BIORETS: Conserving water resources and riparian biodiversity in a changing desert climate

BIORETS：在不断变化的沙漠气候中保护水资源和河岸生物多样性

• 批准号: 2143228
• 负责人: Michael Bogan
• 金额: $ 59.91万
• 依托单位: University of Arizona
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-02-15 至 2025-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2143228&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: BIORETS; Conserving; water; resources; riparian

Fresh water is a critical resource for both ecosystems and humans. In arid regions, water withdrawals from rivers for urban and agricultural use have resulted in dramatic losses of riparian and aquatic habitats and their resident biota. As arid-land rivers dry, cultural connections to these water bodies are also negatively affected, including those of Indigenous peoples that have stewarded these rivers for millennia. However, recent advances in wastewater treatment plant technologies have resulted in high quality treated effluent that could be useful for restoring flow and ecological function in dewatered rivers. In this Research Experiences for Teachers Sites in Biological Sciences (BIORETS) program at the University of Arizona (UA), three cohorts of teacher participants will collaborate with ecologists and municipal natural resource managers to address two primary place-based research questions. First, how does the release of effluent affect the biodiversity of aquatic and riparian species in and along the urban Santa Cruz River in southern Arizona? Second, how do ecological communities change over time in these newly flowing ecosystems as new species return to the system? Teachers will work with academic mentors at UA, as well as with members of the Tohono O’odham and Pascua Yaqui tribes, to collect and analyze data. Teachers also will develop curricula for their K-12 students to participate in ecological studies, learn about water resource conservation, and reinvigorate community connections to the river. Historically, treated effluent was generally of poor water quality and it degraded ecological conditions in rivers that received effluent. Although wastewater treatment plant upgrades have greatly improved effluent water quality, large knowledge gaps remain regarding how well effluent can restore ecosystem function and riparian and aquatic biodiversity in arid-land rivers. These gaps are important to address because there are many competing demands for effluent (e.g., agricultural or golf course irrigation) which could reduce its availability to restore flow in rivers. Additionally, numerous basic ecological processes can be studied in these novel urban ecosystems, including community assembly mechanisms such as species turnover and priority effects. In this BIORETS program at UA, teachers and researchers will quantify the diversity and community structure of multiple taxonomic groups (aquatic invertebrates, riparian birds and mammals, and wetland plants) in three newly rewetted reaches of the river over three years, and compare observed patterns with data collected concurrently from nearby dry reaches. Together, these data will elucidate mechanisms of community assembly in novel ecosystems while also providing municipal managers with real-time ecological data to inform water resource management decisions and enhance urban sustainability. The results of this research will answer important ecological questions, shape water management decisions in the Santa Cruz basin, and provide a model approach for other cities to adopt for restoring flow in dewatered rivers.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.

淡水是生态系统和人类的重要资源。在干旱地区，城市和农业用河流的抽水导致河岸和水生栖息地及其居民生物群的急剧丧失。随着旱地河流的干涸，与这些水体的文化联系也受到了负面影响，包括数千年来管理这些河流的土著人民的联系。然而，最近污水处理厂技术的进步已经产生了高质量的处理后的污水，这些污水可能有助于恢复脱水河流的流量和生态功能。在亚利桑那大学(UA)的生物科学教师站点研究体验(BIORETS)项目中，三组教师参与者将与生态学家和市政自然资源经理合作，解决两个主要的地点研究问题。首先，污水的排放如何影响亚利桑那州南部城市圣克鲁斯河及其沿线水生和河岸物种的生物多样性？第二，随着新物种回归生态系统，这些新流动的生态系统中的生态群落如何随着时间的推移而变化？教师将与UA的学术导师以及Tohono O‘odham和Pascua Yaqui部落的成员合作，收集和分析数据。教师还将为他们的K-12学生制定课程，让他们参与生态研究，学习水资源保护，并重振社区与河流的联系。从历史上看，经过处理的污水通常水质较差，而且会使接受污水的河流的生态条件恶化。尽管废水处理厂的升级极大地改善了污水水质，但关于污水在多大程度上恢复旱地河流的生态系统功能以及河岸和水生生物多样性，仍然存在很大的知识差距。解决这些差距很重要，因为对污水有许多相互竞争的需求(例如农业或高尔夫球场灌溉)，这可能会减少恢复河流流量的可获得性。此外，在这些新颖的城市生态系统中可以研究许多基本的生态过程，包括物种周转和优先效应等群落组装机制。在UA的这个BIORETS项目中，教师和研究人员将量化三年来三个新湿地河段的多种分类类群(水生无脊椎动物、河岸鸟类和哺乳动物以及湿地植物)的多样性和群落结构，并将观察到的模式与同时从附近干旱河段收集的数据进行比较。总而言之，这些数据将阐明新型生态系统中社区聚集的机制，同时还为市政管理者提供实时生态数据，为水资源管理决策提供信息，并增强城市的可持续性。这项研究的结果将回答重要的生态问题，影响圣克鲁斯盆地的水资源管理决策，并为其他城市提供一个恢复脱水河流流量的示范方法。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。