NSF Rapid: Urgent sampling zooplankton for assessing ecosystem restoration of G alveston Bay after catastrophic impacts of Hurricane Harvey

对大规模自然灾害的快速反应以及随后对生态系统功能的评估和恢复，需要关键生态过程的基线和驱动机制。2017年8月，飓风哈维带来灾难性降雨，导致德克萨斯州东南部发生极端洪水，包括加尔维斯顿湾流域。作为北方海湾（~1554平方公里）的第二大河口，加尔维斯顿湾养育着众多的鱼类、虾、蟹和牡蛎，年渔业收入超过10亿美元。与此同时，该区域几十年来一直受到人为和自然压力的影响。该海湾接收了德克萨斯州约60%的城市和工业废水，并且经常遇到淡水流入减少和降雨和洪水严重程度增加。淡水流入引起的水化学和营养状况的变化是驱动海湾浮游生物群落动态的关键。这个快速项目旨在收集该地区的风暴后数据，并提高对洪水相关损害和生态系统功能恢复的认识。该项目有一个积极的教育和推广计划，通过本科生的参与和公民科学和沟通，为当地社区提供河口生态系统的宝贵信息。该RAPID项目旨在通过2017年10月至2018年9月期间每个月在沿着从上湾到海湾开口的盐度梯度增加的站点对浮游动物和水特性进行紧急采样，来瞥见与飓风相关的中上层群落干扰的短暂信号。该项目的一个假设是，飓风引发的暴雨和极端洪水可能导致海湾生态系统结构发生前所未有的变化。该项目的目标是记录极端洪水对加尔维斯顿湾流域浮游动物群落的近期影响，以更好地评估洪水驱动的浮游动物群落动态与水文特性（盐度、水温、叶绿素a等）的关系。及其对仔鱼和生态系统功能的生态影响。特别是，该项目将1）生成风暴后浮游动物的丰度、组成和分布数据; 2）检查浮游动物分布与水文特性的关系; 3）从生态系统恢复的角度评估飓风引发的极端洪水对浮游动物群落动态的影响; 4）通过公民科学和交流，吸引本科生和当地社区参与，提供有关河口生态系统的宝贵信息。

Rapid response to large-scale natural disasters and subsequent assessments and restoration of ecosystem functions require baselines of key ecological processes and the driving mechanisms. In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey brought catastrophic rainfall that led to extreme flooding in Southeast Texas, including the Galveston Bay watershed. As the second largest estuary in the northern Gulf (~1554 km2), Galveston Bay supports numerous marine species of fish, shrimp, crabs and oyster with annual fisheries revenue over one billion dollars. Meanwhile the region has been subjected to impacts of human and natural stressors for decades. The bay receives ~60% of the urban and industrial wastewater of Texas, and often encounters reduced freshwater inflow and increased severity of rainfall and flooding. Freshwater inflow induced changes in water chemistry and nutrient regimes are key driving the dynamics of pelagic community in the bay. This RAPID project seeks to collect post-storm data in this region and to improve understanding of flood related damages and restoration of ecosystem functions. This project has an active education and outreach program through undergraduate student participation and citizen science and communication to provide local community valuable information on estuarine ecosystems. This RAPID project is designed to glimpse the ephemeral signals of hurricane-related disturbance in pelagic community through urgent sampling zooplankton and water properties at stations along an increasing salinity gradient from upper bay to the Gulf opening every month from October 2017 to September 2018. A hypothesis of this project is that the hurricane-induced heavy rainfall and extreme flooding likely caused unprecedented changes on the ecosystem structure of the bay. The goal of this project seeks to document the near-term impacts of extreme flooding on pelagic community in the Galveston Bay watershed in an effort to better assess flood-driven zooplankton community dynamics in relation to hydrographic properties (salinity, water temperature, chl-a etc.) and its ecological implications for larval fish and ecosystem functions. Specially, this project will 1) generate post-storm data of abundance, composition and distribution of zooplankton; 2) examine zooplankton distribution in relation to hydrographic properties; 3) evaluate the impacts of hurricane induced extreme flooding on zooplankton community dynamics in terms of ecosystem restoration; 4) engage undergraduate students and local community through citizen science and communication providing valuable information on estuarine ecosystems.