RAPID: Collaborative Research: Understanding linkages between nutrient quality and phytoplankton assemblage responses to COVID-19 stay-at-home orders in an urban, estuarine system

RAPID：合作研究：了解城市河口系统中营养质量与浮游植物群落对 COVID-19 居家令的反应之间的联系

• 批准号: 2039877
• 负责人: Maria Tzortziou
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: CUNY City College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-08-01 至 2023-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2039877&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Collaborative; Research; Understanding; linkages

In addition to health and safety concerns, the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had significant impacts on human behavior worldwide, from business and school closures to stay-at-home orders. As a consequence there have been unprecedented and precipitous drops in global travel for work, education, recreation, and other daily activities. The associated declines in fossil fuel consumption and pollution emissions have resulted in improved air quality. Reductions in atmospheric contaminants (particularly nitrogen, N) and deposition of pollutants must also be influencing nutrient cycling and impacting terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem processes. The situation has created a completely novel and large-scale "human experiment" in how sudden changes in socio-economic behavior and mobility patterns may influence the environment. To better understand environmental changes associated with the pandemic, this NSF RAPID project will focus on studies of coastal and estuary aquatic habitats, which are known to be particularly biologically productive and diverse. Researchers will measure key biogeochemical (nutrient) and ecological (phytoplankton, bacteria) metrics using water sampling and satellite observations of an urban estuary on the east coast of the US over the COVID-19 shutdown and reopening periods. This project will also train postdoctoral scholars and graduate students, including those from underrepresented groups in science, while enhancing the understanding of connections between societal activity and coastal ecosystems.Steep declines in the concentration, thus deposition, of atmospheric pollution (particularly N), combined with shifts in wastewater effluent distribution associated with the COVID-19 shut-down are expected to influence the biogeochemistry and ecology of adjacent coastal waters. Since the dominant N-form, and stoichiometric ratios relative to other nutrients, shape phytoplankton and bacterial community structure, sudden changes in nutrient amounts, quality, and source distribution in an urban estuary could translate to regime shifts in microbial assemblages and biogeochemical processes. The overarching hypothesis of this study is that the sudden decline in human activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic will exert considerable and measurable effects on coastal biogeochemical and physical water quality parameters as well as phytoplankton and bacterial assemblages. While this hypothesis is broadly applicable to developed coastlines worldwide, this study will focus on Long Island Sound (LIS) because it (i) borders the greater New York City (NYC) metropolitan area, specifically the commuting corridor between NY and Connecticut (CT), (ii) is heavily urbanized, (iii) was especially hard-hit by COVID-19, and (iv) NY and CT were among the first states to mandate stay-at-home restrictions, leading to surrounding communities drastically downscaling transportation activity. The research addresses three questions: 1. Have recent changes in human activity (improved air quality and concurrent changes in wastewater inputs) been associated with shifts in key biogeochemical metrics (C, N, P, Si) and stoichiometric ratios? 2. What are the corresponding responses of phytoplankton and bacterial assemblages? 3. How do these changes relate to shifts in bio-optical properties? To answer these timely ecosystem-scale questions, the team will measure key water quality and biogeochemical parameters, as well as evaluate the abundances and composition of phytoplankton and bacterial assemblages. Work will leverage regional water and air quality monitoring and past and ongoing water sampling in LIS. Satellite ocean color imagery will be used to scale-up observations from point measurements to the larger ecosystem.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.

除了健康和安全问题外，全球冠状病毒（Covid-19）大流行对从商业和学校关闭到全职命令对全球人类行为产生了重大影响。结果，全球工作，教育，娱乐和其他日常活动的全球旅行旅行中存在前所未有的急剧下降。化石燃料消耗和污染排放的相关下降导致空气质量提高。大气污染物（尤其是氮，N）的减少以及污染物的沉积也必须影响营养循环并影响陆地和水生生态系统过程。这种情况为社会经济行为和流动性模式突然变化如何影响环境创造了一个完全新颖的大规模“人类实验”。为了更好地理解与大流行有关的环境变化，该NSF快速项目将重点放在沿海和河口水生栖息地的研究上，沿海和河口水生栖息地尤其具有生物学生产性和多样性。研究人员将使用水采样和卫星观测到美国东海岸的城市河口的卫星观测，并在美国东部海岸的卫星观察中测量关键的生物地球化学（营养）和生态（浮游植物，细菌）指标。该项目还将培训博士后学者和研究生，包括科学中代表性不足的群体的研究生，同时增强对社会活动与沿海生态系统之间联系的理解。STEEP在集中度下降，从而下降，因此，大气污染（尤其是N）的沉积，尤其是N）随着与19日关闭相关的废水废水分布的变化，预计将影响邻近沿海水域的生物地球化学和生态。由于相对于其他营养素的主要N形式和化学计量比率，因此形成了浮游植物和细菌群落结构，养分量，质量和来源分布的突然变化可能会转化为微生物组装和生物地球化学过程的微生物组装和生物地球化学过程的转化。这项研究的总体假设是，由于199大流行而引起的人类活动的突然下降将对沿海生物地球化学和物理水质参数以及植物浮游生物和细菌组合产生可观的可测量影响。尽管该假设广泛适用于全球发达的海岸线，但该研究将重点放在长岛声音（LIS）上，因为它（i）与大纽约市（NYC）大都会地区接壤，特别是纽约州和康涅狄格州（CT）之间的通勤走廊（CT） ，（ii）被严重的城市化，（iii）在Covid-19中受到了特别严重的打击，并且（IV）纽约和CT是最早施加全职限制的州之一。该研究解决了三个问题：1。最近的人类活动变化（改善空气质量和废水输入的同时变化）与关键的生物地球化学指标（C，N，P，SI）的转移以及石学比率有关吗？ 2。浮游植物和细菌组合的相应反应是什么？ 3。这些变化与生物光学特性的变化有何关系？为了回答这些及时的生态系统规模的问题，团队将测量关键的水质和生物地球化学参数，并评估浮游植物和细菌组合的丰度和组成。工作将利用区域性水和空气质量监测以及LIS的过去和持续水采样。卫星海洋颜色图像将用于从点测量到较大的生态系统扩大观察结果。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的审查标准，认为通过评估值得支持。

项目成果

The influences of phenology, spatial distribution, and nitrogen form on Long Island Sound phytoplankton biomass and taxonomic composition

物候、空间分布和氮形态对长岛湾浮游植物生物量和分类组成的影响

• DOI: 10.1016/j.ecss.2023.108451
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Coastal and Shelf Science
• 作者: Roldan Ayala, Zabdiel;Arnott, Stephen A.;Ambrosone, Mariapaola;Espinosa, Jessica I.;Humphries, Georgie E.;Tzortziou, Maria;Goes, Joaquim I.;Greenfield, Dianne I.
• 通讯作者: Greenfield, Dianne I.