滨海湿地空间自组织格局形成机理及其生态功能研究

滨海(盐沼)湿地生态系统是沿海地区生态安全和生态系统保护的重要屏障，调查发现覆盖面积与生态功能在全球大规模的丧失和退化，可持续性堪忧，然而迄今科学家依然不完全清楚导致退化发生的生态过程和机理。环境的恶化、人类的生产活动和海平面上升等诸多因素在不同空间尺度的相互作用均可能引起该生态系统退化。本项目以长江口崇明盐沼湿地为对象，基于空间尺度依赖反馈过程、沉积层高度的变化和潮浪波的动力过程，建立数学模型研究来研究植被空间自组织格局形成机理、生态恢复力、初级生物量和生物多样性等生态系统功能。从理论角度研究滨海湿地的空间自组织格局对其生态系统脆弱性的影响，以及关于环境参数变化的敏感性；通过收集生物多样性数据，借助理论模型来研究空间自组织格局对生态系统群落和生物多样性的影响。研究成果将丰富空间自组织理论在生态系统功能方面的应用，阐述生态多样性的新机制; 同时为滨海湿地保育和管理提出理论依据。

Costal wetland are important for flood protection and ecosystem conservation, but undergo sudden shifts in area cover and distribution all over the world. The causes for such shifts are still unclear underlying the ecological mechanisms. Drivers may be environmental (hydrology, sediment supply, etc.), biological (vegetation cover, biodiversity, etc.) or anthropogenic (construction, grazing, etc.), with factors operating and interacting at different scales to shape marshes and coastal patterning. This proposal is to investigate how coastal wetland self-organization patterns are shaped by interactions of biological facilitation with physical/environmental change. We will combine the field experimental setup and theoretical models with aerial-survey data to examine marsh resilience to environmental change, and to forecast shifts in marsh spatial patterns. Furthermore, we will explore the emergent properties and ecosystem functioning of the spatially self-organization patterning in salt marches ecosystem (in terms of biodiversity, productivity, and ecological resilience). Our researches will provide a new application of self-organization in ecosystems, and pose a new ecological mechanism for implication the biodiversity. It will help us to manage the coastal wetland using a novel strategy.