LTER: Coastal Oligotrophic Ecosystem Research

像佛罗里达大沼泽地这样的沿海生态系统为社会提供了许多好处和服务，包括保护重要渔业免受风暴侵袭、栖息地和食物、支持旅游业和当地经济、过滤淡水，以及掩埋和储存碳以抵消温室气体排放。佛罗里达海岸大沼泽地长期生态研究(FCE LTER)计划致力于解决沿海生态系统及其服务如何以及为什么发生变化的问题。与许多沿海生态系统一样，佛罗里达大沼泽地也受到了淡水分流的威胁，以支持城市和农业扩张。与此同时，海平面上升导致咸水入侵海岸生态系统，使淡水物种受到威胁，造成海拔损失，污染了城市水资源。然而，恢复季节性淡水脉冲可能会抵消这些威胁。FCE LTER的研究人员正在继续进行长期研究和实验，以了解淡水供应的变化、海平面上升和热带风暴等扰动如何相互作用，影响生态系统及其服务。科学团队以多样性和包容性计划为指导，以吸引不同职业阶段的科学家。该团队包括资源经理--他们利用FCE LTER的发现和知识来指导有效的淡水恢复--以及由学术和机构科学家、教师和其他教育工作者、研究生、本科生和高中生组成的活跃社区。该项目有一个强有力的教育和推广计划，让研究团队与公众一起推动科学发现和沿海生态系统的保护。FCE LTER研究计划通过以下方式解决淡水和海水增加的脉冲将如何影响沿海生态系统动态：(I)继续长期评估沿淡水-海洋梯度的生态系统中生物地球化学、初级生产力、有机质和营养动态的变化，重点是这些变化如何影响碳的积累和相关的海拔变化；(Ii)评估水文压力和脉冲的气候驱动因素如何变化的气象研究，(3)关于淡水恢复治理如何反映生态系统服务价值变化的社会生态学研究，以及(4)使用高分辨率遥感，并结合预测景观规模变化的模型。一项新的实验操作将确定对咸水入侵的弹性驱动因素和机制。数据合成将逐月和年际数据整合到整个大沼泽地景观的水、养分、碳和物种模式和相互作用的模型中，以比较具有不同生产力和碳储量的生态系统如何对水文连通性的短期(脉冲)和长期变化(压力)做出反应(维持、增加或下降)。综合工作将使用来自国家和国际研究网络的数据，旨在了解慢性压力和不断增加的脉冲如何决定生态系统轨迹，解决当代生态学中最紧迫的挑战之一。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Coastal ecosystems like the Florida Everglades provide many benefits and services to society including protection from storms, habitat and food for important fisheries, support of tourism and local economies, filtration of fresh water, and burial and storage of carbon that offsets greenhouse gas emissions. The Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research (FCE LTER) program addresses how and why coastal ecosystems and their services are changing. Like many coastal ecosystems, the Florida Everglades has been threatened by diversion of fresh water to support urban and agricultural expansion. At the same time, sea-level rise has caused saltwater intrusion of coastal ecosystems which stresses freshwater species, causes elevation loss, and contaminates municipal water resources. However, restoration of seasonal pulses of fresh water may counteract these threats. Researchers in the FCE LTER are continuing long-term studies and experiments to understand how changes in freshwater supply, sea-level rise, and disturbances like tropical storms interact to influence ecosystems and their services. The science team is guided by a diversity and inclusion plan to attract diverse scientists at all career stages. The team includes resource managers – who use discoveries and knowledge from the FCE LTER to guide effective freshwater restoration – and an active community of academic and agency scientists, teachers and other educators, graduate, undergraduate, and high school students. The project has a robust education and outreach program that engages the research team with the general public to advance science discoveries and protection of coastal ecosystems.The FCE LTER research program addresses how increased pulses of fresh and marine water will influence coastal ecosystem dynamics through: (i) continued long-term assessment of changes in biogeochemistry, primary production, organic matter, and trophic dynamics in ecosystems along freshwater-to-marine gradients with a focus on how these affect accumulation of carbon and related elevation change, (ii) meteorological studies that evaluate how the climate drivers of hydrologic presses and pulses are changing, (iii) social-ecological studies of how governance of freshwater restoration reflects the changing values of ecosystem services, and (iv) use of high-resolution remote sensing, coupled with models to forecast landscape-scale changes. A new experimental manipulation will determine drivers and mechanisms of resilience to saltwater intrusion. Data syntheses integrate month-to-annual and inter-annual data into models of water, nutrients, carbon, and species patterns and interactions throughout the Everglades landscape to compare how ecosystems with different productivities and carbon stores respond (maintain, increase, or decline) to short- (pulses) and long-term changes (presses) in hydrologic connectivity. Synthesis efforts will use data from national and international research networks aimed at understanding how chronic presses and increasing pulses determine ecosystem trajectories, addressing one of the most pressing challenges in contemporary ecology.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.