RCN: Building a Collaborative Network for Coastal Wetland Carbon Cycle Synthesis

潮汐沼泽、红树林沼泽和海草草甸是世界各地海岸线上独特的生态系统。这些湿地支持专门的植物、微生物和动物物种，这些物种共同构成了地球上一些最具生产力的生态系统，影响了河口和沿海海洋的生态。沿海湿地还受到人类活动的严重压力，人类活动有可能削弱它们为人类和水生食物网提供的许多好处。在这些好处中，它们可以从大气中去除大量二氧化碳，并将其埋藏在土壤中数百年至数千年。事实上，尽管这些生态系统只占陆地面积的不到2%，但它们占埋藏在沉积物中的有机碳的近50%。这一令人惊讶的事实暗示了一个机会：保护、恢复和管理沿海生态系统可以改善它们提供的生态和社会效益。关于这一专题的研究步伐已经加快，迫切需要协调正在进行的研究和综合现有信息。这一研究协调网络(RCN)项目的目标是通过创建一个共享数据的中央储存库，并促进合成和建模，以更好地预测沿海生态系统的功能，从而促进对沿海湿地碳循环的了解。海岸湿地碳研究协调网络将通过以下方式加速科学发现、推进科学知情政策和改善海岸生态系统管理：(1)发展一个致力于沿海湿地碳科学的社区，用于基础研究、政策制定和管理；(2)探索沿海湿地、河口和大气之间的生态联系；(3)共享数据和分析工具，以支持科学家、政策制定者和管理者的不同需求。活动1将为参与者贡献的数据建立一个储存库，并建立一个中央门户，用于从沿海碳社区感兴趣的储存库下载数据。活动2将创建一个沿海湿地碳网站，通过提供满足不同用户需求的各种资源来吸引不同用户的参与。它将提供数据分析工具、知识共享资源、标准方法培训模块的视频库、支持建模的代码库、出版物链接和网络研讨会库。该区域资源中心项目还将通过一系列网络研讨会和专业会议上的市政厅聚会进行推广，主办一系列关于沿海碳的科学差距的讲习班，并开发一个基于网络的建模工具。

Tidal marshes, mangrove swamps and seagrass meadows are unique ecosystems found on coastlines worldwide. These wetlands support specialized plant, microbe and animal species that collectively form some of the Earth's most productive ecosystems, influencing the ecology of estuaries and coastal oceans. Coastal wetlands are also under severe pressure from human activity which threatens to diminish the many benefits they provide to people and aquatic food webs. Among these benefits is the fact that they remove large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and bury it in soils for centuries to millennia. Indeed, these ecosystems account for nearly 50 percent of the organic carbon buried in sediments despite occupying less than 2 percent of terrestrial area. This surprising fact suggests an opportunity: that protecting, restoring and managing coastal ecosystems could improve the ecological and social benefits they provide. The pace of research on this topic has accelerated and there is a great need to coordinate ongoing research and synthesize existing information. The goal of this Research Coordination Network (RCN) project is to advance understanding of carbon cycling in coastal wetlands by creating a central repository for sharing data, and facilitating synthesis and modeling to better predict the functioning of coastal ecosystems. The Coastal Wetland Carbon Research Coordination Network will accelerate scientific discovery, advance science-informed policy, and improve coastal ecosystem management by: (1) developing a community dedicated to coastal wetland carbon science for basic research, policy development, and management, (2) exploring the ecological links among coastal wetlands, estuaries, and the atmosphere, and (3) sharing data and analysis tools that support the diverse needs of scientists, policy makers and managers. Activity 1 will establish a repository for participant-contributed data, and a central portal for downloading data from repositories of interest to the coastal carbon community. Activity 2 will create a Coastal Wetland Carbon website to attract participation of diverse users by providing a variety of resources that meet their needs. It will provide data analysis tools, a knowledge sharing resource, a video library of training modules in standard methods, a code library to support modeling, links to publications, and a webinar library. This RCN project will also provide outreach via a series of webinars and town hall gatherings at professional meetings, host a series of workshops on scientific gaps in coastal carbon, and develop a web-based tool for modeling.