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

热带气旋通过侵蚀和搬运沉积物，对海岸带产生显著的影响。这些沉积物可以沉积到沿海的天坑和近海的蓝洞，使科学家能够研究长期的飓风活动。然而，它仍然知之甚少，沉积物的运输和沉积可以不同，由于不同的风暴特性。飓风伊恩沿着佛罗里达西南海岸登陆，为研究强烈飓风如何移动沿海地区的沉积物提供了机会。更多地了解风暴的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西南部沿海天坑和近海蓝洞的沉积物。这些数据将用于确定风暴沉积的地点、数量和类型。这项研究的结果具有重要的意义，在沿海地区对强风暴的反应。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碳循环和海洋生态系统中的养分流动。该项目的更广泛影响包括记录风暴导致的当地洪水模式和沉积物输送路径。这些信息可用于识别未来与类似风暴相关的危险。此外，该项目将为早期职业博士后研究人员提供支持，作为首席PI，学生也将参与该项目。这两个PI将与当地教育工作者和利益相关者密切合作，向公众广泛传播研究结果。这一快速反应研究将审查飓风伊恩对沿海天坑和近海蓝洞以及邻近海底的地貌和沉积影响。热带气旋可通过侵蚀和搬运沉积物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陷阱，保存热带气旋沉积物迁移的证据，因此被用来重建长期的飓风活动。然而，人们对存档的沉积物在空间上如何变化以及它们如何与飓风特征（例如，强度、平移速度），因为在近代历史上，相对较少的飓风影响过进行天坑重建的地点。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地区（萨拉索塔至那不勒斯）沿着一些天坑和近海蓝洞的沉积结构和事件沉积物的组成。通过表征来自已知特征的飓风（即，强度、轨迹、平移速度、大小），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，重要的近海颗粒有机物输出发生的结果，伊恩根据空间和时间限制的卫星图像捕获的羽流。在巴哈马的蓝洞沉积物记录中，由于飓风驱动的运输，在粗沉积物床顶部含有丰富的有机层，但这些富含有机碳的床的因果关系从未与天坑和蓝洞的事件沉积物直接联系起来。考虑到伊恩后的有机物羽流与许多近海蓝洞和陆地天坑相交，这是一个理想的地点和时间来测试这一假设，评估运输潜力，沉降时间和来源在飓风之后。这项研究的结果将提高对飓风引起的沉积物输送的理解，这将为识别和解释沉积在天坑和海上蓝洞的事件床提供背景。这项工作也将开始量化飓风引起的近海有机沉积物通量和来源，这对理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知识价值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.