LTER: Scales of Variability in Ecosystem Dynamics and Production on the Changing Northeast U.S. Shelf (NES II)

LTER：变化中的美国东北部陆架生态系统动态和生产的变异规模 (NES II)

• 批准号: 2322676
• 负责人: Heidi Sosik
• 金额: $ 637.5万
• 依托单位: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2028-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2322676&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: LTER; Scales; Variability; Ecosystem; Dynamics

The Northeast U.S. Shelf (NES) is the region of the Northwest Atlantic Ocean that overlies the continental shelf from North Carolina to Maine. The NES has a long history of intense human utilization and provides an array of ecosystem services including shipping, recreation, conservation, and energy development. The NES also comprises a seasonally dynamic and productive ecosystem, supporting renowned fisheries, whose integrity is critical to the health of the Northeast U.S. economy. The NES ecosystem’s productivity is fueled by planktonic organisms that interact with each other in complex food webs whose structure depends on environmental conditions (e.g., temperature, light, and nutrient levels). These conditions are rapidly changing because of climate-change-related warming and human utilization. For example, the NES is seeing the largest development of coastal wind farms in the U.S. to date. Phase II of the Northeast U.S. Shelf Long-Term Ecological Research program (NES-LTER II) advances our ability to predict how anthropogenic impacts will affect the dynamics of the shelf’s planktonic food webs and their ability to support the productivity of higher trophic levels, from fish to whales and humans. Because the NES is subject to long-term challenges that will impact many people, the project emphasizes an active education component for helping to train the next generation of marine scientists and outreach activities to increase public understanding of marine science and technology. The project team conducts education and outreach via three main components: (1) training and mentoring for early career researchers from undergraduates to postdoctoral researchers in LTER research; (2) an LTER Schoolyard program that engages middle and high school teachers and students; and (3) public outreach through targeted events, the project website, and social media channels.Patterns of ecosystem change over seasons to decades have been documented in the NES, but the key mechanisms linking changes in the physical environment, planktonic food webs, and higher trophic levels remain poorly understood. As a result, predictive capability is limited and management strategies are largely reactive. To address these needs, NES II is targeting a mechanistic understanding of how food web structure and function responds to environmental conditions, natural variability and human induced changes. NES II combines observations that provide regional-scale context, process cruises along a high gradient cross-shelf transect, high-frequency time series at an inner-shelf location, coupled biological-physical food web models, and targeted population models. In addition, the research team is investigating how community structure and trophic transfer are impacted by disturbances including (i) the increasing prevalence of heat waves, (ii) intrusions of offshore water associated with increasing instability in the Gulf Stream, and (iii) offshore wind farms now under construction on the NES. The long-term research plan is guided by the overarching science question: “How is climate change impacting the pelagic NES ecosystem and, in particular, affecting the relationship between compositional (e.g., species diversity and size structure) and aggregate (e.g., rates of primary production, and transfer of energy to higher trophic levels) variability?” The investigators are assessing the extent to which the NES ecosystem possesses a biodiversity reservoir that is resilient to dramatic changes in the environment and that will allow the ecosystem to maintain overall productivity.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.

美国东北货架（NES）是西北大西洋地区，它覆盖了从北卡罗来纳州到缅因州的连续架子。 NES拥有悠久的人类利用历史，并提供了一系列生态系统服务，包括运输，娱乐，保护和能源开发。 NES还包括一个季节性动态和生产性的生态系统，支持著名的渔业，其正直对于东北美国经济的健康至关重要。 NES生态系统的生产率是由浮游生物在复杂的食物网中相互作用的浮游生物所推动的，其结构取决于环境条件（例如温度，光和营养水平）。由于与气候变化相关的变暖和人类利用，这些条件正在迅速变化。例如，NES看到迄今为止美国沿海风电场的最大发展。美国东北货架长期生态研究计划（NES-liRTER II）的II阶段提高了我们预测人为影响如何影响货架浮游食品网的动态以及它们支持较高营养水平的生产力的能力，从鱼类到鲸鱼和人类。由于NES受到长期挑战的影响，这将影响许多人，因此该项目强调了一个积极的教育部分，以帮助培训下一代海洋科学家和外展活动，以增强公众对海洋科学和技术的理解。项目团队通过三个主要组成部分进行教育和外展：（1）从本科生到博士后研究人员的早期职业研究人员的培训和心理培训； （2）一项涉及中学和高中教师和学生的lter校园计划； （3）通过有针对性的事件，项目网站和社交媒体渠道进行公众宣传。在NES中已经记录了几十年的生态系统变化，但是连接物理环境，浮游食物网和较高营养水平的关键机制仍然不足以理解。结果，预测能力是有限的，管理策略在很大程度上是反应性的。为了满足这些需求，NES II的目标是对食品网络结构和功能如何对环境条件，自然变异性和人类诱发的变化的响应的机械理解。 NES II结合了提供区域尺度环境的观测值，沿高梯度跨货架样带，高频时间序列沿着内架位置，耦合生物物理食品网络模型以及目标种群模型的高频时间序列。此外，研究团队正在研究社区结构和营养转移如何受到干扰的影响，包括（i）热浪的越来越多，（ii）与海湾流中不稳定的近海水侵入，以及（iii）现在在NES上建造的近海风电场。长期研究计划的指导下是由总体科学问题指导：“气候变化如何影响浮力NES生态系统，尤其是影响组成之间的关系（例如物种多样性和大小结构）和骨料（例如，基本产量的速率，以及能源转移到较高的营养水平）？”调查人员正在评估NES生态系统拥有的生物多样性储层的程度，该储层具有弹性的环境变化，这将使生态系统能够保持整体生产率。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用该基金会的知识分子优点和广泛的影响来评估NSF的法定任务，并被认为是宝贵的支持。