CAREER: Why Are Ponds Biogeochemical Hotspots? Examining How Ecosystem Structure and Function Scale with Waterbody Size

该奖项全部或部分由2021年美国救援计划法案（公法117-2）资助。池塘是小型，浅水和全球丰富的水体，提供重要的生态系统服务：池塘循环营养物质，过滤污染物，促进高生物多样性，并调节碳排放和储存。池塘生态系统功能的几个指标不成比例地大于湖泊，包括温室气体排放，生态系统生产力和营养浓度。池塘中的生物地球化学活动较大，可能是因为底层（底栖）水和表层（中上层）沃茨之间的联系较强，这一术语称为底栖-中上层耦合。本研究探讨如何底栖-中上层耦合影响池塘生态系统使用实地调查和整个池塘的操作，其中包括本科生，研究生和博士后研究人员的培训。该项目进一步研究公众如何使用池塘和感知水质，为建立适当的池塘水质标准提供信息，这些标准考虑到底栖-中上层耦合。该项目的一个主要特点是研究人员与公共机构密切互动，这些公共机构为公民的享受和生态功能而管理这些水生生境，水生生态系统功能反映了底栖和中上层生境中发生的过程，但缺乏一个将底栖-中上层耦合与生态系统功能相结合的框架。该CAREER奖将底栖-中上层耦合与温带池塘的生态系统功能联系起来，由于池塘底栖-中上层耦合的强度不同及其对整个生态系统操作的易处理性，温带池塘提供了一个理想的研究系统。该项目的重点是生态系统功能的两个指标：生态系统新陈代谢和温室气体的产生和排放，这反映了有机物质的处理。该项目的第一个目标是通过对具有不同混合制度的池塘进行取样，并建立很少、间歇或经常混合的实验池塘，将底栖-中上层耦合的强度和时间与生态系统功能联系起来。该项目的第二个目标是确定光照和动物群落如何调节底栖-中上层耦合，这将在实验池塘中进行测试，并将研究与本科湖沼学课程相结合。该项目的第三个目标是确定底栖-中上层耦合如何影响水化学和公众对水质的看法，其中包括公众宣传、本科课程以及与国家水体管理人员的伙伴关系。最终，我们将底栖-浮游耦合与池塘碳和营养循环联系起来的框架将有助于我们了解小型和浅水水体的功能，并预测它们将如何应对环境变化，如变暖、布朗宁、富营养化、该奖项反映了NSF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。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Ponds are small, shallow, and globally abundant waterbodies that provide important ecosystem services: ponds cycle nutrients, filter contaminants, promote high biodiversity, and regulate carbon emissions and storage. Several metrics of ecosystem function are disproportionately greater in ponds than lakes, including greenhouse gas emissions, ecosystem productivity, and nutrient concentrations. The greater biogeochemical activity in ponds may be due to stronger connections between bottom (benthic) and surface (pelagic) waters, a term called benthic-pelagic coupling. This research examines how benthic-pelagic coupling influences pond ecosystems using field surveys and whole-pond manipulations, which includes training of undergraduates, graduate students, and a postdoctoral researcher. This project further examines how the public use ponds and perceive water quality, informing the establishment of appropriate pond water quality standards that account for benthic-pelagic coupling. A key feature of this project is the close interaction of researchers with public agencies that regulate these aquatic habitats for citizen enjoyment and ecological functions.Aquatic ecosystem function reflects processes occurring in both benthic and pelagic habitats, yet a framework integrating benthic-pelagic coupling with ecosystem function is lacking. This CAREER award links benthic-pelagic coupling to ecosystem function in temperate ponds, which offer an ideal study system due to the variable strength of benthic-pelagic coupling across ponds and their tractability for whole-ecosystem manipulations. The project focuses on two metrics of ecosystem function: ecosystem metabolism and greenhouse gas production and emissions, which reflect organic matter processing. The first goal of the project links the strength and timing of benthic-pelagic coupling to ecosystem function by sampling ponds with different mixing regimes, and by establishing experimental ponds that mix rarely, intermittently, or often. The second goal of the project determines how light availability and animal communities mediate benthic-pelagic coupling, which will be tested in experimental ponds and integrates research with an undergraduate limnology course. The third goal of the project establishes how benthic-pelagic coupling influences water chemistry and public perceptions of water quality, which includes public outreach, an undergraduate course, and partnerships with state waterbody managers. Ultimately, our framework to link benthic-pelagic coupling with pond carbon and nutrient cycling will help us to understand how small and shallow waterbodies function and predict how they will respond to environmental change such as warming, browning, eutrophication, and algal blooms.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.