CAREER: Salt marsh restorations: a structured experiment for learning and teaching about salt marshes, microbial diversity, and ecosystem function

盐沼最近受到了极大的关注，因为它们提供了许多重要的生态系统服务，包括碳固存和氮去除。对沼泽作为碳汇的强烈兴趣可能会刺激新的项目，通过恢复退化的湿地来抵消碳排放，这就提出了一系列关于沼泽净化能否成功恢复其他生态系统功能的问题。 盐沼的一个关键生态系统功能是它们通过称为反硝化的微生物过程去除生物有效氮的能力。 由于施用化肥和燃烧化石燃料等人类活动，生物可利用氮正在以越来越快的速度进入沿海生态系统。当这种氮进入沿海沃茨时，它会导致与富营养化相关的一系列负面环境影响，包括增加被称为沿海死区的低氧水域面积。 生活在盐沼中的微生物能够通过将其转化回氮气来去除部分过量的生物可利用氮，这表明盐沼恢复的好处，但是，需要更多的信息来了解这些微生物如何应对与恢复相关的环境变化。 这项研究将提供新的见解如何恢复新英格兰盐沼将改变沼泽的能力，以消除生物可利用的氮，并将增加了解的微生物的生理基础上，通过结合原位速率测量，环境宏基因组学和全基因组测序这一关键的生物地球化学途径。这项研究的结果将提供重要的新信息，恢复从业者的条件下，最有可能成功地恢复退化盐沼的反硝化能力，使他们达到与原状沼泽。 这项工作还将通过两个机制加强科学基础设施和知识转让。 首先，它将培养一名职业初期女科学家、一名博士后学者和两名研究生。 第二，盐沼反硝化能力的研究将纳入马萨诸塞州波士顿大学本科生一年级研讨会，该大学是该市唯一的公立大学，为大量少数民族和第一代大学生提供服务。 这个研讨会计划旨在通过让他们在大学生涯的早期参与研究经验来增加有风险的生物学专业的保留。通过与生态恢复的马萨诸塞州部门的合作，学生们将会见利益相关者，设计和在最近恢复在大波士顿地区的沼泽地进行研究，并报告他们的调查结果回利益相关者。这个社区参与的奖学金提供了一个独特的机制，向利益相关者传播信息，并以促进问责制的方式让学生参与科学过程，产生更高质量的成果，并激发他们对生态学领域的兴趣。

Salt marshes have received a great deal of attention recently because they provide a number of essential ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration and nitrogen removal. Strong interest in marshes as carbon sinks is likely to spur new programs to offset carbon emissions by restoring degraded wetlands, raising a host of questions concerning whether marsh restorations can successfully rehabilitate other ecosystem functions. A key ecosystem functions of salt marshes is their ability to remove biologically available nitrogen through a microbial process known as denitrification. Biologically available nitrogen is entering coastal ecosystems at increasing rates as a result of human activities such as application of fertilizers and combustion of fossil fuels. When this nitrogen makes its way to coastal waters it can result in a host of negative environmental effects associated with eutrophication, including increasing areas of low oxygen water known as coastal dead zones. The microbes living in salt marshes are able to remove portions of this excess biologically available nitrogen by converting it back to nitrogen gas, suggesting a benefit of salt marsh restoration, however, more information is needed regarding how these microbes may respond to environmental changes associated with restoration. This study will provide new insight on how restoration of a New England salt marsh will alter the capacity of the marsh to remove biologically available nitrogen and will increase understanding of the physiology of the microbes that underlie this critical biogeochemical pathway through a combination of in situ rate measurements, environmental metagenomics, and whole genome sequencing. The results of this research will provide important new information to restoration practitioners on the conditions that are mostly likely to successfully restore the denitrification capacity of degraded salt marshes so that they reach parity with undisturbed marshes. This work will also enhance scientific infrastructure and knowledge transfer through two mechanisms. First, it will train one early career female scientist, a postdoctoral scholar, and two graduate students. Second, research on the denitrification capacity of salt marshes will be incorporated into a First Year Seminar for undergraduate students at the University of Massachusetts Boston, the only public university in the city, which serves a large minority and first generation college student population. This seminar program is designed to increase retention of at risk biology majors by engaging them in research experiences in the early days of their college career. Through collaborations with the Massachusetts Department of Ecological Restoration, the students will meet with stakeholders, design and carry out research in recently restored marshes in the greater Boston area, and report their findings back to the stakeholders. This community-engaged scholarship provides a unique mechanism to disseminate information to stakeholders and it engages students in the scientific process in a way that promotes accountability, generates higher quality outcomes and excites them about the field of ecology.