RAPID: Tipping the Greenhouse C Balance: Hurricane Irma's Role in Increasing the Global Warming Potential in Everglades Ecosystems

这项快速研究的重点是调查飓风对大沼泽湿地生态系统碳循环的影响。飓风伊尔玛导致佛罗里达大沼泽地广泛的风灾和20多年来的最高水位。这项研究的结果和预测将直接解决更大范围的问题，即在飓风干扰增加的情况下，湿地生态系统结构和功能以及水生生产力如何改变。大沼泽地国家公园内的湿地受到了严重影响，原因是大范围的落叶、围植草席的破坏、向土壤和水柱中大量输入碳和养分，以及沼泽禾本科植物直立死亡组织的减少。随着光合作用的减少，这些变化可能会改变缺氧条件，支持更高的甲烷产生和释放速度。这项工作将集中在减少叶面积，以及这如何有助于造成死亡物质漂浮的垫子，造成缺氧条件，以及甲烷生产和向大气释放二氧化碳的“热点”。该项目包括解释“热点”碳通量所需的额外小室测量。这项研究的更广泛影响来自于对湿地系统如何应对飓风的基础理解的改善，这一努力将提供对极高水位对大沼泽湿地影响的初步脆弱性评估。这项研究也为来自代表性不足的少数群体的初级教职员工和技术人员提供了研究机会。

This RAPID research focuses on investigating the hurricane impacts on the carbon cycling of Everglades wetland ecosystems. Hurricane Irma resulted in extensive wind damage and the highest water levels recorded in over 20 years in the Florida Everglades. The findings and predictions that result from this study will directly address larger-scale questions about how wetland ecosystem structure and function and aquatic productivity are altered in the face of increased disturbance from hurricanes. Wetlands within Everglades National Park have been seriously impacted by extensive defoliation, disruption of periphyton mats, large inputs of carbon and nutrients into the soil and water column, and a reduction in standing dead tissue of marsh graminoids. Along with reductions in photosynthesis, these changes may alter anoxic conditions, supporting greater rates of methane production and release. This effort will focus on reductions in leaf area and how this contributes to floating mats of dead material that cause anoxic conditions and 'hotspots' for CH4 production and release of CO2 to the atmosphere. This project includes additional chamber measurements necessary to interpret 'hotspot' carbon fluxes. The broader impacts of this research result from an improved foundational understanding of how wetland systems respond to hurricanes, and the effort will provide an initial vulnerability assessment of the effects of extreme high-water levels on Everglades wetlands. This study also affords research opportunities for junior faculty and technicians from underrepresented minority groups.