DISES: Coproducing Actionable Science to Understand, Mitigate, and Adapt to Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms (CHABS)

尽管在改善全球水质方面投入了大量资金，但蓝藻有害藻华(CHABS)仍然很常见，而且正在恶化。CHAB可产生毒素，可使人和动物患病或死亡，损害娱乐机会，并威胁全球数百万人的饮用水和灌溉用水的供应。改善水质和减少CHAB对社会和健康环境至关重要。对这一复杂的社会环境系统(SES)的基本知识空白限制了我们充分了解问题、评估应对行动以及激励和支持变革性变化的能力。该DISES奖支持研究，解决营养污染在确定CHAB的大小和毒素浓度、促进农民集体行动、改善水质的经济效益以及改善SES治理方面的关键知识空白。研究人员将通过改进流域模拟和综合经济和水文模型、在SES科学和水质治理理论方面的进展以及通过支持CHAB决策的可操作知识改进SES的能力来解决这些差距。结果将为国家营养污染综合评估模型提供信息，所产生的指导意见将为受农业影响的其他富营养化水体的管理提供信息。这项研究将培养下一代跨学科的SES学者和实践者，包括两名博士后科学家和七名研究生和至少八名本科生。该团队将有100多名学生参加外展活动。开放科学框架将提供多个数据集，这些数据集还将用于开发CHABs SES课程，使5-12年级的教师和学生受益。课程将通过教学频道和达芬奇计划分发。CHABS降低了全球的水质，减少了基本的生态系统服务。尽管长期以来一直在努力了解这种复杂的SES并减少过量的氮和磷输入，但糟糕的水质仍然是一个长期存在的问题。对SES关键组成部分和相互作用的基本认识差距包括：理解氮(N)负荷和N、P循环在推动CHAB生物量和毒素浓度方面的作用；农民集体行动行为；改善水质的经济效益；以及如何改变SES治理。这些差距抑制了我们调整现有管理和治理方法的能力，这可能会使有毒的CHAB变得更糟。这一跨学科研究和教育项目侧重于推进CHAB SES科学，改进CHAB实用管理，并培训下一代SES学者，以帮助应对这一社会挑战。具体地说，这项研究将：1)促进对行为变化和SES水质治理的更具变革性的方法的基本理解；2)促进对N在驱动CHAB生物量和毒性中的作用以及N和P的溪流处理如何影响水质改善的时空分布的基本理解；3)改进流域和综合评估模型，以纳入对行为变化、N(除P之外)的作用、N和P的溪流转化以及水质的经济效益的新的基本理解；以及4)采用改进的综合评估模型，评估不同共同产生的管理和治理情景对下游水质的影响，共同产生可操作的与政策相关的信息和知识，并测试利益攸关方参与的方法在建设转型能力和促进改善SES水质治理方面的有效性。定性和定量的数据集、见解和指导、改进的模型和课程将被制作出来，并通过学术和非学术渠道广泛提供。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。

Despite large investments in improving water quality efforts worldwide, cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CHABS) remain common and are getting worse. CHABs can produce toxins, which can sicken or kill humans and animals, impair recreational opportunities, and threaten the supply of drinking and irrigation water for millions of people worldwide. Improving water quality and reducing CHABs is vital for society and a healthy environment. Fundamental gaps in knowledge of this complex socio-environmental system (SES) limit our ability to fully understand the problem, assess response actions, and motivate and support transformative change. This DISES award supports research addressing critical knowledge gaps around the role of nutrient pollution in determining the size and toxin concentrations of CHABs, the promotion of farmer collective action, the economic benefits of water quality improvements, and improving SES governance. The investigators will address these gaps through improved watershed simulation and integrated economic and hydrologic modeling, advances in SES science and theory for water quality governance, and improved capacity for transforming SES through actionable knowledge to support CHABs decision making. Results will inform national integrated assessment models of nutrient pollution, and the guidance produced will inform management in other eutrophic waterbodies impacted by agriculture. This research will train the next generation of interdisciplinary SES scholars and practitioners including two postdoctoral scientists and seven graduate and at least eight undergraduate students. The team will involve more than 100 students in outreach. Multiple datasets will be made available on the Open Science Framework, and these will also be used to develop CHABs SES curricula that will benefit teachers and students in grades 5-12. The curricula will be distributed through the Teaching Channel and the daVinci Program. CHABS degrade water quality and diminish essential ecosystem services worldwide. Despite longstanding efforts to understand this complex SES and reduce excess nitrogen and phosphorus inputs, poor water quality remains a persistent problem. Fundamental gaps in knowledge of critical SES components and interactions include: understanding the role of nitrogen (N) loading and N and phosphorus (P) cycling in driving CHAB biomass and toxin concentrations; farmer collective action behavior; the economic benefits of water quality improvement; and how to change SES governance. These gaps inhibit our ability to adjust existing management and governance approaches, which may make toxic CHABs worse. This interdisciplinary research and education project focuses on advancing CHABs SES science, improving practical CHABs management, and training the next generation of SES scholars to help address this societal challenge. Specifically, this research will: 1) advance fundamental understanding of more transformative approaches to behavioral change and SES water quality governance; 2) advance fundamental understanding of the role of N in driving CHAB biomass and toxicity and how in-stream processing of N and P influences the spatial and temporal distribution of water quality improvements; 3) improve watershed and integrated assessment models to incorporate new fundamental understanding of behavioral change, the role of N (in addition to P), in-stream transformation of N and P, and economic benefits of water quality; and 4) employ improved integrated assessment models to assess the effects of different coproduced management and governance scenarios on downstream water quality, coproduce actionable policy-relevant information and knowledge, and test the effectiveness of a stakeholder-engaged approach for building transformative capacity and enabling improved SES water-quality governance. Qualitative and quantitative datasets, insights and guidance, improved models, and curricula will be produced and made widely available through academic and non-academic outlets.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.