CAREER: Identifying primary and secondary drivers of cyanotoxin production utilizing the sediment record and paleolimnology

职业：利用沉积物记录和古湖泊学确定蓝藻毒素产生的主要和次要驱动因素

• 批准号: 1941568
• 负责人: Matthew Waters
• 金额: $ 64万
• 依托单位: Auburn University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-07-01 至 2025-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1941568&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Identifying; primary; secondary; drivers

Lakes around the world are experiencing the excessive growth of algae and cyanobacteria. The causes for these changes are not fully known. In many lakes, the cyanobacteria are capable of producing toxins (cyanotoxins), which can negatively affect lake organisms and human health. While monitoring programs and laboratory experiments have increased in recent years, very little is known about the cyanotoxin ecology and the history of cyanotoxin production prior to human disturbances. This CAREER award will analyze sediment cores collected from over 25 lakes throughout the SE USA and Mexico and used to reconstruct cyanotoxin production and other lake important ecological factors through time. Three timescales will be investigated including modern human disturbance (past ~100 years), pre-modern disturbance (500 to 5000 years), and ancient human disturbance during Maya occupation around lakes in Mexico. This award will also provide educational materials, mentoring, and training to students from high school through graduate school with a focus on students from rural areas. This CAREER award will test fundamental theories about state changes in lake ecosystems and the potential for early warning signs termed flickering by using paleolimnology to establish baseline conditions and past trajectories of cyanotoxin production in lake ecosystems throughout the Holocene. Unique experiments will be conducted using sediment-recorded historic disturbances of humans, nutrients, temperature and combinations of each to determine historic drivers of cyanotoxin production. A better understanding of cyanotoxin ecology during cultural and natural ecosystem change will improve the ability of forecasting models to predict how future climate, land use change, and lake management will influence cyanotoxin production as well as establish paleo-histories of cyanotoxin production. The establishment of cyanotoxins as a sedimentary tool could improve global paleolimnological investigations focusing on eutrophication as well as the monitoring of sediments for cyanotoxins. Finally, the measurement of cyanotoxins on Maya-occupied lakes could provide new understanding to the relationship between ancient societies and water quality as an analog to modern cultural eutrophication. A tier-mentoring system will be implemented to train high school, undergraduate and graduate students that will integrate various aspects of the project into educational curriculum including a study abroad trip to lake sites in Mexico, an undergraduate lab course on sediment analysis, and connections with high school students through classroom exercises. Results from this research will aid in the understanding, prediction, and impact of cyanotoxins linked to humans and lake eutrophication.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.

世界各地的湖泊正在经历藻类和蓝藻的过度生长。这些变化的原因尚不完全清楚。在许多湖泊中，蓝藻能够产生毒素（蓝藻毒素），这会对湖泊生物和人类健康产生负面影响。 尽管近年来监测计划和实验室实验有所增加，但人们对蓝藻毒素生态学和人类干扰之前蓝藻毒素产生的历史知之甚少。 该职业奖将分析从美国东南部和墨西哥超过 25 个湖泊收集的沉积物岩心，并用于重建蓝藻毒素的产生和其他湖泊随时间变化的重要生态因素。 将研究三个时间尺度，包括现代人类干扰（过去约 100 年）、前现代干扰（500 至 5000 年）以及玛雅人占领墨西哥湖泊周围期间的古代人类干扰。该奖项还将为从高中到研究生的学生提供教材、指导和培训，重点是来自农村地区的学生。 该职业奖将通过利用古湖泊学建立整个全新世湖泊生态系统中蓝藻毒素产生的基线条件和过去轨迹，来测试有关湖泊生态系统状态变化以及称为闪烁的早期预警信号的可能性的基本理论。将利用沉积物记录的人类、营养物、温度及其组合的历史干扰进行独特的实验，以确定蓝藻毒素产生的历史驱动因素。 更好地了解文化和自然生态系统变化期间的蓝藻毒素生态将提高预测模型的能力，以预测未来气候、土地利用变化和湖泊管理将如何影响蓝藻毒素的产生，并建立蓝藻毒素产生的古历史。 将蓝藻毒素作为沉积工具的建立可以改善全球古湖泊学调查，重点关注富营养化以及沉积物中蓝藻毒素的监测。最后，对玛雅人占领的湖泊中蓝藻毒素的测量可以为古代社会与水质之间的关系提供新的理解，就像现代文化富营养化一样。将实施分级辅导系统来培训高中生、本科生和研究生，将项目的各个方面纳入教育课程，包括墨西哥湖泊遗址的出国留学之旅、沉积物分析本科生实验课程以及与高中生通过课堂练习。 这项研究的结果将有助于了解、预测和与人类和湖泊富营养化相关的蓝藻毒素的影响。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。