RCN: Coastal Rainforest Margins Research Network - understanding materials flux in linked terrestrial and marine ecosystems in the face of climate change

海岸边缘是陆地和海洋交界处的动态地带，淡水和碳、铁、氮等营养物质从沿海流域流向下游，进入近岸海洋环境。在阿拉斯加和不列颠哥伦比亚省的沿海温带雨林，陆地生态系统和海洋生态系统之间的联系尤其紧密。充足的降雨将冰川、密林和湿地中的营养物质转移到河口和峡湾，支持了生产性渔业和强大的海洋哺乳动物种群。该地区包括北美现存最大的古老森林；拥有地球上冰川融化率最高的地区之一；支持价值数十亿美元的渔业和旅游业；是数万依赖自然资源谋生的人的家园。由于淡水和营养物质的流动在这些相互关联的生态系统中起着关键作用，气候驱动的这种流动的变化可能会影响沿海生态系统和依赖它们的人类社区。沿海雨林边缘研究网络是一个国际研究协作体，将有助于更好地了解这些过程和影响。该网络将建立一个科学家和利益攸关方的核心社区，作为未来生态系统管理和社区适应的信息和指导资源。更好地了解这一生态系统将有助于在变暖和日益多变的气候中建立当地社区和生态系统的复原力。此外，它还将为理解全球沿海温带雨林和海岸边缘内的气候驱动变化提供基础。沿海雨林边缘研究网络将由在关键学科内组织的研究社区组成，包括水文学、森林生态学、土壤科学、生物地球化学和近岸海洋生态学。这些学科团体将解决关键的信息差距，发展区域合作，并综合关于水、碳和营养物质通量的知识，在陆地和淡水环境之间的剧烈变化和快速转移控制着这些物质向沿海海洋的输送。网络将通过三项主要活动实现这些目标：1)网络参与者之间有组织的信息交流，包括定期电话会议、研究网络研讨会、实地访问、网络主办的会议和每年一次的将整个网络聚集在一起的多天讲习班；2)建立工作组，以制定数据收集、管理和分享协议；3)开发对网络成员以及政策制定者和资源管理人员有用的外联产品。

Coastal margins are dynamic zones at the interface between land and ocean, where fresh water and nutrients, like carbon, iron and nitrogen, flow downstream from coastal watersheds into the nearshore marine environment. The links between terrestrial and marine ecosystems are especially tight in the coastal temperate rainforests of Alaska and British Columbia. Abundant rainfall moves nutrients held in glaciers, dense forests, and wetlands to estuaries and fjords, supporting productive fisheries and robust marine mammal populations. This region includes the largest remaining old-growth forests in North America; has among the highest rates of glacier melt on the planet; supports billion-dollar fishing and tourism industries; and is home to tens of thousands of people who depend on natural resources for their livelihoods. Because the movement of fresh water and nutrients plays a key role in these linked ecosystems, climate-driven changes in this flow may impact coastal ecosystems and the human communities that depend on them. The Coastal Rainforest Margins Research Network is an international research collaborative that will facilitate a better understanding of these processes and impacts. This Network will establish a core community of scientists and stakeholders to function as an information and guidance resource for ecosystem management and community adaptation into the future. An improved understanding of this ecosystem will help build resilience in local communities and ecosystems in a warming and increasingly variable climate. Additionally, it will provide a foundation for understanding climate-driven changes within coastal temperate rainforests and coastal margins worldwide.The Coastal Rainforest Margins Research Network will be composed of research communities organized within key disciplines, including hydrology, forest ecology, soil science, biogeochemistry, and near-shore marine ecology. These disciplinary communities will address critical information gaps, develop regional collaborations, and synthesize knowledge regarding water, carbon, and nutrient fluxes in a landscape where intense transformations and rapid transfers between terrestrial and freshwater environments control the delivery of these materials to the coastal ocean. The Network will achieve these goals through three main activities: 1) structured information exchanges among Network participants, including regular teleconferences, research webinars, field site visits, web-hosted meetings, and annual multi-day workshops that bring the entire Network together; 2) creation of working groups to develop data collection, management and sharing protocols; and 3) development of outreach products useful to Network members as well as policy-makers and resource managers.