On Landscape Development and Ecological Processes in a Tide-dominated Barrier-Lagoon Complex

一项长期的生态研究计划将在弗吉尼亚州大西洋沿岸的屏障-河口系统上进行。这一面积为1000平方公里的系统是在全新世海平面上升时期形成的。这个项目的设计包含了广泛的时间和空间尺度。长期气候变化、海平面变化、岛屿运动和沼泽生长和发展之间的相互关系将利用年代久远的沉积物岩心进行研究。当前气候环境、随机气候扰动和地表景观过程（如植物和动物演代）之间的相互关系将通过遥感图像、实地和实验室实验以及对种群分布和分解和元素循环等过程的直接实地观察数据进行研究。一个由生物地球化学过程模型、演替模型和景观模型组成的耦合模型系统将用于指导和综合不同时间和空间尺度上发生的过程的研究。这项研究工作将由一个真正杰出的跨学科研究小组进行，该小组的每个成员都是一位杰出的科学家。该小组以一种完全整合和协作的方式组织起来，并应产生重大的协同作用。弗吉尼亚大学将为这项工作提供优秀的校内设施，这将是一个院系级的核心，需要大量的新支持资源。作为研究地点的所有者，大自然保护协会将以直接和实物的方式参与支持该项目，并承担场地完整性和安全性的所有费用。整个项目团队的组织非常出色。项目和科学小组在一开始就做好了充分的准备，在景观规模的类似研究工作中承担领导地位。目前已经在科学和技术领域实施了几种协作努力的计划，这些合作努力对取得重大进展是适当的和重要的。除了高质量基础生态研究的明显特征外，该项目还将为影响海岸带关键和脆弱自然资源的管理提供机会。生态系统研究计划建议在这个为期五年的持续奖励的第一年提供资金。

A long-term ecological research program will be conducted on the barrier-estuarine system on the Atlantic coast of Virginia. This 1,000-km2 system has developed during the period of Holocene sea level rise. This project is designed to incorporate a wide domain of scales of time and space. The interrelationships of secular climate change, sea-level change, island movement, and marsh growth and development will be studied with data from dated sediment cores. The interrelationships of the current climatic environment, stochastic climatic disturbances and surficial landscape processes such as plant and animal succession will be studied with data from remotely-sensed imagery, field and laboratory experimentation, and direct field observation of population distributions and processes such as decomposition and element cycling. A system of three coupled models, including a biogeochemical process model, a succession model and a landscape model, will be used both to guide and to synthesize studies of processes occurring on different scales of time and space. This research undertaking will be conducted by a truly remarkable interdisciplinary research group each member of which is an outstanding scientist in his own right. The group is organized in a completely integrated and collaborative fashion and a major synergism should result. The University of Virginia will provide excellent on-campus facilities for the work which will be a department-level centerpiece commanding a significant allocation of new support resources. The Nature Conservancy, owners of the research site, will participate in the support of the project by both direct and in-kind avenues in addition to assuming all costs for site integrity and security. The organization of the total project team is extraordinary. The project and scientific group come fully prepared at the outset to assume a leadership position within the family of concurrent similar research efforts at the landscape scale. Plans are already being implemented for several kinds of collaborative efforts in areas of science and technology appropriate and important to the achievement of major progress. In addition to the obvious characteristics of high quality fundamental ecological research this project will offer the opportunity to affect the management of critical and fragile natural resources of the coastal zone. The Ecosystem Studies Program recommends that funding be made available for the first year of this five-year continuing award.