RAPID: Measuring the distribution and character of sedimentary deposits resulting from Hurricane Ian in Southwest Florida

热带气旋可以侵蚀和输送沉积物，从而使沿海地区发生重大变化。这些沉积物可以被沉积到海岸天坑和近海蓝洞中，使科学家能够研究长期的飓风活动。然而，人们对泥沙输运和沉积如何因不同的风暴特征而变化的了解仍然很少。飓风伊恩在佛罗里达州西南海岸登陆，为研究强烈飓风如何移动沿海地区的沉积物提供了机会。更多地了解风暴影响将有助于澄清与飓风相关的长期风险。该项目将研究佛罗里达州西南部沿海天坑和近海蓝洞的沉积物。这些数据将被用来确定风暴在哪里沉积了多少沉积物，以及沉积了什么样的沉积物。这项研究的结果对沿海地区对强烈风暴的反应具有重要意义。这些风暴可能会变得更加频繁，以应对人为的气候变化。更多的风暴可能会进一步改变沿海的碳循环和海洋生态系统中的营养物质流动。该项目的更广泛影响包括记录风暴造成的当地洪水模式和泥沙输送路径。这些信息可能被用来识别未来与类似风暴相关的危险。此外，该项目将为一名早期职业博士后研究员提供支持，担任牵头PI，学生也将参与该项目。两个私人机构会与本地教育工作者和持份者紧密合作，广泛向公众发放研究结果。这项快速应变研究将研究飓风伊恩袭港对沿岸天坑、离岸蓝洞及邻近海底的地貌和沉积学影响。热带气旋可以侵蚀和输送沉积物，从而对海岸线和沿海海洋造成重大变化。沿海天坑和近海蓝洞可以作为天然沉积物捕集器，记录热带气旋沉积物运输的证据，从而被用来重建长期的飓风活动。然而，人们仍然很少了解存档的沉积物在空间上是如何变化的，以及它们是如何与飓风特征(例如，强度、转换速度)相联系的，因为在近代历史上，受影响的地点进行天坑重建的飓风相对较少。飓风伊恩提供了一个难得的机会，可以评估受风暴影响最严重的沿海(萨拉索塔至那不勒斯)一些天坑和近海蓝洞中的沉积结构和事件沉积物的组成。通过对飓风的已知特征(即强度、轨迹、平移速度、大小)最近最小程度的修改或退化的沉积物进行表征，科学家可以更好地限制古飓风沉积物与当地风暴强度的关系。此外，根据卫星图像捕捉到的空间和时间上受限的羽流，近海颗粒状有机物质的大量出口是伊恩的结果。巴哈马的蓝洞沉积物记录显示，由于飓风驱动的运输，粗沉淀层上有有机富集层，但这些有机碳富集层的因果关系从未与天坑和蓝洞中的事件沉积直接联系起来。考虑到后伊恩时代的有机质羽流与许多离岸蓝洞和陆地天坑相交，现在是通过评估飓风后的运输潜力、稳定时间和来源来检验这一假设的理想地点和时间。这项研究的结果将增进对飓风引起的沉积物输送的了解，这将为识别和解释沉积在天坑和近海蓝洞中的事件床提供背景。这项工作还将开始量化飓风引发的近海有机沉积物通量和来源，这对于了解易受飓风袭击的沿海地区的长期沿海碳循环具有重要意义。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。

Tropical cyclones can cause significant change to the coastal zone by eroding and transporting sediments. These sediments can be deposited into coastal sinkholes and offshore blue holes allowing scientists to study long-term hurricane activity. However, it remains poorly understood how sediment transport and deposition can vary due to different storm characteristics. The landfall of Hurricane Ian along the southwest coast of Florida provides an opportunity to study how intense hurricanes move sediments in the coastal zone. Knowing more about storm impacts will help clarify long-term risks associated with hurricanes. This project will study sediment from coastal sinkholes and offshore blue holes in southwest Florida. These data will be used to determine where, how much, and what kind of sediment was deposited from the storm. The results of this study have important implications in terms of coastal response to intense storms. These storms may become more frequent in response to Anthropogenic climate change. More storms may further alter coastal carbon cycling and nutrient flow in marine ecosystems. The Broader Impacts for this project include documenting local flooding patterns and sediment transport pathways that resulted from the storm. This information may be used to identify hazards associated with similar storms in the future. In addition, the project will provide support for an early-career postdoctoral researcher as the lead PI, and students will also participate in the project. Both PIs will work closely with local educators and stakeholders to disseminate the results broadly to the general public.This RAPID response study will examine the geomorphic and sedimentological impacts of the passage of Hurricane Ian on coastal sinkholes and offshore blue holes and the adjacent seafloor. Tropical cyclones can cause significant change to the shorelines and coastal oceans by eroding and transporting sediments. Coastal sinkholes and offshore blue holes can act as natural sediment traps that archive evidence of tropical cyclone sediment transport and have thus been utilized to reconstruct long-term hurricane activity. However, it remains poorly understood how archived deposits vary spatially and how they are expressed in relation to hurricane characteristics (e.g., intensity, translation speed) as relatively few hurricanes have impacted sites with sinkhole reconstructions in recent history. Hurricane Ian presents an exceptional opportunity to assess the sedimentary structure and composition of event deposits in a number of sinkholes and offshore blue holes along the coast most heavily impacted by the storm (Sarasota to Naples). By characterizing recent, minimally reworked or degraded deposits from a hurricane of known characteristics (i.e., intensity, track, translation speed, size), scientists can better constrain how paleo-hurricane deposits are related to local storm intensity. Further, significant offshore particulate organic matter export occurred as a result of Ian based on spatially and temporally constrained plumes captured in satellite imagery. Blue hole sediment records in The Bahamas contain organic rich layers atop coarse sediment beds attributed to hurricane driven transport, but the causality of these organic carbon rich beds has never been directly linked to event deposits in sinkholes and blue holes. Given that the post-Ian organic matter plumes intersect many offshore blue holes and terrestrial sinkholes, this is an ideal place and time to test this hypothesis by assessing transport potential, settling time, and provenance in the wake of hurricanes. The results of this study will improve understanding of hurricane-induced sediment transport, which will provide context for identifying and interpreting event beds deposited in sinkholes and offshore blue holes. This work will also begin to quantify hurricane-induced offshore organic sediment flux and provenance, which has important implications for understanding long-term coastal carbon cycling in coastal areas prone to hurricane strikes.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.