RAPID: Hurricane Irma: How do ecosystem perturbations interact to influence long-term resilience mechanisms?

像最近袭击佛罗里达海岸的飓风“厄玛”这样的高能风暴，可以通过快速输送过多的雨、风以及水和物质的激增来破坏生态系统。这种干扰效应可能产生难以预测的持久后果，因为它们与自然界中发生的其他短期和长期变化相互作用，包括先前的事件和由土地和水利用变化驱动的慢性变化。生态系统从极端事件中恢复的速度是快、慢还是慢，可能取决于对先前干扰和慢性变化的暴露程度、抵抗力和恢复能力。这项研究将研究飓风Irma对碳和营养循环以及动物种群的影响，以及这种严重干扰的影响如何受到之前风暴事件的遗产和风暴之前长期盐水侵蚀的影响。从这项关于恢复轨迹的工作中获得的新知识将提高对伊尔玛等风暴对沿海生态系统提供的生态系统服务的长期影响的理解；包括风暴缓冲、二氧化碳去除、生物多样性保护和淡水供应。调查人员还将利用从这项工作中获得的信息创建K-12课堂活动和媒体宣传计划，以提高公众对沿海环境价值和飓风影响的理解。本研究将利用佛罗里达沿海大沼泽地长期生态研究（FCE LTER）项目的背景来测量2017年9月10日飓风“厄玛”经过大沼泽地的风暴潮、风和雨的影响。将开展一项实地活动，以测量风暴对景观中营养物质、植被、土壤和水生动物分布的影响。FCE LTER项目已经详细记录了这些地区之前遭受过不同的风暴和长期海水侵蚀的历史，通过研究这些地区的影响，研究人员将能够确定先前的条件如何影响风暴影响的强度和持续时间。通过在正在进行的研究的背景下量化这些影响，这项研究还将使科学家们了解风暴如何影响生态系统抵御未来变化的能力。还将产生一个模型，预测沿海森林保护内陆地区免受风暴潮的影响。研究结果将与2017年受热带风暴影响的其他地区的长期研究项目进行比较，并通过出版物、多种媒体渠道和K-12课堂活动分发结果。

High-energy storms like Hurricane Irma, which recently struck the Florida coast, can damage ecosystems by rapidly delivering excessive rain, wind, and surges of water and materials. Such disturbance effects can have lasting consequences that can be difficult to anticipate because they interact with other short- and long-term changes occurring in nature, including prior events and chronic alterations driven by land- and water-use changes. Whether or not an ecosystem recovers rapidly, slowly or not at all from an extreme event may depend on exposure, resistance, and resilience to prior disturbances and chronic changes. This research will study the impacts of Hurricane Irma on carbon and nutrient cycles and animal populations, and how the impacts of such a severe disturbance are influenced by the legacies of previous storm events and long-term saltwater encroachment that predated the storm. New knowledge gained from this work on recovery trajectories will improve understanding of the longer-term impacts of storms like Irma on ecosystem services provided by coastal ecosystems; including storm buffering, carbon dioxide removal, biodiversity conservation and freshwater provisioning. The investigators will also use the information gained from this work to create K-12 classroom activities and media outreach programs that will enhance public understanding of the value of coastal environments, and the impacts of hurricanes.This study will use the context of the Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research (FCE LTER) program to measure the impacts of storm surge, winds and rains from Hurricane Irma that passed over the Everglades on Sept 10, 2017. A field campaign will be conducted to measure the storm's impact on the distribution of nutrients, vegetation, soils and aquatic animals on the landscape. By examining impacts on areas that have had different histories of exposure to prior storms and chronic encroachment of saltwater that have been well-documented by the FCE LTER program, researchers will be able to determine how prior conditions influence the magnitude and duration of the storm's effects. By quantifying these impacts in the context of ongoing research, this study will also allow scientists to understand how the storm influenced the ability of the ecosystem to withstand future changes. A model that predicts how well coastal forests protect inland areas from storm surges will also be produced. Findings will be compared to other locations with long-term research programs impacted by tropical storms in 2017 and the results distributed through publications, multiple media outlets, and K-12 classroom activities.