Smithsonian's Global Change Research Facilities for Large-Scale Ecological Forecasting

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。该项目涉及史密森尼环境研究中心（SERC）现场监测网络和环境数据采集系统的改造，这是一个为罗德河长期环境研究而设计的综合分布式设施。SERC使用罗德河流域和河口下游作为模型系统来测量沿海景观中相关生态系统对气候变化和人类影响的环境响应。该设施的各个组成部分用于监测空气、水和材料通过组成SERC模型景观的连接生态系统的流动。罗德河是一个“栖息的分水岭”，坐落在不透水的粘土层之上。粘土层阻止了罗得河流域的水和化学物质与更深层的含水层交换，这些含水层由更大的切萨皮克流域的其他部分提供。因此，水量及其化学特征的变化反映了当地气候、大气沉积和流域内土地利用活动的影响。这种跨越流域内相互关联的生态系统的测量揭示了景观尺度对气候或土地利用管理的响应。使用罗德河野外设施进行的研究活动和主题的类型包括：—测量和模拟流域水、沉积物和营养物质的排放，作为降水、土地利用和地质特征的函数。这些资料提供了关于营养物和汞等其他化学物质的来源、汇和转化，以及它们随降水数量和时间变化而变化的资料。——基于大气CO2浓度野外操纵的C3和C4植物群落对CO2上升的长期响应。——CO2升高和河口氮升高对土壤表面高程的综合影响。——汞进入海产品的途径，结合汞在大气中的沉积、小流域中的汞运输和甲基化、汞和甲基汞通过沼泽和溪流的通量以及甲基汞在陆生和水生生物群中的积累等研究。——研究溶解的有机物从湿地和潮汐沼泽向沿海海洋运输时，是什么调节了源和汇过程。除了为SERC人员提供研究基础设施外，该设施还将为学术合作伙伴开展的一系列合作研究和研究培训项目提供资源。本科生、研究生和博士后研究人员使用该设施参与研究。所进行的研究可以帮助确定新的环境政策的有效性。翻新后的基础设施将支持能够改善流域和河口管理的研究。改造的两个流域流量测量站将用于K-12教育和流域研究的公共教育。建议升级到SERC的数据传输网络将实现现场数据的实时传输，这将促进通过互联网与合作的科学家、学生和公众共享数据。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This project involves the renovation of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center's (SERC's) field monitoring network and environmental data acquisition system, an integrated, distributed facility designed for long-term environmental research on the Rhode River. SERC uses the Rhode River's watershed and sub-estuary as a model system to measure the environmental responses of linked ecosystems in a coastal landscape to climate variation and human impacts. The individual components of the facility are used for monitoring the flow of air, water, and materials through the linked ecosystems that comprise SERC's model landscape. The Rhode River is a 'perched watershed' that sits on top of an impervious clay layer. The clay layer prevents water and chemicals of the Rhode River's watershed from exchanging with the deeper aquifers that are fed by other parts of the larger Chesapeake watershed. As a result, changes in the volume of water and its chemical characteristics reflect the effects of local climate, atmospheric deposition and land use activities within the watershed. Such measurements across the linked ecosystems in the watershed reveal the landscape-scale response to climate or land use management.The types of research activities and topics pursued using the Rhode River field facility include: -- Studies that measure and model the watershed discharges of water, sediment, and nutrients as a function of precipitation, land use, and geological features. These provide information on sources, sinks, and transformations of nutrients and other chemicals such as mercury, and their variation with changes in the quantity and timing of precipitation. -- The long-term responses of C3 and C4 plant communities to rising CO2 based on field manipulation of atmospheric CO2 concentration. -- The combined effects of elevated CO2 and elevated estuarine nitrogen on soil surface elevation. -- The pathways by which mercury enters seafood, combining studies of the atmospheric deposition of mercury, mercury transport and methylation in small watershed, the fluxes of mercury and methymercury through marsh and streams, and the accumulation of methylmercury in terrestrial and aquatic biota. -- Studies of what regulates source and sink processes as dissolved organic matter is transported from wetlands and tidal marshes to the coastal ocean. In addition to providing infrastructure for research by SERC personnel, the facility to be renovated is also a resource for an array of collaborative research and research training programs undertaken by academic partners. Undergraduate students, graduate students and post-doctoral researchers participate in research using the facility. The research conducted can help determine the effectiveness of new environmental policies. The renovated infrastructure will support research that can lead to improvements in the management of watersheds and estuaries. Two of the watershed discharge measurement stations to be renovated will be used for K-12 education and public education on watershed research. The proposed upgrade to SERC's data transmission network will enable real time transmission of field data, which will facilitate sharing data via internet with collaborating scientists, students, and the public.