SEES Fellows: A heads up view of aquatic ecosystem sustainability - understanding the terrestrial landscape scale impacts of urbanization on aquatic biota

该项目将评估景观在维护和保护水生资源方面的作用，同时允许土地开发。该项目将研究溪流鱼类和昆虫群落组成模式与流域规模与景观规模土地利用模式之间的关系。关于溪流鱼类和昆虫生物学的信息(例如，物种生活史特征、扩散能力、对恶劣栖息地和污染的耐受力等)将用于制定描述城市化景观特征的指标，这些景观可能导致河流生物死亡或适合度降低。这些信息将与现有的社区数据和对土地利用模式的地理信息系统(地理信息系统)分析一起使用，以审查土地利用发展情景如何影响土地获取战略对养护溪流鱼类和昆虫群落的适用性。结合土地利用发展模式，并与地方政府机构合作，将开发一个决策支持系统(DSS)，以帮助该机构的工作人员努力获得用于保护目的的土地。可持续的土地利用发展必须考虑到保护河流生态系统的功能和多样性与促进居民的社会经济利益之间的权衡。环境、社会和经济目标之间的平衡对于在耦合的人-环境系统中维持健康的河流生态系统是必要的。关于土地利用变化对河流群落的影响的研究通常集中在流域尺度上的人类活动。该项目将扩大这类研究的范围，将其纳入更广泛的景观尺度视角。研究结果将使地方政府机构人员能够就为保护栖息地和养护生物多样性而征用土地作出更明智的决定。该项目将包括本科生参与研究，以及向城市居民宣传河流鱼类和昆虫的生态学和保护重要性的外展计划。该项目由NSF科学、工程和教育促进可持续发展研究员(SEE FERLOS)计划支持，目标是帮助实现必要的发现，为导致环境、能源和社会可持续发展的行动提供信息，同时培养必要的劳动力来应对这些挑战。在SEES研究员的支持下，该项目将使有前途的早期职业研究人员能够在与可持续发展相关的独立研究生涯中站稳脚跟。

This project will assess the role of landscapes in maintaining and protecting aquatic resources while allowing for land development. The project will examine how patterns of stream fish and insect community composition relate to watershed-scale versus landscape-scale land-use patterns. Information about the biology of stream fish and insects (e.g., species life history traits, dispersal abilities, tolerances to poor habitat and pollution, etc.) will be used to develop metrics describing characteristics of urbanized landscapes that may lead to mortality or reduced fitness of stream organisms. This information will be used, together with existing community data and Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis of land-use patterns, to examine how land-use development scenarios impact the suitability of land acquisition strategies for conserving stream fish and insect communities. Incorporating land-use development models, and working in partnership with local government agencies, a decision-support system (DSS) will be developed to aid agency personnel in their efforts to acquire land for conservation purposes. Sustainable land-use development must take into account the trade-offs between conserving the function and diversity of stream ecosystems and promoting socio-economic benefits for residents. A balance among environmental, social, and economic goals is necessary to sustain healthy stream ecosystems in coupled human-environment systems. Research on the effects of land-use change on stream communities has typically focused on human activities at the watershed scale. This project will expand such research to include broader, landscape-scale perspectives. Results of the research will enable local government agency personnel to make more informed decisions about land acquisition for the purposes of habitat protection and conservation of biodiversity. This project will include participation of undergraduate students in the research and an outreach program to residents of urban areas communicating the ecology and conservation importance of stream fishes and insects. This project is supported under the NSF Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability Fellows (SEES Fellows) program, with the goal of helping to enable discoveries needed to inform actions that lead to environmental, energy and societal sustainability while creating the necessary workforce to address these challenges. With SEES Fellows support, this project will enable a promising early career researcher to establish themselves in an independent research career related to sustainability.