Collaborative Research: Continuous Metabolism and Nutrient Uptake Across the River Continuum

合作研究：河流连续体的连续代谢和养分吸收

• 批准号: 1556937
• 负责人: Michael Gooseff
• 金额: $ 39.34万
• 依托单位: University of Colorado at Boulder
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-08-01 至 2019-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1556937&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Continuous; Metabolism; Nutrient

Rivers are the major pathways connecting the land to the sea, conveying water, sediments and nutrients. As water flows through river networks, the materials it carries are transported, stored, processed, and released in response to changing physical, chemical and biological characteristics. The goal of this project is to better understand how river systems process carbon, retain nutrients, influence ecosystem health globally, and ultimately support healthy ecosystems, both in the rivers and the water bodies into which they drain. One of the concepts upon which river ecosystem science is founded is that rivers change their characteristics and processing rates with size and/or distance downstream. This idea, called the River Continuum Concept (RCC), has helped organize decades of river research and management. However, while the RCC has been a useful conceptual model, it remains relatively poorly tested, which seriously limits the ability of scientists to predict how river functions will respond to ongoing and future changes on Earth. This work seeks to fill that important knowledge gap about how rivers function, and thus has implications for how humans manage land and water resources.One constraint to providing information about river function along the river continuum has been technological; we simply have not had the tools to measure these functions along river networks. A second constraint has been that the simple conceptual model of the RCC neglects key features of rivers, specifically that they are frequently impacted by discontinuities like dams and lakes, tributary confluences, and geologic divides. This project alleviates both constraints by coupling state-of-the-art water quality sensor technologies to new sampling methods in carefully selected river sites. Together, these advances are expected to provide new insights about the river continuum, the role of discontinuities in changing river functions, and ultimately about how to best manage and protect aquatic resources.

河流是将土地连接到大海，输送水，沉积物和养分的主要途径。 随着水流通过河网的流动，其携带的材料被运输，存储，加工和释放，以应对变化的物理，化学和生物学特征。 该项目的目的是更好地了解河流系统如何处理碳，保留营养，影响全球生态系统健康，并最终支持在河流和耗尽的水体中的健康生态系统。 建立河流生态系统科学的概念之一是河流以大小和/或距离下游改变其特征和处理速率。 这个称为河流连续概念（RCC）的想法帮助组织了数十年的河流研究和管理。 但是，尽管RCC一直是一个有用的概念模型，但它仍然经过相对较差的测试，这严重限制了科学家预测河流功能将如何应对地球上持续和未来变化的能力。这项工作旨在填补有关河流如何运作的重要知识差距，因此对人类如何管理土地和水资源具有影响。一种限制了提供有关沿河连续河流功能的信息的限制。我们根本没有沿河网络的工具来衡量这些功能。 第二个约束是，RCC的简单概念模型忽略了河流的关键特征，特别是它们经常受到水坝和湖泊，支流汇合和地质分歧等不连续性的影响。 该项目通过将最先进的水质传感器技术与精心选择的河流站点的新采样方法耦合来减轻这两种约束。 预计这些进步将提供有关连续河流的新见解，不连续性在不断变化的河流功能中的作用，以及最终如何最好地管理和保护水生资源。