RAPID: Influence of the Brood X Cicada Emergence on Soil Water Infiltration

2021年春夏，数十亿只X窝蝉将从土壤中钻出来，留下洞穴和出芽洞，这可能会影响土壤水的入渗率（水进入土壤的运动），从而影响地表水和地下水的量。目前对穴居如何影响土壤水分渗透速率的理解来自于具有局部穴居的单个地点，这可能限制我们对这些生物过程如何影响大尺度或区域水文的理解。通过在印第安纳州中部和南部的许多地方进行有蝉洞和没有蝉洞的水渗透测量，这项工作将促进对广泛的挖洞如何破坏土壤水文的理解。了解这种半罕见的蝉的出现（最后一次是17年前）如何影响区域水文，对许多环境科学主题具有重要意义，如植被用水、河流水量、地下水位高度和水质变化。这项工作也将为两名本科生和两名研究生提供宝贵的研究经验。研究结果将以手稿、会议报告、新闻稿和公共数据门户的形式传播。在本项目中，将在多个地点测量入渗速率，以提高对大规模土壤扰动如何影响区域水文的认识。在印第安纳州中部和南部的不同景观和土壤中使用便携式渗透计，他们将在两个尺度上测量蝉出气孔的影响：大孔尺度（例如，一个蝉出气孔）和多大孔尺度（例如，许多蝉出气孔）。这项工作产生的结果将提高对土壤扰动如何影响入渗速率的理解，这对水文过程（如地表径流、地下水补给）、水质（如农业水蛭）和流域管理具有重要意义。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。

In the Spring and Summer of 2021, billions of Brood X cicadas will emerge from the soil, leaving burrows and emergence holes that will potentially affect soil water infiltration rates (the movement of water into soil) and thus surface water and groundwater volumes. The current understanding of how burrowing affects soil water infiltration rates comes from individual locations with localized burrowing, which can limit our understanding of how these biological processes affect large-scale or regional hydrology. By taking water infiltration measurements at many locations in central and southern Indiana with and without cicada emergence holes, this work will advance the understanding of how widespread burrowing can disrupt soil water hydrology. Understanding how this semi-rare cicada emergence (last one was 17 years ago) affects regional hydrology has implications for many environmental science topics such as vegetation water use, river volumes, groundwater table heights, and changes in water quality. The work will also provide valuable research experience for two undergraduate and two graduate students. Results will be disseminated in manuscripts, conference presentations, news releases, and public data portals. In this project, infiltration rates will be measured at multiple locations with and without cicada emergence holes, to improve understanding of how large-scale soil disturbances affect regional hydrology. Using portable infiltrometers in varying landscapes and soils throughout central and southern Indiana, they will measure the influence of cicada emergence holes at two scales: the macropore scale (e.g., one cicada emergence hole) and multi-macropore scale (e.g., many cicada emergence holes). Results generated from this work will improve understanding of how soil disturbance affects infiltration rates, which has important implications for hydrological processes (e.g., surface runoff, groundwater recharge), water quality (e.g., agricultural leeching), and watershed management.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.