Collaborative Research: NNA Research: Developing capacity for planning and adapting to riverbank erosion and its consequences in the Yukon River Basin

航行新北极(NNA)是NSF的十大想法之一。NNA项目解决了快速变化的北极地区汇聚的科学挑战。北极研究需要为国家、更大区域和全球的经济、安全和韧性提供信息。NNA增强了从地方到国际的新的研究伙伴关系，使下一代北极研究人员多样化，加强正式和非正式教育的努力，并在适当的情况下整合共同创造知识。该奖项通过在以下NNA重点领域解决社会系统、自然环境和建筑环境之间的相互作用来实现这一目标的一部分：北极居民、数据和观测、预测、全球影响和弹性基础设施。北极变暖正在导致地貌变化，影响着北极社区。河流和洪泛平原特别容易受到气候变暖的影响，因为永久冻土融化可能导致加速侵蚀。这种侵蚀威胁到关键的基础设施，扰乱了社区生活，有时会使整个阿拉斯加社区流离失所。然而，侵蚀对气候变暖的反应及其影响还没有得到很好的理解。除了危及基础设施外，侵蚀还会暴露出冻结的泛滥平原沉积物，其中含有包括汞等重金属在内的潜在污染物，以及营养物质和病原体，所有这些都可能危及水质和生态系统健康。通过影响社区基础设施和水质，北冰洋河流侵蚀是影响社会的多重问题的结合点。更好地了解河岸侵蚀及其对水质的影响，对于支持可持续的北极社区至关重要。同样重要的是了解区域适应能力、挑战和机会，以便将科学知识纳入可行的计划和政策。为了应对这些对科学知识和社会重要的多重挑战，该项目联合了来自育空河部落间分水岭委员会、阿拉斯加大学安克雷奇大学、加州理工学院、洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室、南加州大学和育空河流域三个受到河岸侵蚀威胁的土著伙伴社区的研究小组。该项目将开发景观演变的数值模型，以了解变暖的北极地区河岸侵蚀的速度及其对影响水质和社区基础设施的生物地球化学过程的影响。观测站将在育空河流域与伙伴社区共处的三个研究地点监测河岸侵蚀、水流水力学、水质和微生物生态系统。泛滥平原、河岸和水柱采样将与生物地球化学、同位素和后基因组测量相结合，以了解细颗粒沉积物、营养物质、汞和其他金属以及病原体的丰度、特征和过程动力学。该项目还将包括对区域适应能力的评价，以及确定适应的机会和体制障碍。自然科学和社会科学将结合起来，制定阿拉斯加原住民社区规划适应气候变化所需的侵蚀行动计划。以社区为基础的科学将加强这种合作努力，与我们的伙伴社区的教育活动将建立和加强对过程的理解。基于网络的模块将向公众展示和告知观察到的北极河流的变化、未来的预测，以及新科学与公民科学努力相结合如何为可持续的北极社区带来有效的规划战略。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。

Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) is one of NSF's 10 Big Ideas. NNA projects address convergence scientific challenges in the rapidly changing Arctic. The Arctic research is needed to inform the economy, security and resilience of the Nation, the larger region and the globe. NNA empowers new research partnerships from local to international scales, diversifies the next generation of Arctic researchers, enhances efforts in formal and informal education, and integrates the co-production of knowledge where appropriate. This award fulfills part of that aim by addressing interactions among social systems, natural environment, and built environment in the following NNA focus areas: Arctic Residents, Data and Observation, Forecasting, Global Impact, and Resilient Infrastructure. Arctic warming is causing landscape change that is affecting Arctic communities. Rivers and floodplains are particularly susceptible to a warmer climate due to permafrost thaw that can lead to accelerated erosion. This erosion threatens critical infrastructure and disrupts community life, including by sometimes displacing entire Alaska communities. Yet the response of erosion to warming, and its implications, are not well understood. In addition to imperiling infrastructure, erosion exposes frozen floodplain sediment that contains potential contaminants including heavy metals, such as mercury, along with nutrients and pathogens, all of which can imperil water quality and ecosystem health. By affecting community infrastructure and water quality, Arctic river erosion sits at the nexus of multiple problems that impact society. Greater understanding of bank erosion and its water quality impacts will be critical to supporting sustainable Arctic communities. Equally important will be understanding regional adaptive capacity challenges and opportunities to allow for the adoption of scientific knowledge into actionable plans and policies. To meet these multiple challenges important for scientific knowledge and society, this project unites a research team from the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council, University of Alaska Anchorage, California Institute of Technology, Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of Southern California, and three Indigenous partner communities in the Yukon River basin that are threatened by riverbank erosion.The project will develop numerical models of landscape evolution to understand rates of riverbank erosion in the warming Arctic and their effects on biogeochemical processes that affect water quality and community infrastructure. Observational stations will monitor bank erosion, flow hydraulics, water quality and microbial ecosystems at three study sites co-located with partner communities in the Yukon River basin. Floodplain, riverbank and water column sampling will be used with biogeochemical, isotopic and metagenomic measurements to understand the abundance, character and process dynamics of fine sediment, nutrients, mercury and other metals, and pathogens. The project also will include an evaluation of regional adaptive capacity and an identification of opportunities for and institutional barriers to adaptation. Natural and social science will converge to produce Erosion Action Plans that are needed for Alaska Native communities to plan for climate-change adaptation. Community-based science will enhance this collaborative effort, and educational activities with our partner communities will build and fortify process understanding. Web-based modules will illustrate and inform the public about observed changes in Arctic rivers, future projections, and how new science combined with citizen-science efforts can lead to effective planning strategies for sustainable Arctic communities.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.