Linkages Between Amazon Mangrove Coastlines and Fluvial Sediment Exchange: How Climatic Variations Could Impact Mangrove Health

红树林是极其宝贵的海洋环境，保护人类栖息地免受波浪和洋流的影响，本身就是许多海洋生物的家园，也是碳的主要储存库。亚马逊河口以南和以北的红树林海岸线在污染或砍伐方面几乎没有受到人类的影响，但沉积物供应的减少可能会使红树林受到海洋力量的强烈侵蚀。由于气候变化，海平面上升幅度增加一倍，可能会提供更大的空间来捕获河流沉积物排放，可能会使截留量增加一倍，并进一步减少海洋和沿海红树林环境的沉积物供应。为了调查海平面上升和红树林健康之间的这种联系，美国和巴西科学家将建立一个合作研究网络，以提供这项研究所需的一套专业技能。美国小组带来了沉积物输送过程和气候变化对河流三角洲和沿海环境影响方面的专业知识；近海研究，陆地-海洋相互作用和全球变化。巴西合作者带来了遥感方面的专门知识、红树林海岸线方面的经验、与亚马逊河有关的三角洲地区的海岸和河口环流以及沉积过程。该项目将包括在联邦大学<s:1> (UFPA)举办短期课程/技术讲习班；对亚马逊潮汐河和河口周围的红树林海岸线进行初步实地考察；以及建立一个交流网络来分享科学成果和讨论。短期课程和实地考察将包括大约6名巴西和6名美国研究生和高级本科生。学生们将通过到亚马逊河口和沿海红树林的实地考察，了解河流和海岸沉积的科学基础以及相关的环境。本项目和预期的后续活动将奠定基础，并建立必要的国际合作，以解决在红树林海岸线上发生的沉积学和地球化学过程与河流沉积物和向沿海海洋进行碳交换之间的联系问题。

Mangrove forests are extremely valuable marine environments that protect human habitation against waves and currents, are themselves home to many juvenile marine organisms, and are major repositories for carbon. The mangrove coastlines south and north of the Amazon River mouth have had little impact from humans in terms of pollution or clear cutting, but reduction in sediment supply could expose mangrove forests to intense erosion from oceanographic forces. A doubling of eustatic (global) sea-level rise due to climate change could provide substantially more space to trap fluvial sediment discharge, perhaps doubling entrapment and further reducing the sediment supply to the ocean and coastal mangrove environments. To investigate this linkage between sea-level rise and mangrove health, a collaborative research network between US and Brazilian scientists will be established to supply the set of specialized skills necessary for this study. The US group brings expertise in sediment transport processes and the impacts of climate variations on river delta and coastal environments; off-shore research, and land-ocean interactions and global change. The Brazilian collaborators bring expertise in remote sensing, experience with mangrove coastlines, and coastal and estuarine circulation and sedimentological processes in the deltaic regions associated with the Amazon River. This project will entail a short course/technical workshop at Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA); a preliminary field expedition to the Amazon tidal river and mangrove coastlines surrounding the river mouth; and the development of a communication network for sharing of scientific results and discussion. The short course and field expedition will involve a group of about 6 Brazilian and 6 U.S. students at the graduate and advanced undergraduate levels. The students will be exposed to the scientific underpinnings of fluvial and coastal sedimentation and the relevant environments through field excursions to the Amazon river mouth and coastal mangrove forests. This project and anticipated follow-on activities will lay the groundwork and create the international collaborations necessary to address the question of the linkages between sedimentological and geochemical processes operating on mangrove coastlines and fluvial sediment and carbon exchange to the coastal ocean.