LTER: Georgia Coastal Ecosystems - IV

乔治亚海岸生态系统（GCE）长期生态研究（LTER）项目成立于2000年，总部设在乔治亚州萨佩洛岛乔治亚大学海洋研究所，旨在研究沿海生态系统的长期变化。河口（海水与陆地淡水混合的地方）及其邻近的沼泽为鱼类、贝类和鸟类提供食物和避难所；保护海岸线免受风暴侵袭；帮助保持水的清洁；储存碳。GCE LTER的研究人员研究沼泽和河口，以了解这些生态系统的功能，跟踪它们如何随时间变化，并预测它们如何受到未来气候变化和人类活动的影响。他们通过追踪可能导致沿海地区长期变化的主要因素（如海平面、降雨、上游发展），并测量这些因素对研究地点的影响来实现这一目标。他们还进行重点研究，以评估主要沼泽栖息地将如何应对未来预期的重大变化，包括大规模实验，以评估以下影响：a)淹没淡水沼泽的水盐度增加（模拟干旱和/或海平面上升）；b)从陆地流入高地沼泽边界的水径流变化（模拟干旱或高地开发）；c)排除盐沼中较大的生物（模仿捕食者的长期减少）。在此期间，他们将启动额外的研究，系统地评估沿海湿地对干扰的反应。在海平面上升等长期背景变化的背景下，对环境的干扰或破坏尤为重要，GCE的研究人员正在努力评估多种干扰对景观的累积影响。GCE教育和推广项目旨在与教师和学生、海岸管理人员、公民科学家和公众分享对沿海生态系统的了解。GCE-LTER项目有四个目标。1)跟踪可能导致焦点生态系统扰动的环境和人类驱动因素。这将通过持续的长期测量气候、水化学、海洋交换和人类对景观的活动来实现。2)描述研究系统（滨海湿地复合体）的物理、化学、地质和生物特征的时空变异性及其对外部驱动因素的响应。这将通过结合遥感和建模的实地监测来完成。3)表征潮间带湿地对扰动的生态响应。这将通过持续的监测和实验工作来完成，以评估系统对三个主要沼泽生境（米草属为主的盐沼的淹没和捕食者排除的变化；新鲜沼泽的盐度增加；高沼泽的径流变化）的主要扰动的反应，通过实施沿盐度和海拔梯度的标准化实验扰动，并通过跟踪对自然扰动的反应。4)在景观水平上评价生态系统特性（生境分布、净初级生产和总初级生产、碳收支），并评估干扰对这些特性的累积效应。该项目还将开发驱动因素和响应变量之间的关系，这可用于预测未来变化的影响。这将通过数据综合、遥感和建模相结合来完成。GCE“校园”项目为K-12教师提供研究经验，他们利用这些经验来开展课堂活动。GCE将发行一本受欢迎的儿童读物（现在是第二版），并附有教学计划，还将制作一本包含相关教育内容的漫画书。他们将推广两个关注盐沼的公民科学网络应用程序。GCE将通过实习为不同的本科生群体提供研究机会，并将开设网络课程，为研究生提供跨学科培训。GCE将与佐治亚州海岸研究委员会合作，与管理人员交流信息，促进沿海资源的科学管理。GCE的数据、报告和其他信息可在GCE网站上广泛获取。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Georgia Coastal Ecosystems (GCE) Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program, based at the University of Georgia Marine Institute on Sapelo Island, Georgia, was established in 2000 to study long-term change in coastal ecosystems. Estuaries (places where salt water from the ocean mixes with fresh water from the land) and their adjacent marshes provide food and refuge for fish, shellfish and birds; protect the shoreline from storms; help to keep the water clean; and store carbon. The GCE LTER researchers study marshes and estuaries to understand how these ecosystems function, to track how they change over time, and to predict how they might be affected by future changes in climate and human activities. They accomplish this by tracking the major factors that can cause long-term change in coastal areas (e.g. sea level, rainfall, upstream development), and measuring the effects of these factors on the study site. They also conduct focused studies to assess how key marsh habitats will respond to major changes expected in the future, including large-scale experiments to evaluate the effects of a) increases in the salinity of the water that floods freshwater marshes (mimicking drought and/or sea level rise), b) changes in water runoff from land into the upland marsh border (mimicking drought or upland development), and c) exclusion of larger organisms in the salt marsh (mimicking long-term declines in predators). During this award they will initiate additional studies to systematically evaluate how coastal wetlands respond to disturbances. Disturbances, or disruptions in the environment, are particularly important to understand in the context of long-term background changes such as increasing sea level, and GCE researchers are working to assess the cumulative effects of multiple disturbances on the landscape. The GCE education and outreach program works to share an understanding of coastal ecosystems with teachers and students, coastal managers, citizen scientist and the general public.The GCE-LTER project has four goals. 1) Track environmental and human drivers that can cause perturbations in our focal ecosystems. This will be accomplished this through continuing long-term measurements of climate, water chemistry, oceanic exchange, and human activities on the landscape. 2) Describe temporal and spatial variability in physical, chemical, geological and biological characteristics of the study system (coastal wetland complexes) and how they respond to external drivers. This will be accomplished through field monitoring in combination with remote sensing and modeling. 3) Characterize the ecological responses of intertidal marshes to disturbance. This will be accomplished by ongoing monitoring and experimental work to evaluate system responses to major perturbations in three key marsh habitats (changes in inundation and predator exclusion in Spartina-dominated salt marshes; increases in salinity in fresh marshes; changes in runoff in high marshes), by implementing standardized experimental disturbances along salinity and elevation gradients, and by tracking responses to natural disturbances. 4) Evaluate ecosystem properties at the landscape level (habitat distribution, net and gross primary production, C budgets) and assess the cumulative effects of disturbance on these properties. The project will also develop relationships between drivers and response variables, which can be used to predict the effects of future changes. This will be accomplished through a combination of data synthesis, remote sensing and modeling. The GCE "Schoolyard" program provides K-12 teachers with research experience that they use to develop classroom activities. The GCE will distribute a popular children's book (now in its second edition) with accompanying lesson plans, and will produce a comic book with associated educational content. They will promote two citizen science web applications focused on the salt marsh. The GCE will provide research opportunities through internships for a diverse group of undergraduates, and will run web-based courses that provide interdisciplinary training for graduate students. The GCE will partner with the Georgia Coastal Research Council to exchange information with managers and promote science-based management of coastal resources. GCE data, reports and other information is broadly available on the GCE website.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.