Collaborative Research: Whole Ecosystem Test of Restoring Resilience in Lakes

由于气候和其他人类活动造成的环境变化，生态系统面临着丧失复原力的广泛风险。弹性是生态系统在面对变化时保持其当前状态的能力。恢复力的丧失会损害人类福祉，因为它会导致土地和水资源的流失。能够度量和管理弹性对于适应这些大的变化是必不可少的。研究人员将进行一项生态系统实验，旨在提高对湖泊藻华的适应能力。藻华威胁饮用水，减少旅游业，并危害野生动物。本实验的主要目的是测试弹性是否可以增强，并评估三个弹性指标的表现。该实验将促进我们对生态系统恢复力的理解，评估对政策制定至关重要的跟踪环境变化的方法，并提供管理见解。结果和弹性指标的评估将通过研究小组主办的研讨会与湖泊管理者分享。该研究不仅适用于湖泊，还可以应用于草原和森林等其他生态系统的管理。为了测试光的可用性是否会改变对营养负荷的恢复能力，研究人员将实验性地向两个湖泊添加氮和磷，以促进藻类繁殖。其中一个湖泊被高度污染，因此光线不足。另一种相对清晰，具有更高的光可用性。第三个湖不接受营养补充，将作为参考生态系统。研究人员将高频测量藻类色素、溶解氧和pH值，以监测藻华。复原力将通过生态系统模型、动态统计指标和平均退出时间进行评估。这三种弹性量化方法为评价生态系统变化提供了一种新的方法。我们的预期是，由于光的可用性较低，在污染的湖泊中，藻华对营养物质添加的恢复能力将比清澈的湖泊高。为了验证这一假设，在实验的第二年，研究人员将向清澈的湖水中添加一种商业染料，旨在吸收光线。人们的期望是，这将使清澈的湖泊更有弹性，因为添加了营养物质而出现藻华，类似于被污染的湖泊。这项实验的结果和弹性指标的评估将通过由研究小组主办的研讨会与湖泊管理者分享。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

Ecosystems are at widespread risk of losing resilience due to environmental changes from climate and other human actions. Resilience is the ability of an ecosystem to maintain its current state in the face of variability. The loss of resilience harms human well-being because it can lead to the loss of land and water resources. Being able to measure and manage resilience is essential for adapting to these large changes. The researchers will perform an ecosystem experiment aimed at increasing resilience to algal blooms in lakes. Algal blooms threaten drinking water, reduce tourism, and harm wildlife. The primary goal of the experiment is to test if resilience can be enhanced and assess the performance of three resilience metrics. This experiment will advance our understanding of ecosystem resilience, evaluate methods for tracking environmental change critical for policymaking, and provide management insight. The results and the evaluation of the resilience metrics will be shared with lake managers through workshops hosted by the research team.The research is not only applicable to lakes but could be applied to manage other ecosystems such as grasslands and forests.To test if light availability changes resilience to nutrient loading, the researchers will experimentally add nitrogen and phosphorus to two lakes to encourage an algal bloom. One of the lakes is highly stained and therefore has low light availability. The other is relatively clear with higher light availability. A third lake that will not receive nutrient additions will serve as a reference ecosystem. The researchers will measure algal pigments, dissolved oxygen, and pH at a high frequency to monitor algal blooms. Resilience will be evaluated with ecosystem models, dynamic statistical indicators, and mean exit time. These three methods for quantifying resilience provide a new approach to evaluating ecosystem change. The expectation is that resilience of algal blooms to nutrient additions will be higher in the stained lake compared to the clear lake due to lower light availability. To test this hypothesis, in the second year of the experiment the researchers will add a commercial dye to the clear lake, designed to absorb light. The expectation is that this will make the clear lake more resilient algal blooms from nutrient additions, similar to the stained lake. The results of this experiment and the evaluation of the resilience metrics will be shared with lake managers through workshops hosted by the research team.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.