Huron to Erie Alliance for Research and Training (HEART) Field Station Improvements for Urban Watershed Research and Education

休伦到伊利研究和培训联盟（HEART）外地站在获得城市环境中的自然和人工水资源方面是独一无二的，包括支持密歇根州东南部400多万人的自然生态系统和水基础设施。HEART野外台站位于贝儿岛、圣克莱尔湖维景公园和底特律水和污水处理部门水厂公园（WWP）饮用水处理厂，可利用最先进的研究实验室设施、独特的原生和恢复的五大湖沿海生态系统、绿色/蓝色基础设施、主要航运网络、世界级旅游和渔业资源以及国际边境口岸。通过利用拟议的设备和设施改进进行新的研究，将推进关于水基础设施可持续性和为人类和生态福祉保持水质的知识前沿。这些研究将直接影响底特律大都市和五大湖地区，也将通过提供创新的教育和培训，在各级研究（K-12，社区学院，本科生，研究生和博士后）的各种各样的城市水资源主题的国家的目的。HEART使用的研究和教育方法旨在确保技术先进的未来劳动力在城市流域问题和研究方法方面的知识和经验，并灌输有关城市淡水资源管理的价值观。拟议的设备将提高HEART的能力，积极影响航运和渔业的经济竞争力，以及饮用水系统的可持续性和可负担性。与城市公立学校和社区机构建立的伙伴关系将有助于改善HEART实地站的研究、教育和培训，为代表性不足的少数群体提供更多获得先进科学-技术-工程-数学（STEM）资源和技能的机会。实地站是来自不同机构和学科的研究人员进行互动的地方，每个设施都为图尔斯和会议提供场所，使国内外的合作者围绕城市水科学建立联系。HEART拟议设备的增加将通过使用基于PCR的技术进行环境DNA检测，开发新方法，评估生境恢复的有效性和通过船舶压载水传播入侵物种的风险。支持快速分子水生生态分析自动化方法进步的设备将使这一有前途的新领域更接近市场化和广泛应用于公共利益。WWP的5，000平方英尺复制品饮用水处理系统的实验操作和生理生物反应的评估将为新出现的关注污染物的处理工艺有效性提供新的见解。该设备将支持学生动手水科学，水生分子和微生物分析，入侵物种的识别，渔业实验，饮用水处理技术调查和水质研究的关键五大湖水道从休伦湖伊利湖。通信技术将扩大HEART外地站收集和整合数据的能力，并使科学家能够参与并增强公众在健全科学基础上创造可持续城市环境的能力。欲了解更多信息，请访问HEART网站http://www.heartfreshwatercenter.org/。

The Huron to Erie Alliance for Research and Training (HEART) Field Stations are unique in their access to both natural and built water resources in the urban environment, including natural ecosystems and water infrastructure that supports over 4 million people in Southeast Michigan. Located at Belle Isle, Lake St. Clair Metropark, and the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department Water Works Park (WWP) drinking water treatment plant, the HEART field stations provide access to state-of-the-art research laboratory facilities and unique native and restored Great Lakes coastal ecosystems and green/blue infrastructure, as well as major shipping networks, world-class tourism and fisheries resources and an international border crossing. The frontiers of knowledge on the sustainability of water infrastructure and the maintenance of water quality for human and ecological welfare will be advanced through new studies using the proposed equipment and facility improvements. These studies will directly impact metropolitan Detroit and the Great Lakes region and will also serve the national purpose by providing innovative education and training on a broad variety of urban water resources topics at all levels of study (K-12, community college, undergraduate, graduate and post-doc). The research and education approaches used by HEART are designed to secure a technologically-advanced future workforce knowledgeable and experienced in urban watershed issues and study methods, and instilled with values about the stewardship of urban freshwater resources. The proposed equipment will enhance HEART's ability to positively impact the economic competitiveness of the shipping and fisheries industries, as well as the sustainability and affordability of drinking water systems. Established partnerships with urban public schools and community institutions will enable improvements in the research, education and training at the HEART field stations to provide greater access to advanced Science-Technology-Engineering-Math (STEM) resources and skills for underrepresented minorities. The field stations are places where researchers from diverse institutions and academic disciplines interact, and each facility provides a venue for tours and conferences that connect collaborators nationally and internationally around urban water science.The addition of the proposed equipment at HEART will advance knowledge of fisheries and restoration science through environmental DNA detection using PCR-based techniques, developing new methods for assessing the effectiveness of habitat restoration and the risk of invasive species transport via ship ballast water. Equipment to support advancement of automated methods for rapid molecular aquatic ecology analysis will bring this promising new field closer to marketability and broad application for the public good. Experimental manipulation of the 5,000 square foot replica drinking water treatment system at WWP and evaluation of physiological organism responses will provide new insights on treatment process effectiveness for contaminants of emerging concern. The equipment will support hands-on student water science, aquatic molecular and microbial analysis, identification of invasive species, fisheries experiments, drinking water treatment technology investigations and water quality studies in the critical Great Lakes waterway from Lake Huron to Lake Erie. Communications technology will expand the capacity of the HEART Field Stations to collect and integrate data and enable scientists to engage and empower the public in creating a sustainable urban environment based on sound science. For more information visit the HEART website at http://www.heartfreshwatercenter.org/.