Collaborative Research: In Situ Investigations and Historical Analysis of Eddy Impacts on coastal carbon chemistry and coral calcification

中尺度涡旋，通常被称为海洋的“天气”，是海洋中的高能循环流，可以加强更深沃茨的上升流或表面沃茨的下降流。这反过来又会导致水的化学和物理性质发生变化，从而改变营养物质的可用性和初级生产率、海洋表面的pH值、温度和盐度。沿着中纬度的墨西哥湾流，涡流频率很高，许多通过马尾藻海过境。虽然对涡流物理学及其对公海生物地球化学的影响进行了广泛的研究，但对涡流对沿海生物地球化学的影响，特别是涡流对浅水暖水珊瑚礁的影响的研究有限。鉴于珊瑚礁因人为变化而面临的压力越来越大，了解漩涡如何复合或减轻这种压力变得越来越重要。在这个项目中，来自两个机构的三名研究人员及其本科生和研究生将调查中尺度漩涡对百慕大浅水珊瑚礁的影响，百慕大是一个珊瑚礁环绕的岛屿，位于马尾藻海的中心。此外，从该提案中获得的技能和知识将通过STEM管道由一些高中学生和教师的教育计划转移，并通过两个机构的本科研究机会转移。 拟议的研究有三个具体的目标，旨在提高目前的理解的作用漩涡在珊瑚礁地球化学。(i)涡流活动是否影响海岸附近的水的性质，包括温度、营养物质的有效性和碳化学？(ii)水的性质变化如何影响珊瑚钙化？(iii)可以在珊瑚骨骼档案中追踪已确定的海水变化，以追踪过去的涡流活动吗？这项研究将进行海水剖面沿着边缘礁研究网站进行比较，在百慕大大西洋时间序列研究（BATS）和水文站S网站类似的定时配置文件，以了解如何涡驱动的变化从近海传播到岸上。将在百慕大南部海岸边缘珊瑚礁部署现场水取样器和传感器，以研究沿海涡流对环境条件的影响，并将利用孵化室调查这些条件如何影响珊瑚礁形成的主要过程，即珊瑚钙化。此外，本发明还提供了一种方法，将对BATS和Hydrostation S的历史数据进行分析，以确定高涡流活动的年份，从而调查这些年份BATS的物理条件和碳循环的变化，并将其与珊瑚古化学的最新记录进行比较，以确定过去重建的替代记录中的涡流影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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。

Mesoscale eddies, often referred to as the “weather” of the ocean, are energetic circulating currents in the ocean that can intensify upwelling of deeper waters or downwelling of surface waters. This in turn leads to changes in water chemistry and physical properties that can alter nutrient availability and rates of primary production, surface ocean pH, temperature, and salinity. Along the Gulf Stream in the mid-latitudes, eddy frequency is high with many transiting through the Sargasso Sea. While extensive research has been conducted on eddy physics and their impact on open-ocean biogeochemistry, there has been limited research on the impacts of eddies on coastal biogeochemistry, and, in particular, the effect of eddies on shallow warm-water coral reefs. Given the increasing stress coral reefs are facing due to anthropogenic changes, understanding how eddies may compound or relieve this stress is becoming increasingly important. In this project, three researchers from two institutions together with their undergraduate and graduate students will investigate the effect of mesoscale eddies on shallow water coral reefs in Bermuda, a coral reef surrounded island situated in the heart of the Sargasso Sea. Furthermore, the skills and knowledge gained from this proposal will be transferred through the STEM pipeline by a number of educational programs for high school students and teachers, and through undergraduate research opportunities at both institutions. The proposed research has three specific objectives that aim to improve current understanding of the role eddies play in reef biogeochemistry. (i) Does eddy activity affect water properties near shore, including temperature, nutrient availability, and carbon chemistry? (ii) How do the changes in water properties affect coral calcification? (iii) Can identified seawater changes be traced in coral skeleton archives to trace past eddy activity? This research will conduct sea water profiling along the rim reef study site to compare to similarly timed profiles at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) and Hydrostation S sites to understand how eddy driven changes propagate from offshore to onshore. In-situ water samplers and sensors will be deployed in Bermuda’s south shore rim reefs to study the impact of coastal eddies on the environmental conditions, and incubation chambers will be utilized to investigate how these conditions affect the primary process of reef formation, namely coral calcification. In addition, historical data from BATS and Hydrostation S occupations will be analyzed to identify years of high eddy activity to investigate changes to both the physical conditions and the carbon cycle at BATS in those years and compare them to recent records of coral paleo chemistry to identify eddy impacts in the proxy record for past reconstructions.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.