CAREER: Towards Forecasting Watershed Organic Carbon Fluxes across Flow Regimes and Ecoregions

当水流过生态系统时，它会从植物和土壤中吸收溶解的有机碳（DOC）。因此，水可以控制生态系统是释放碳（碳源）还是储存碳（碳汇）。因此，水的运动在全球碳循环中起着关键作用，但DOC也是地球仪水质的重要控制因素。了解水如何影响DOC的产生和运动，可以提高社会为工业，农业和家庭用水提供水的能力。DOC如何以及何时在不同类型的河流和生态系统中移动，特别是在洪水期间，是碳循环和水质研究中的一个主要知识空白。该项目将对不同地理区域的河流DOC动态进行分析。该项目将研究DOC进出流域的运动，并评估DOC动态是否可以使用河流流量和流域特性从当地到大陆地区进行估计。DOC的研究与创新的教育计划相结合，该计划将通过本科课程开发和学生主导的科学推广来改善水文科学向公众的翻译。这些进展将集中在培养学生成为有效的科学传播者和推广practitioners.Given河流溶解有机碳（DOC）的全球重要性，并根据气候和土地利用变化的不确定性，本提案的主要目标是测试假设的流域DOC通量行为，并制定新的方法来量化和预测DOC通量在欠研究的流态和生态区。这些目标将通过多种方法来实现，包括数据合成、建模和新的传感器技术，这些技术将确定控制不同景观DOC通量的关键流域和气候条件。该项目将这些研究目标和一般水文科学问题与长期教育计划相结合，以建立创新的课程开发和方法，为包括K-12，终身学习者和政策制定者在内的多个公共利益相关者群体创建有效的外展材料。新课程采用新颖的以人为本的设计理论，并与五个专家外展机构建立伙伴关系，以创造在大多数科学课程中代表性不足的有意义的体验式学习机会。通过这个项目，PI和相关的学生将与NSF支持的凯洛格生物站和北极长期生态研究（LTER）网站的研究社区和更广泛的影响网络的五个社区服务的推广机构。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

When water flows through ecosystems it picks up dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from plants and soils. As a result, water can control whether an ecosystem releases carbon (a carbon source) or stores carbon (a carbon sink). Consequently, the movement of water plays a key role in global carbon cycling, but DOC is also an important control on water quality across the globe. Understanding how water affects the production and movement of DOC can improve society's ability to provide water for industrial, agricultural, and domestic uses. How and when DOC moves through different types of rivers and ecosystems, especially during floods, is a major knowledge gap in carbon cycling and water quality research. This project will conduct analyses of river DOC dynamics from geographically diverse areas. The project will examine movement of DOC into and out of watersheds and evaluate if DOC dynamics can be estimated from local to continental regions using river flow and watershed properties. This DOC research is combined with an innovative education plan that will improve the translation of hydrological sciences to public audiences via undergraduate curriculum development and student-led scientific outreach. These advances will focus on training students to be effective science communicators and outreach practitioners.Given the global importance of riverine dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and uncertainty in the light of climate and land use change, the main objectives of this proposal are to test assumptions of watershed DOC flux behavior and to develop new ways to quantify and forecast DOC flux across understudied flow regimes and ecoregions. These objectives will be addressed through multiple approaches, including data synthesis, modeling, and new sensor technologies that will identify the key watershed and climate conditions controlling DOC flux across diverse landscapes. The project integrates these research objectives and general hydrologic science issues with a long-term education plan to establish innovative curriculum development and methods for creating effective outreach materials for multiple public stakeholder groups, including K-12, life-learners, and policy makers. The new curriculum employs novel human-centered design theory and partnerships with five expert outreach institutions to create meaningful experiential learning opportunities that are underrepresented in most science curricula. Through this project, the PI and the associated students will be integrated with the NSF-supported Kellogg Biological Station and Arctic Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) site research communities and a broader impact network of five community-serving outreach institutions.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.