CAREER: From Substrate to Surface: Quantifying the Impact of Aquatic Vegetation on Exchange Processes

该项目旨在了解水流和植被对天然水域中从水-沉积物界面到水面的气体传输的影响。了解这些从底层到地表的过程，将有助于开发基于过程的模型，用于湿地、河口和沿海植被地区的管理和恢复，并将为自然水域中全球温室气体通量的模型提供信息。研究工作涉及地貌学、生态学和流体动力学的交叉领域。它与一项教育和推广计划相结合，该计划将为有风险的年轻男孩培养以stem为导向的从学校到大学的管道；并将为大学、机构和政策制定者开发先进但易于获取的教育材料，以应对全球洪泛平原、湿地和沿海地区的问题。该项目寻求整合水生生态系统对沉积物和自然水域氧气动态的各种影响。一项广泛的实验研究，利用定量流动成像、声学和光学传感器，将通过监测湍流、沉积物-需氧量及其对气体传输的影响，全面表征水-空气-植被-沉积物的耦合相互作用。将使用的四个独特的、最先进的实验室设施将在广泛的空间和时间尺度上重现单向和振荡流动条件，代表溪流、湿地和沿海地区。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project seeks to understand the effects of flow and vegetation on gas transfer in natural waters, from the water-sediment interface to the water surface. Understanding such processes, from substrate to surface, will allow development of process-based models for management and restoration of wetlands, estuaries, and vegetated coastal areas, and will inform models of global greenhouse gas fluxes in natural waters. The research effort addresses challenges at the interface of Geomorphology, Ecology, and Fluid Dynamics. It is coupled with an education and outreach plan that will foster a STEM-oriented, school-to-college pipeline for at-risk young boys; and will develop advanced but accessible educational material for Universities, agencies, and policy makers dealing with floodplains, wetlands, and coastal areas worldwide.The project seeks integration of the various impacts of aquatic ecosystems in sediment and oxygen dynamics in natural waters. An extensive experimental study, using quantitative flow imaging, acoustic, and optical sensors, will fully characterize coupled water-air-vegetation-sediment interactions, by monitoring turbulent flows, sediment-oxygen demand, and their impact on gas transfer. The four unique, state-of-the-art laboratory facilities to be used will recreate unidirectional and oscillatory flow conditions at a wide range of spatial and temporal scales, representative of streams, wetlands, and coastal areas.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.