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

大规模自然灾害的快速响应以及随后的生态系统功能评估和恢复需要关键生态过程和驱动机制的基线。2017年8月，飓风哈维带来了灾难性的降雨，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。加尔维斯顿湾是墨西哥湾北部第二大河口（约1554平方公里），是众多海洋鱼类、虾类、蟹类和牡蛎的栖息地，年渔业收入超过10亿美元。与此同时，该地区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60%的城市和工业废水，经常遇到淡水流入减少和降雨和洪水加剧的情况。淡水流入引起的水化学和营养状况的变化是驱动海湾中上层生物群落动态的关键。该RAPID项目旨在收集该地区风暴后的数据，并提高对洪水相关损害和生态系统功能恢复的认识。该项目通过本科生参与、公民科学和交流，积极开展教育和推广活动，为当地社区提供有关河口生态系统的宝贵信息。该RAPID项目旨在从2017年10月至2018年9月，每个月从上海湾到海湾开口的盐度梯度不断增加，通过对监测站的浮游动物和水特性进行紧急采样，瞥见与飓风有关的浮游生物群落扰动的短暂信号。该项目的一个假设是，飓风引发的强降雨和极端洪水可能会对海湾的生态系统结构造成前所未有的变化。本项目旨在记录极端洪水对加尔维斯顿湾流域中上层生物群落的近期影响，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、chl-a等）及其对幼体鱼类和生态系统功能的生态影响。特别地，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)研究浮游动物的分布与水文特性的关系；3)从生态系统恢复角度评价飓风极端洪涝对浮游动物群落动态的影响；4)通过公民科学和传播，让本科生和当地社区参与进来，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.