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

滨海湿地具有重要的生态系统功能，如防洪、野生动物栖息地和改善水质等。尽管人们认识到它们的宝贵服务，但地方土地利用和全球气候变化正在推动沿海湿地的流失。该项目将促进我们对沿海湿地结构和功能的了解，同时回答与管理有关的问题，有助于防止湿地流失。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课程、实地练习、研究生课程和公民科学移动设备应用程序，让中学教师、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5年内资助3名研究生、5名本科生和4名中学教师。该项目还将促进一名年轻调查员的职业生涯，该调查员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识别“早期预警信号”，这些信号将表明森林湿地和沼泽对干旱、风暴和盐度增加的适应能力，并有助于预测沿海湿地的损失。该项目将使用遥感、树木年轮分析、实地调查和实验以及新的统计方法来检查干旱、风暴和盐分增加对森林湿地和沼泽的影响。本研究将：(1)利用遥感、树木年轮和沉积物岩心相结合的方法确定森林湿地退缩的空间范围、时间框架和生物地球化学后果。(2)测量不同生态系统状态和不同管理程度下滨海湿地生态系统过程对干扰的恢复轨迹。(3)通过5年的野外试验，检验滨海湿地生态系统过程对干扰的恢复能力。

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.