RAPID: Tipping the Greenhouse C Balance: Hurricane Irma's Role in Increasing the Global Warming Potential in Everglades Ecosystems

本RAPID研究的重点是研究飓风对沼泽地湿地生态系统碳循环的影响。飓风“厄玛”造成了大面积的风力破坏，佛罗里达大沼泽地的水位达到了20多年来的最高水平。这项研究的结果和预测将直接解决更大规模的问题，即湿地生态系统的结构和功能以及水生生产力如何在飓风干扰增加的情况下发生变化。沼泽地国家公园内的湿地受到了严重的影响，包括大面积的落叶、周围植物垫的破坏、大量的碳和营养物质进入土壤和水柱，以及沼泽禾草类植物的枯死组织减少。随着光合作用的减少，这些变化可能会改变缺氧条件，支持更高的甲烷生产和释放速率。这项工作将集中在叶面积的减少，以及这如何导致死亡物质的漂浮垫，导致缺氧条件和甲烷生产和二氧化碳释放到大气中的“热点”。该项目包括解释“热点”碳通量所需的额外室测量。这项研究的广泛影响来自于对湿地系统如何应对飓风的基础理解的改进，并且这项工作将为极端高水位对大沼泽地湿地的影响提供初步的脆弱性评估。这项研究也为来自代表性不足的少数群体的初级教师和技术人员提供了研究机会。

This RAPID research focuses on investigating the hurricane impacts on the carbon cycling of Everglades wetland ecosystems. Hurricane Irma resulted in extensive wind damage and the highest water levels recorded in over 20 years in the Florida Everglades. The findings and predictions that result from this study will directly address larger-scale questions about how wetland ecosystem structure and function and aquatic productivity are altered in the face of increased disturbance from hurricanes. Wetlands within Everglades National Park have been seriously impacted by extensive defoliation, disruption of periphyton mats, large inputs of carbon and nutrients into the soil and water column, and a reduction in standing dead tissue of marsh graminoids. Along with reductions in photosynthesis, these changes may alter anoxic conditions, supporting greater rates of methane production and release. This effort will focus on reductions in leaf area and how this contributes to floating mats of dead material that cause anoxic conditions and 'hotspots' for CH4 production and release of CO2 to the atmosphere. This project includes additional chamber measurements necessary to interpret 'hotspot' carbon fluxes. The broader impacts of this research result from an improved foundational understanding of how wetland systems respond to hurricanes, and the effort will provide an initial vulnerability assessment of the effects of extreme high-water levels on Everglades wetlands. This study also affords research opportunities for junior faculty and technicians from underrepresented minority groups.