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

淡水是生态系统和人类的重要资源。在干旱地区，从河流中取水供城市和农业使用，导致河岸和水生生境及其栖息生物群的急剧丧失。随着干旱地区的河流干涸，与这些水体的文化联系也受到了负面影响，包括数千年来一直管理这些河流的土著人民。然而，污水处理厂技术的最新进展产生了高质量的处理后的污水，这可能是有用的恢复流动和生态功能，在脱水的河流。在亚利桑那大学（UA）的生物科学教师网站（BIORETS）计划中，三组教师参与者将与生态学家和市政自然资源管理人员合作，以解决两个主要的基于地点的研究问题。首先，排放污水如何影响亚利桑那州南部城市圣克鲁斯河及其沿着水生和河岸物种的生物多样性？第二，随着新物种的回归，这些新流动的生态系统中的生态群落如何随时间变化？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。教师们还将为K-12学生开发课程，让他们参与生态研究、了解水资源保护并重振社区与河流的联系。 从历史上看，经处理的污水通常水质较差，并使接受污水的河流的生态条件恶化。虽然废水处理厂的升级大大改善了废水的水质，但在废水如何恢复干旱河流的生态系统功能以及河岸和水生生物多样性方面仍然存在巨大的知识差距。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），这可能会减少其恢复河流流量的可用性。此外，可以在这些新型城市生态系统中研究许多基本生态过程，包括物种更替和优先效应等群落聚集机制。在这个在UA的BIORETS计划，教师和研究人员将量化的多样性和多个分类群体（水生无脊椎动物，河岸鸟类和哺乳动物，湿地植物）的群落结构在三个新的rewet河段的河流在三年，并比较观察到的模式与同时收集的数据从附近的干旱河段。总之，这些数据将阐明新生态系统中社区集会的机制，同时也为市政管理人员提供实时生态数据，为水资源管理决策提供信息，并增强城市可持续性。这项研究的结果将回答重要的生态问题，塑造圣克鲁斯流域的水资源管理决策，并为其他城市提供一个模型方法，用于恢复干涸河流的流量。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并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。

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.