研究将：（1）结合遥感、树木年轮和沉积物岩心，确定森林湿地退化的空间范围、时间范围和生态地球化学后果。(2)在不同生态系统状态和不同管理程度下，测量生态系统过程对沿海湿地干扰的恢复轨迹。(3)通过为期5年的野外试验，测试滨海湿地生态系统过程对干扰的恢复力。

Coastal wetlands provide important ecosystem services, such as flood protection, habitat for wildlife, and water quality improvement. Despite the recognition of their valuable services, local land use and global climate change are driving the loss of coastal wetlands. This project will advance our understanding of coastal wetland structure and function, while answering questions relevant to management that can help prevent wetland loss. This project will determine the capacity of North Carolina coastal wetlands to continue to provide ecosystem services under a changing climate. The project will engage middle school teachers, undergraduate and graduate students, and citizen scientists in long-term ecological research by creating new curricula, field based exercises, a graduate course, and a citizen science mobile device application. The project will support three graduate students, five undergraduate students, and four middle school teachers over five years. The project will also advance the career of a young investigator that is a member of an underrepresented group. This research will adapt recently developed methods to identify 'early warning signals' that will indicate the resilience of forested wetlands and marshes to drought, storms, and increased salinity and help forecast the loss of coastal wetlands. The project will use remote sensing, tree ring analyses, field surveys and experiments, and new statistical methods to examine the effects of droughts, storms, and increasing salinity on forested wetlands and marshes. The proposed research will: (1) Determine the spatial extent, time frame, and biogeochemical consequences of forested wetland retreat using a combination of remote sensing and tree ring and sediment cores. (2) Measure the recovery trajectory of ecosystem processes to disturbances in coastal wetlands in different ecosystem states and with varying degrees of management. (3) Test the resilience of ecosystem processes to disturbance in coastal wetlands by conducting a 5-year field experiment.