Collaborative Research: Network Cluster: The Coastal Critical Zone: Processes that transform landscapes and fluxes between land and sea

合作研究：网络集群：沿海关键区：改变陆地和海洋之间景观和通量的过程

基本信息

批准号：
2012484
负责人：
Holly Michael
金额：
$ 207.83万
依托单位：
University of Delaware
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Cooperative Agreement
财政年份：
2020
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2020-09-01 至 2025-08-31
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2012484&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Collaborative Research Network Cluster Coastal

项目摘要

Coastal marshes are essential environments that preserve a fragile and highly valuable ecosystem. They are an integral part of the Critical Zone that regulates the conditions at the Earth’s surface and helps sustain life. Coastal marshes provide crucial services such as carbon storage and removal of nutrients and contaminants that would otherwise make their way to the ocean. Rising sea level is expanding these environments, but salt-water is also moving in, destroying woodlands, and damaging farm fields. Ghost forests and salt-damaged farm fields are stark indicators of these ecological changes along world coastlines that can adversely affect land use and economies. Less apparent, and perhaps even more important, are the concurrent changes in water and chemical cycling that are altering the functioning of the coastal Critical Zone. This research project will quantify the processes that occur in the changing coastal Critical Zone and associated alterations in cycling, fluxes, and storage of elements at the land-sea margin. The project will address important questions about how sea-level rise may alter the natural “plumbing” that occurs at the land-sea boundary and its implications with respect to coastal ecosystems. The results will assist decision-makers and stakeholders in planning for future environmental changes. This project will quantify the coupled processes and feedbacks that govern the hydrological, ecological, geomorphological, and biogeochemical transformations in the coastal Critical Zone and how rising sea level will translate to changes in cycling, fluxes, and storage of elements at the land-sea margin. Sea-level rise pushes salt and inundation fronts inland via storms and tides (fast processes) while gradually elevating the water table (slow processes). The complexity of the system, with its strong hydrologic transience (e.g. tides, storms), tightly coupled ecosystem and biogeochemical mosaics, and human influences, make functioning and response at the marsh-upland transition difficult to characterize and predict. The governing hypotheses of this project address (1) the major fast and slow hydrological drivers of coastal Critical-Zone transition, (2) the landscape feedbacks in which ecological change drives geomorphological evolution that feeds back into hydrological and biogeochemical processes, and (3) biogeochemical feedbacks in which salinization and redox shifts alter cycling, mobility, and sequestration of nutrients and carbon. These processes differ between areas where the marsh abuts forested uplands versus agricultural land. The hypotheses will be addressed through interdisciplinary field observations, experiments, and modeling that are fully integrated across three locations along the mid-Atlantic coast with paired marsh-forest and marsh-agriculture sites. The forested and agricultural sites at each location represent major differences in hydrology, geochemistry, and ecology, and are expected to respond differently to rising sea level. This project addresses pressing needs to determine how landscapes in the coastal Critical Zone may respond to sea-level rise and how Critical-Zone research can be applied to developing policies and actions to mitigate the effects.This project is jointly funded by the Critical Zone Collaborative Network, the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), and Hydrologic Sciences.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.

沿海沼泽是保护脆弱且极具价值的生态系统的重要环境，是调节地球表面条件并帮助维持生命的关键区域，提供碳储存和营养物质去除等关键服务。本来会进入海洋的污染物正在扩大这些环境，但咸水也在流入，破坏林地，破坏农田，这些都是这些生态的明显迹象。世界各地的变化可能对土地利用和经济产生不利影响的海岸线是水和化学循环的同时变化，这些变化正在改变沿海关键区的功能。不断变化的沿海关键区以及陆海边缘元素循环、通量和储存的相关变化该项目将解决有关海平面上升如何改变陆海边界自然“管道”的重要问题。及其对沿海地区的影响研究结果将帮助决策者和利益相关者规划未来的环境变化，该项目将量化控制沿海关键区域的水文、生态、地貌和生物地球化学变化的耦合过程和反馈，以及海平面上升的影响。转化为海陆边缘元素循环、通量和储存的变化海平面上升通过风暴和潮汐（快速过程）将盐分和洪水前沿推向内陆，同时逐渐升高地下水位（缓慢过程）。该系统的复杂性及其强烈的水文瞬态性（例如潮汐、风暴）、紧密耦合的生态系统和生物地球化学镶嵌以及人类的影响，使得沼泽-高地转变的功能和响应难以表征和预测。该项目解决（1）沿海关键带转变的主要快速和缓慢水文驱动因素，（2）景观反馈，其中生态变化驱动地貌演化，并反馈到水文和生物地球化学过程中，以及（3）生物地球化学反馈，其中盐化和氧化还原变化改变了养分和碳的循环、流动性和固存，这些过程在沼泽毗邻森林高地和农业用地的地区之间有所不同。这些假设将通过跨学科的实地观察、实验、并在大西洋中部海岸的三个地点与成对的沼泽森林和沼泽农业地点进行完全整合的建模。每个地点的森林和农业地点代表了水文、地球化学和气候方面的主要差异。该项目解决了确定沿海关键区景观如何应对海平面上升以及如何将关键区研究应用于制定缓解海平面上升的政策和行动的迫切需求。该项目由关键区域合作网络、刺激竞争研究既定计划 (EPSCoR) 和水文科学联合资助。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的评估进行评估，认为值得支持。智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。