CAREER: From Substrate to Surface: Quantifying the Impact of Aquatic Vegetation on Exchange Processes

该项目旨在了解天然沃茨中水流和植被对从水-沉积物界面到水面的气体转移的影响。了解这些过程，从底层到表面，将有助于开发基于过程的模型，用于湿地，河口和植被沿海地区的管理和恢复，并将为自然沃茨的全球温室气体通量模型提供信息。研究工作解决了地貌学，生态学和流体动力学界面的挑战。该项目与教育和外展计划相结合，将为处于危险中的男孩培养一个以STEM为导向的学校到大学的管道;并将为大学、机构和处理世界各地洪泛区、湿地和沿海地区的政策制定者开发先进但可获得的教育材料。该项目寻求整合水生生态系统对自然沃茨沉积物和氧气动力学的各种影响。一项广泛的实验研究，使用定量流动成像，声学和光学传感器，将充分表征耦合水-空气-植被-沉积物的相互作用，通过监测湍流，沉积物需氧量，以及它们对气体传输的影响。这四个独特的、最先进的实验室设施将在广泛的空间和时间尺度上再现单向和振荡流条件，代表河流、湿地和沿海地区。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

This project seeks to understand the effects of flow and vegetation on gas transfer in natural waters, from the water-sediment interface to the water surface. Understanding such processes, from substrate to surface, will allow development of process-based models for management and restoration of wetlands, estuaries, and vegetated coastal areas, and will inform models of global greenhouse gas fluxes in natural waters. The research effort addresses challenges at the interface of Geomorphology, Ecology, and Fluid Dynamics. It is coupled with an education and outreach plan that will foster a STEM-oriented, school-to-college pipeline for at-risk young boys; and will develop advanced but accessible educational material for Universities, agencies, and policy makers dealing with floodplains, wetlands, and coastal areas worldwide.The project seeks integration of the various impacts of aquatic ecosystems in sediment and oxygen dynamics in natural waters. An extensive experimental study, using quantitative flow imaging, acoustic, and optical sensors, will fully characterize coupled water-air-vegetation-sediment interactions, by monitoring turbulent flows, sediment-oxygen demand, and their impact on gas transfer. The four unique, state-of-the-art laboratory facilities to be used will recreate unidirectional and oscillatory flow conditions at a wide range of spatial and temporal scales, representative of streams, wetlands, and coastal areas.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.