Collaborative Research: Whole Ecosystem Test of Restoring Resilience in Lakes

合作研究：恢复湖泊恢复能力的全生态系统测试

• 批准号: 2318567
• 负责人: Grace Wilkinson
• 金额: $ 61.14万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2318567&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Whole; Ecosystem; Test

Ecosystems are at widespread risk of losing resilience due to environmental changes from climate and other human actions. Resilience is the ability of an ecosystem to maintain its current state in the face of variability. The loss of resilience harms human well-being because it can lead to the loss of land and water resources. Being able to measure and manage resilience is essential for adapting to these large changes. The researchers will perform an ecosystem experiment aimed at increasing resilience to algal blooms in lakes. Algal blooms threaten drinking water, reduce tourism, and harm wildlife. The primary goal of the experiment is to test if resilience can be enhanced and assess the performance of three resilience metrics. This experiment will advance our understanding of ecosystem resilience, evaluate methods for tracking environmental change critical for policymaking, and provide management insight. The results and the evaluation of the resilience metrics will be shared with lake managers through workshops hosted by the research team.The research is not only applicable to lakes but could be applied to manage other ecosystems such as grasslands and forests.To test if light availability changes resilience to nutrient loading, the researchers will experimentally add nitrogen and phosphorus to two lakes to encourage an algal bloom. One of the lakes is highly stained and therefore has low light availability. The other is relatively clear with higher light availability. A third lake that will not receive nutrient additions will serve as a reference ecosystem. The researchers will measure algal pigments, dissolved oxygen, and pH at a high frequency to monitor algal blooms. Resilience will be evaluated with ecosystem models, dynamic statistical indicators, and mean exit time. These three methods for quantifying resilience provide a new approach to evaluating ecosystem change. The expectation is that resilience of algal blooms to nutrient additions will be higher in the stained lake compared to the clear lake due to lower light availability. To test this hypothesis, in the second year of the experiment the researchers will add a commercial dye to the clear lake, designed to absorb light. The expectation is that this will make the clear lake more resilient algal blooms from nutrient additions, similar to the stained lake. The results of this experiment and the evaluation of the resilience metrics will be shared with lake managers through workshops hosted by the research team.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.

由于气候和其他人类行动的环境变化，生态系统有失去韧性的普遍风险。韧性是生态系统在变化时保持其当前状态的能力。恢复能力的丧失会损害人类的福祉，因为它可能导致土地和水资源的损失。能够衡量和管理弹性对于适应这些巨大变化至关重要。研究人员将进行一个生态系统实验，旨在提高湖泊中藻类开花的韧性。藻类开花威胁饮用水，减少旅游业和伤害野生动植物。实验的主要目标是测试是否可以增强弹性并评估三个弹性指标的性能。该实验将提高我们对生态系统弹性的理解，评估跟踪环境变化的方法，对决策至关重要，并提供管理洞察力。结果和评估的弹性指标将通过研究团队主持的研讨会与湖泊经理共享。该研究不仅适用于湖泊，而且可以应用于管理其他生态系统（例如草原和森林），例如测试光的可用性，是否可以将弹性更改为养分量，研究人员会在养分上增加氮气和氮气，以添加氮气和磷酸化。其中一个湖泊被高度染色，因此具有低光的供应性。另一个相对清晰，可用性较高。不收到营养添加营养的第三湖将用作参考生态系统。研究人员将以高频测量藻类色素，溶解氧和pH，以监测藻华。弹性将通过生态系统模型，动态统计指标和平均退出时间评估。量化弹性的这三种方法为评估生态系统变化提供了新的方法。人们期望，由于光的可用性降低，污渍湖中藻类对养分量的弹性将更高。为了检验这一假设，在实验的第二年，研究人员将在旨在吸收光的透明湖中添加商业染料。期望这将使晴朗的湖中的藻类从营养量增加的藻类开花，类似于染色的湖泊。该实验的结果和对弹性指标的评估将通过研究团队主持的研讨会与湖泊经理共享。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响来通过评估来获得支持的。