CREST-PRF: Constraining Spatiotemporal Nutrient Dynamics Along An Arid-Land River Continuum

卓越研究中心在科学和技术博士后研究奖学金（CREST-PRF）的CREST计划内的轨道支持开始CREST中心研究人员具有显着的潜力，并为他们提供培训和研究经验，将拓宽视野，促进跨学科的互动，并建立他们在科学界的领导地位。该CREST-PRF项目与新墨西哥州大学CREST水与环境中心（CWE）的研究重点保持一致。本项目的目标是确定溶解有机碳组成的纵向变化如何在多个空间（到达河流）和时间（小时到年）尺度上控制干旱地区河流网络的养分吸收动态和输出。 干旱土地供养着世界上大约三分之一的人口和世界上一半的农业。 由于多种竞争性压力源（例如，水坝、持续脱水、火灰输入和蒸散量增加）以及过度依赖水资源，干旱土地河流系统通常弹性较低，更容易受到水质退化（包括富营养化）的影响。该项目的结果将提供评估干旱河流系统中碳和营养物质的命运和运输的工具，并提供科学知识，以支持制定多部门解决方案，旨在改善干旱大都市地区的营养物质循环，在粮食，水和能源关系的背景下。拟议的研究将持续监测硝酸盐，磷酸盐，溶解有机碳，和辅助水质参数使用国家的最先进的传感器技术，为期两年沿着河流连续跨越四个数量级的平均年流量，海拔约2000米，河流长度约500公里。 将每隔沿着三周在传感器地点进行一次高信息量实验，以量化碳和养分吸收率，同时对溶解的有机碳成分进行实验室分析。 该研究方法通过将连续的传感器数据，现场实验和实验室测量与时间序列分析和基于数据的建模技术相结合，利用“大数据”的力量。 该项目收集的关于整个河流网络沿着化学、生物、水文和生态之间相互联系的时空综合信息将生成数据集和建模方法，为淡水资源的适应性管理提供信息，并为干旱土地河流的最大日总负荷制定指导方针。 开发新的代理关系，将连续测量与复杂的环境参数相关联，具有很大的潜力，可以改变目前对流域养分循环的理解，并促进淡水生态地球化学。

The Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology-Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (CREST-PRF) track within the CREST program supports beginning CREST Center investigators with significant potential and provides them with training and research experiences that will broaden perspectives, facilitate interdisciplinary interactions and establish them in positions of leadership within the scientific community. This CREST-PRF project is aligned with the research focus of the CREST Center for Water and the Environment (CWE) at the University of New Mexico. The objective of this project is to determine how longitudinal changes in the composition of dissolved organic carbon control nutrient uptake dynamics and export in arid-land river networks at multiple spatial (reach to river) and temporal (hours to years) scales. Arid lands support approximately a third of the world's population and half of the world's agriculture. Due to multiple competing stressors (e.g., dams, constant dewatering, fire ash inputs and increased evapotranspiration), and overreliance on water resources, arid-land river systems are typically less resilient and more vulnerable to water quality degradation, including eutrophication. Results from this project will provide tools to assess the fate and transport of carbon and nutrients in arid river systems, and scientific knowledge to support the development of multi-sector solutions aimed at improving nutrient recycling in arid metropolitan areas, within the context of the food, water and energy nexus.The proposed research will continuously monitor nitrate, phosphate, dissolved organic carbon, and ancillary water quality parameters using state-of-the-art sensor technology for two years along a river continuum spanning four orders of magnitude in mean annual discharge, ~2000 m in altitude and ~500 km of stream length. High-information-yield experiments to quantify carbon and nutrient uptake rates will be conducted every three weeks at the sensor sites along with laboratory analysis of dissolved organic carbon composition. The research approach harnesses the power of "big data" by combining continuous sensor data, field experiments, and laboratory measurements with time-series analysis and data-based modeling techniques. Spatiotemporally comprehensive information about the interconnections between chemistry, biology, hydrology and ecology along an entire river network collected by this project will generate datasets and modeling approaches to inform adaptive management of freshwater resources and establish guidelines for total maximum daily loads in arid land rivers. Development of novel proxy relationships correlating continuous measurements to complex environmental parameters holds great potential to transform current understanding of watershed nutrient cycling and advance freshwater biogeochemistry.