Eco-DAS XV Participant Profiles

Methane emissions across and within plant functional types in coastal and freshwater wetlands

Wetlands are the largest natural source of methane in the world and the methane budgets of wetlands are highly uncertain. The large spatial and temporal variability in wetland methane fluxes can be attributed to a wide range in physical, chemical, and biological conditions across wetlands. One source of uncertainty in wetland methane budgets comes from a lack of understanding how plant functional types (e.g., sedge, grass, reed, shrub, tree) and plant traits (i.e., root complexity) impact methane emissions across coastal and inland wetlands. While chemistry and physical traits in wetlands likely play a large role in methane cycling, similarities in plant functional types and genera likely lead to the development of plant traits that affect soil chemistry in similar ways across systems. In this meta-analysis we will address the questions (1) What role does plant functional type (i.e. sedge, grass, reed, shrub, tree) play in controlling methane emissions from wetlands?; and (2) Do methane emissions vary across plant functional types based on plants traits (e.g. stage of succession, root/rhizome complexity). Previous studies have attempted to address these questions, however, data from coastal ecosystems was limited in the past and meta-analyses focused on inland, freshwater systems. Here we hope to address this knowledge gap across coastal and inland wetlands.

data management, R shiny, omics, ecological modeling, modeling-experimental (ModEx ) framework

The Role of Microbes in a Changing Ocean

As human activities continually modify our oceans it is important to assess the impact of our actions. The ability of aquatic ecosystems to withstand disturbances and maintain ecosystem functions is being increasingly tested as rates of environmental change intensify due to climate change and other activities associated with human industrialization. Microbial communities perform key functions at the heart of aquatic ecosystems, and yet their behavior in disturbed environments remains difficult to predict and quantify. Here, we discuss the biogeochemical response to large-scale anthropogenic perturbations by comparing and contrasting case studies from ecosystems impacted by natural and synthetic carbon input from wildfires, oil spills, and plastics. We analyze how both chronic perturbations and drastic events can drive changes in the phytoplankton, prokaryotic, and viral communities. We highlight concepts from the field of ecology such as R-and-K-strategies, succession, resistance, and stability as they apply to current studies on these topics. We emphasize commonalities among the microbial succession that occurs after perturbations and asses the physiological characteristics successful microbes possess following disturbance.

Ecological modeling, knowledge of marine viral dynamics, phytoplankton ecology.

Linking limnology and oceanography using stable isotope analysis of amino acids

Compound-specific stable isotope analysis of amino acids (CSIA-AA) is a tool that has had relatively recent applications to food web studies in limnology and oceanography. CSIA-AA enables researchers to disentangle separate but interacting basal resource contributions of aquatic, bacterial, fungal, and terrestrial origin to higher-order consumers and has been employed in coastal, pelagic, and freshwater ecosystems. Still, despite the utility of this new tool, barriers to entry exist for new users due to high analytical costs and the complex multidimensional nature of CSIA-AA datasets. I am proposing to work collaboratively to compile a CSIA-AA aquatic food source database or dataset containing extensive metadata that could improve analytical power for food web studies while also lowering initial investments of time and cost for early career researchers. This database could then be used as a jumping-off point to develop future collaborative proposals to study basal food source composition along freshwater-marine gradients.

Data management, use of FAIR data practices, experience or interest in using CSIA-AA or conducting food web research, data analysis in R or experience with R Shiny app, multivariate statistics

Comparing climate change impacts on water quality of high-elevation temperate and (sub)tropical lakes and reservoirs

Global warming is a driver of shifts in the trophic state of lakes and reservoirs worldwide. External nutrient loading increase can lead to eutrophication and the growth of potentially toxic cyanobacteria, causing several damages to multiple uses, especially drinking water supply. Another driver associated with water quality that causes direct consequences on ecosystem services (e.g., water provisioning for drinking and water purification) is catchments’ land use change. Food web and thermal dynamics changes in tropical and subtropical freshwaters are expected to increase due to climate warming, however few studies have investigated the impacts of climate and land use changes on the Global South lakes and reservoirs. In the same way, the biogeochemical and water quality dynamics of high-elevation lakes located in the Western US have also shown changes in recent years. An important driver of change is snowpack dynamics which regulates thermal structure, mixing regime and primary production. In this study, I propose to bring together a team of limnologists to conduct a comparative study between (sub)tropical and US alpine lakes and reservoirs to address ongoing and future challenges due to climate warming, urban sprawl and agricultural expansion trough data-driven and knowledge guided machine learning approaches.

Remote sensing, alpine limnology, data science/modeling, ice dynamics

What ecological questions are most likely to benefit most from the combination of large datasets, modern analyses techniques and cross-disciplinary collaborations?

Increases in data generation give significant opportunities to researchers to extract more information by using cross-disciplinary expertise. Common types of data include time series, imagery, or molecular characterization, providing insight into spatial and temporal dynamics previously rarely captured. With more data, cross-disciplinary collaborations become more valuable and can help extract more information from large datasets. I am proposing to focus on what we can learn about ecology from large datasets provided by modern data acquisition techniques in combination with cross-disciplinary approaches. Examples include understanding patterns with signal analyses, the discovery of cause-and-effect relationships by causality methods and identifying organisms and organic molecules with classification algorithms and more.

Those who work with high resolution large datasets: omics, imagery, autonomous sensors and more

Hot spots and hot moments: use among research fields and application in aquatic ecosystem-based management

The wide distribution of the terms "hot spot" and "hot moment" throughout different fields, and the accompanying large scale of literature to synthesize the overall premise for this manuscript: many fields use these terms, but not always with the same context or the same definition. While the misuse of these terms in the field of biogeochemistry has been highlighted previously, literature within and outside of the field of biogeochemistry continues to use the term hot spot in varying contexts. Additionally, while the landmark paper by McClain et al. (2003) defined the terms hot spot and hot moment and proposed their application in management, it is unknown if management is using these terms appropriately and in the same context as primary researchers providing information to inform those decisions. The objectives of this manuscript are to A) synthesize the usage of hot spot and hot moment throughout the primary literature and summarize distinctions in usage among different fields and B) gauge the alignment between primary researchers and managers in their perceptions and use of these terms by surveying both types of professionals with the same questions. Recommendations resulting from this manuscript are intended for researchers and managers to streamline the use of the terms hot spot and hot moment for effective ecosystem-based management into the future.

Knowledge areas: Fields adjacent to, or maybe impacted by, contaminants. If you use the terms "hot spot" or "hot moment".
Skills: conducting surveys; data management; large datasets

Recommendations for utilizing multiple facets of diversity assessment to meet four modern conservation goals in our changing oceans

What does "diversity" mean in our oceans in a modern conservation context? For decades, one of ecology’s central challenges has been to understand the divers of variation in diversity across space and time. In the Age of the Anthropocene, this challenge becomes an emergency, and diversity has entered the broader societal sphere as a major topic of discussion. Human influence is radically reshaping many proposed environmental and ecological drivers of variation in diversity with undeniable consequences for global ecosystems. This is exacerbated in marine systems, predicted to rapidly undergo profound changes in community structure. The gravity of this situation necessitates bridging the gap between policy and classic ecological knowledge – leveraging the decades of research on marine diversity to focus conservation efforts and create science-informed management strategies. One of the challenges for this is a lack of consensus on what is really meant by “diversity” in the context of modern marine conservation. Diversity has many facets, each of which provides different information. I propose a discussion of four modern goals of marine conservation as they relate to biodiversity, and a consideration of three facets of diversity: phylogenetic, taxonomic, and functional diversity, and their relative effectiveness for addressing these goals.

policy, government or non-profit conservation efforts, phylogenetics/genetics/genomics, taxonomic or functional diversity across systems

Enhanced Sulfide Flux by Resuspension: An Underestimated Piece to Estuarine Hypoxia

A sparse literature indicates that sediment resuspension enhances oxygen consumption through the oxidation of reduced compounds, mostly sulfide in higher salinity estuarine waters. The sulfate reduction originates from anaerobic metabolism. Oxidation of sulfide is increased by resuspension by the increase in diffusion and advection, in the water column and sediment. But inadequate attention has been received nor quantitative evaluation has been supplied about the role of enhanced oxygen demand from this process. In this study, we will embed this process into a 3D hydrodynamic water quality model (SCHISM-ICM) and apply it to the Chesapeake Bay. This study will demonstrate the contribution of enhanced sulfide oxidation caused by resuspension to estuarine hypoxia. We hope this study will encourage field and laboratory measurements of sulfur cycling and its role in oxygen dynamics.

field observation, lab measurement, ecology, element cycles, habitat restoration

Minding the data gaps: Examining the parameterization of overlooked functional groups in ecosystem models

Food web and ecosystem modeling are important tools for predicting the impacts of climate change and other anthropogenic stressors on aquatic ecosystems. When using food web and ecosystems models, organisms are often aggregated into functional groups to simplify parameterization. Inevitably, whether due to lack of data or lying outside the direct scope or goals of the model, there are functional groups that are not well parameterized or are broadly aggregated which may cause the models to miss important interactions. In my own experiences, functional groups that are commonly underrepresented or under parameterized are shared across different styles of models. These groups, such as phytoplankton, microzooplankton, cephalopods, gelatinous zooplankton, and seabirds to name a few, are important prey items and consumers in most marine systems. However, the influence they have over food web dynamics may be lost due to poor parameterization. The project I am proposing would examine functional groups that are often overlooked or under parameterized in many food web and ecosystem models, determine how those groups are typically included in models and how that parameterization could be improved.

Subject matter experts: marine primary production, marine inverts, seabirds; data science/modeling; ecological modeling; aquatic monitoring

Physical impacts of glacier melt on mountain lake temperatures and ice phenology using remote sensing

Glaciers in North America have seen significant mass loss in recent decades, quantified by satellite remote sensing. Glacier melt is known to reduce stream and lake temperatures, limiting temperatures to potentially below 10° C during the summer season. An 18-year study between 2000 and 2018 showed significant mass loss of glaciers throughout North America as well as an increased rate of mass loss during the period of 2009 through 2018 when compared to 2000 through 2009. Glacier melt may buffer lake water temperatures from the impacts of increasing air temperatures. In areas such as the Cascades and the Rocky Mountains, rocky glaciers and debris-covered glaciers are plentiful, and being insulated from air temperature rise, these permanent ice features may provide additional mitigation from water temperature increases in response to air temperature increases. However, accelerating glacial melt is also reported between 2000 and 2020 in Europe and Asia, indicating that mountain lakes in other regions of the Northern Hemisphere may be experiencing similar, temporary buffering from warming air temperatures. With the permanent loss of alpine glaciers projected as early as 2030 in parts of the Rocky Mountains, lakes lose their resilience to increasing air temperatures, resulting in later ice formation in glaciated mountain systems. To understand how these glacially fed lake ecosystems

Experts in GIS analysis, statistical methods, remote sensing, glaciologists (anyone interested in the cryosphere, really), and limnologists

Comparing intrinsic biotic factors that affect dispersal of aquatic propagules

Dispersal – or the process of organisms spreading from one place to another – is a complex and difficult-to-study process that underpins the field of biogeography. Many aquatic, semi-aquatic, or water-associated organisms disperse primarily during their early life stage. These propagules include eggs, larvae, vegetative fragments, and seeds. Both extrinsic and intrinsic factors (and the interaction between the two) affect dispersal trajectories and species distributions. Extrinsic factors include water current speed and direction, the presence of predators or food sources, and environmental cues, such as temperature or salinity. For a Eco-DAS collaboration, I propose to develop a review paper that will focus instead on intrinsic factors, defined as biotic characteristics of organisms themselves that influence dispersal patterns through both passive and active means. Intrinsic factors include body shape, timing and location of spawning, swimming ability, growth rate, and sensory abilities. We take a broad taxonomic view and discuss fish, invertebrates, and plants from both marine and freshwater systems.

Collaborators with:
1. Subject matter expertise: inverts, plants, freshwater systems, behavioral ecology, sensory systems
2. Skills: Creating realistic timelines, experience with meta-analyses

Complex Biogeochemical Processes in Coastal Wetlands: Mechanisms and Models

Coastal wetlands are “hotspots” of carbon production, processing, storage, and transport. However, coastal wetland function has become compromised due to disturbances such as sea level rise, warming, eutrophication, and landscape alterations. As a result, the fate of carbon under changing environmental conditions (e.g., redox, microbial community composition, vegetation) is poorly understood. This is especially true for belowground porewater dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Microbial decomposition of DOC represents a potentially important process in wetland porewaters and the coastal carbon cycle, but there have been few attempts to characterize wetland porewater DOC source, chemical composition, and reactivity. Recent work indicates that wetland porewater DOC exhibits complex, non-linear patterns in production and loss that require statistical and modeling approaches relating environmental and biogeochemical controls on DOC reactivity to subsequent changes in microbial community composition and function. Here, I propose an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to developing best practices for handling large, complex, and coupled biogeochemical and microbiological datasets that may be used to predict the impacts of climate change and other disturbances on carbon flow in wetlands and other coastal or marine systems.

statistical and/or biophysical modeling; microbial ecology; metagenomics and other "omics" techniques; bioinformatics

Standardizing the use of eDNA for future aquatic biomonitoring and conservation in a changing climate

The rapid, cost-effective and low detection limit of environmental DNA (eDNA) has become increasingly popular tool in the fields of aquatic biology. The inclusion of genetics in aquatic research is progressing at a rapid rate, opening new research questions and findings, yet there is no standardized methodology in the collection, preservation, analysis and application of eDNA for ecologists to utilize. This creates many significant gaps around knowledge, method standardization, downstream pipeline analysis, reference libraries and applications of eDNA data. This can result in ad-hoc analysis and collaborations, as it can be suggested that many aquatic ecologists are likely not very experienced in the field of genetics. To address these gaps, requires the collaboration of professionals from various fields such as, limnologists, geneticists, bio-informaticists, GIS specialists. In this study I propose a largescale collaboration of various fields to assess the current literature and methodologies used, discuss and address knowledge gaps with the goal of creating a standardized methodology for eDNA in aquatic research.

limnology, oceanography, geneticist/bio-informaticist, GIS, phycologist, ichthyologist

Assessing the impact of and resilience to aquatic ecosystem heatwave events

Globally, the impacts of a warming climate reach across ecosystem types and affect organisms across all levels of biological organization. Embedded within this trend of gradually warming air and water temperatures are short-duration extreme heat events (i.e., heatwaves). These terrestrial, freshwater, and marine heatwaves are characterized by short term temperature increases much greater than the long-term trend which have severe and disproportionately long-lasting impacts relative to the length of the heatwave event. This project will synthesize the effects of aquatic heatwaves using long-term observational studies. Long-term datasets are critically important for tracking ecosystem dynamics over time and can be used to elucidate event-based changes relative to ongoing directional change. We will aggregate long-term aquatic datasets and assess the impacts of anomalous heating events on community metrics and/or ecosystem functioning. The findings of this project will have broad relevance within academia, but importantly they will also be highly relevant for management and conservation efforts through identification of the most impacted aspects of an ecosystem during an aquatic heatwave.

Data science and modeling, time-series analyses

Revising the functional group framework for bioturbating benthic fauna

Marine sediments are important sites of organic matter and nutrient sequestration, transformation, and remineralization, and fauna living in sediments modulate these processes with their sediment mixing and flushing activities (bioturbation). Bioturbating sediment fauna have long been sorted into generalized functional groups based on the style of bioturbation they perform, however it has become clearer with recent research that these categorizations are insufficient to completely describe the complexity of animal behaviors and their resulting effects on sediment structure and function. This results in a simplified, reductive parameterization of faunal effects on sediments being used in ecological and biogeochemical models, if they are included at all. The goal is to progress in constructing a new, more unified framework to describe and numericize bioturbation functional traits that can be utilized both by sediment researchers and modelers to better represent the diversity of ways that animal communities influence sediments. Sediment bioturbation research is far from the only field that struggles to adequately parameterize functional traits, and I hope at Eco-DAS to meet with researchers in other fields and collaboratively devise best practices that can be applied to a variety of systems for reassessing and improving the trait-based approach.

System & biogeochemical modeling, functional ecology, database science, Big Data

Developing a framework for integrative, wholistic marine science reporting

Despite ongoing, parallel research efforts—often in adjacent fields—a persistent challenge remains for marine scientists: to examine the breadth of research in their particular region, integrate it, and develop a wholistic view of their system.

Here, I propose that we would create a framework to integrate and synthesize interdisciplinary science to develop a wholistic view of coastal health and management recommendations. This would be especially exciting because it would 1) involve cross-disciplinary marine scientists who could draw upon their own experiences in sharing their findings with broad audiences, 2) provide a framework that could be implemented in coastal regions to clearly distill interdisciplinary scientific findings, and 3) meet a persistent need to “connect the dots” between scientific findings and see the bigger picture.

This perspectives piece would not require new data, though it would benefit from examining other, (un)successful efforts at integrating marine science findings via working groups, reports, symposia, etc.

marine and aquatic scientists with interest/background in coastal monitoring, conservation, and management; making nice figures, R/data management, ability to follow through with commitments

How does science support government to transition to a sustainable ocean economy?

The need to achieve sustainable development of our oceans as changes unfold is widely recognised, and is reaching the top of international agendas. Sustainability means meeting societal, environmental and economic needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Achieving sustainability goals could be supported through holistic, integrated governance structures that utilize evidence-based approaches to planning and management. Integrated management frameworks however are rarely used in ocean governance. Ocean management typically occurs in silos, sector by sector, on different temporal and spatial scales and with poor coordination between government bodies. As nations begin to decarbonise their industries, meet societal demands, and move towards a sustainable ocean economy, how can scientists support the transition? Australia is in the process of transitioning towards sustainable ocean governance and I am seeking collaborations with those interested to understand what scientists can do to support the transition; whether it be through an analysis of governance approaches, data science to support decision-making, feedback loops to support adaptive management, social science perspectives on needs or integration of indigenous knowledge based systems to facilitate co-management. I am keeping options open to maximize collaboration opportunities.

Those with experience with policy, economics, planning, sustainability science, ocean governance, climate science, management, or social science. Also indigenous researchers.

Tracking Aquatic Systems under Climate Change: Near-Term Iterative Ecological Forecasting

The occurrence of CyanoHABs introduced challenges for maintaining safe recreational aquatic environments and drinking water supplies. Early detection of the CyanoHABs in aquatic ecosystems with traditional field sampling methods is expensive, labor-intensive, and often not feasible to carry out in multiple waterbodies. Operational ecological forecasting is an emerging field that leverages ecological models in a new, cross-disciplinary way using a real-time or nearly real-time climate forecast to project near-term ecosystem states. Despite the importance of incorporating uncertainty into the future prediction of freshwater quality, near-term iterative forecasting is rarely used as a lake and reservoir management tool. The fundamental challenges in the implementation of this methodological approach are efficient processing and translating novel data streams into meaningful indicators of ecosystem state and change. The development of robust forecast systems requires comparing forecasts of the same variables across a wide diversity of sites, modeling approaches, and forecast horizons. Here, I propose an automated, probabilistic cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CyanoHABs) forecast platform for lakes and reservoirs.

Writing a convincing funding proposal
Strategies for job interviews and negotiations
Funding sources for early career scientists

What’s in the Toolkit? The Past, Present and Future of Aquatic Monitoring

Aquatic ecosystems are key providers of ecosystem services across the globe. They are also some of the most extensively altered ecosystems in the world, with drivers of change including land use change, chemical inputs, and climate change. It is therefore vital that we have the right tools to effectively track these changes and mitigate potential declines in ecosystem function. Current aquatic monitoring efforts are reliant on long-term monitoring datasets which require years, or decades of regular data collection in order to establish a baseline from which change can be detected. Recent technological and methodological advancements are paving the way for a new era of monitoring, one in which data can be collected remotely, with high frequency, and in a minimally invasive manner. This has allowed for earlier detection of adverse change and expanded aquatic monitoring programs into remote, inaccessible, and neglected sites. In this study, I propose to bring together aquatic scientists working in a diverse range of aquatic ecosystems, on different aspects of water quality monitoring, to review recent technological and methodological advances in the field of aquatic monitoring and make recommendations for a holistic, multidisciplinary aquatic monitoring toolkit incorporating existing strategies and datasets with emerging technologies.

Aquatic monitoring, particularly those working with new and emerging technologies/methodologies in oceanography, ecotoxicology, hydrology, fisheries and Arctic and Tropical ecosystems

Searching for new tracers to study climate warming effects on fishes

Climate warming is producing large impacts on aquatic ecosystems. Some fish species can adapt their behaviors and responses to the variation in thermal conditions in short term, but it is still unclear how they will react to long-term, complex variations in thermal conditions. One potential solution is to use a combination of chemical tracers (such as manganese and light stable isotopes) and biological tracers (such as vitellogenin mRNA, and heat shock proteins). As there is no comprehensive review of the current tracers of climate warming, the goal of this paper is to review the available tracers and discuss the advances, knowledge gaps, and current disadvantages of this field. Also, another goal is to discuss how the interaction of multiple stressors related to climate warming can affect the physiological, molecular, and ecological responses of fish, and how fish may adapt to severe climate warming pressures.

Ecophysiology, molecular biology, marine biogeochemistry, and scientists from other disciplines who are working on climate warming-related issues

Behavioral Shifts in Response to Non-Native Species in Aquatic Ecosystems: A Meta Analysis

Invasive species are highly influential in many ecosystems across the world. Analyzing how invasive species can alter the behavior of native species via novel interactions would impart new knowledge on why some invasive species are successful and persist and spread in new habitats (and others are not) and the conditions required for interactions between native and non-native species to develop. While there are literature analyses of various aspects of invasive species impacts in terrestrial environments, many of which are focused on non-native plant species, there are only a few studies which broadly investigate invasive organisms in aquatic ecosystems. Despite the importance of these effects, we know little about how invasive species impact behavior and interactions in newly invaded environments, and even less about these interactions in aquatic systems, more broadly. More important, these behavioral changes could show up in a larger ecological level, influencing lower trophic levels in the case of predators, or higher tropic levels in the case of primary producers. Here I propose a meta-analysis on our current understanding of behavioral impacts of non-native species, both the response of non-native species to new environments and the change in behavior of native species, focusing on aquatic ecosystems.

Quantifying variables, experience with meta-analysis, local invasive species knowledge (expertise not required)

Ecological consequences of surface water browning; creation of a global dataset

Surface waters, both in freshwater and marine ecosystems, have become browner over the last decades (=surface water browning), but how this change in water color affects biological communities and the functioning of ecosystems remains largely unknown. One reason for this is that many recent studies that address these questions focus on mesocosm studies, single-lake studies or studies conducted within a small geographical area, making it difficult to apply their findings broadly to regions affected by browning. Even though national monitoring data on water color and biological variables exists in most places, it is often not readily available for research purposes, as each country (and sometimes even each federal state) has their own monitoring program from which data is often only available upon request. Furthermore, monitored variables and how they are assessed is not standardized between countries, which makes it even more complicated to create robust, global datasets to test scientific theories, e.g. what causes surface water browning and how biological communities respond to it. I propose to collaboratively compile national monitoring data (biogeochemical and biological variables) of surface waters affected by browning to create a global dataset to a) provide a global overview of browning, and b) assist the future testing of scientific ideas and theories in this area.

Limnologists and marine biologists across different ecosystem types (boreal - tropic, lakes, streams, wetlands, marine), big data, data management, databases, contacts to national monitoring agencies

A remote sensing-based conceptual framework for indicators of biodiversity and ecosystem services in inland waters

Considering the current status of the biodiversity, there is an urgent need to develop a “fit-for-purpose” observation tool. This tool should be capable of assessing and monitoring how the community structure and function of inland water ecosystems will respond to the anthropogenic and natural drivers in a changing world. The global need to improve the monitoring of inland water ecosystems in which field validation of changes biodiversity must complement and support remote sensing products generated from various platforms at various temporal and spatial scales. This proposed manuscript aims to create a remote sensing-based conceptual framework of indicators of biodiversity and ecosystem services. These indicators will be used to improve the mapping of more inland water types and refine the reporting of the integrity of inland water ecosystems, better inform spatial planning, and improve monitoring. The idea of the conceptual framework is to use a combination of observations (remote sensing and in situ observations) which will be used for the computation of Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs). These EBVs will be combined with other environmental variables (e.g. land use, temperature, wind) to compute indicators of biodiversity and ecosystems services.

Limnologists - especially plankton experts but everyone interested on biodiversity.
Data scientists - to create help on creating EBV

Review and synthesis of algal stoichiometry across the aquatic continuum

Primary productivity is a globally important ecosystem function that couples the C, N and P cycles. In aquatic ecosystems, algal community composition and the distribution of physiological traits contained within that community are key to understanding aquatic primary productivity. One such algal trait is stoichiometry; however, little is known about how algal stoichiometry varies over space and time, and this uncertainty at the community scale has implications for understanding patterns of primary productivity at larger scales. In this proposed manuscript, I aim to leverage the interdisciplinary collaborations at Eco-DAS and collaborate with scientists with expertise across the aquatic continuum to review and synthesize: 1) spatiotemporal patterns in algal stoichiometry 2) the representation of algal stoichiometry in aquatic ecosystem models, and 3) if/how these empirical data have been incorporated into aquatic ecosystem models. We will then use this review to compare and contrast the emerging patterns and use of algal stoichiometry across the aquatic continuum. Finally, we will conduct a model experiment to explore the implications of informing aquatic ecosystem model parameterization using lab- or field-derived algal stoichiometric data, or the combination of both.

expertise in aquatic systems other than lakes (but lakes are good too!), community ecology, trait-based approaches, data assimilation, quantitative ecologists

Freshwater carbon cycling across scales: Expanding the ‘active pipe’ concept

Freshwaters are known to play a substantial role in the global carbon cycle, despite covering a small fraction of earth’s surface area. Freshwaters actively receive and transport carbon from terrestrial systems, bury carbon in sediments, and emit carbon to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) in what has been referred to as the "active pipe" model. Despite the importance of freshwater carbon cycling on a global scale, aquatic carbon cycling research has largely been done in isolated compartments focusing on a single process or type of ecosystem. The goal of this proposed manuscript is to leverage collaboration between aquatic scientists with expertise in different systems to construct an updated synthesis of the global freshwater carbon cycle. The aims of this manuscript are to: (a) Review current research to describe the mechanisms controlling the pools, transformation, and fluxes of carbon in freshwater systems, (b) Assess how carbon cycling scales across ecosystem properties (i.e. waterbody size, trophic gradient), and (c) Assess how carbon cycling scales across ecosystem types, and how this may impact our knowledge of global freshwater carbon cycling.

wetland ecology, tropical systems, carbon cycling, upscaling

Extreme and marginal habitats as analogs of future change for coral reef communities: Prospects and limitations

Coral reefs are one of the habitats most threatened by climate change. As scientists seek to understand how coral reef communities might function under future climate scenarios, they are increasingly turning to extreme or marginal reef environments as natural laboratories for testing how current species and communities behave under stressful conditions. Many coral reef species already exist in environments with extreme temperatures, irradiance, wave action, and other physicochemical factors. Such habitats, like reef flats, tidal pools, or volcanic CO2 seeps are promising natural laboratories because many species found on “typical” reefs are already inhabiting the extreme or marginal habitats, and assessing their physiology and ecology can reveal potential mechanisms of adaptation or acclimation to future conditions. However, certain aspects of these habitats are unique to these environments, and are not analogous to what species would experience in “typical” reefs. We discuss the prospects and limitations for using extreme or marginal habitats as natural laboratories to investigate future conditions. We suggest that certain biological processes tested in marginal or extreme habitats may be comparable to other reef environments, but more complex interactions arising in community ecology studies may not be truly representative of how future conditions will affect most reefs.

Population and community ecology, biogeochemical processes, physical oceanography, statistics/modeling

CART: a tool for uniting our understanding of climate change on aquatic ecosystems between the Global South and Global North

There exists a disparity in climate change research in academic literature between the Global South and Global North. This is in part driven by more funds being dedicated towards research and development in the Global North relative to the Global South. This economic disparity has led to a lack of understanding of the challenges climate change imposes on countries in the Global South, many of which are disproportionately impacted by climate change. This knowledge results in a lack of effective solutions to the climate change crisis and hinders the ability of countries in the Global South to mitigate and adapt to these changes. I would like to collaborate with other Eco-DAS participants to to build a Collective of Aquatic Research Tools (CART) to increase the representation of climate change research in the Global South by providing the scientists there with the resources they need to excel. Main goals of the proposal: 1) synthesize resources (opportunities like Eco-DAS and beyond) that scientists in the Global South could benefit from; 2) build an accessible platform (e.g. webpage) to list these resources; 3) blast out this tool on social media platforms, various list-servs, and any other avenues to better reach the global community; 4) revisit this tool on a regular basis to make updates and again share with the global community.

folks experienced with DEI initiatives; web development

A sea of stress: anthropogenic pollutants and stressors in aquatic environments

The modern era has been coined the Anthropocene for good reason – humans have never put more pressure on the natural environment. In many cases, aquatic environments disproportionately bear the burden of this pressure, as pollutant often are transported via and accumulate in water. Most laboratory and field studies only address a single type of pollutant at a time. Considering the diversity and widespread distribution of many different stressors, however, it is paramount to consider them in the context of each other. I would like to build a review that summarizes the suite of anthropogenic stressors that may be in aquatic ecosystems, to support multi-stressor considerations in future work. For each pollutant type, a discussion will include their sources, fates, compositions, global distribution, and general outlook. The types of stressors (e.g., chemical pollutants, climate change, biotic stressors, etc.) could be adjusted to enterprise on the expertise of Eco-DAS participants or reduced in scope to create a smaller publication (e.g., only covering organic chemical pollutants). Regardless, this work could present a novel and helpful synthesis for the readers of Limnology and Oceanography.

Climate change related stressors, biotic pollutants (viruses and other pathogens), atmospheric transport, modeling chemical fate

Microbial organic matter decomposition in freshwater and coastal regions

Organic matter content is one of the most important components determining the ecological status of water bodies. Microbial communities form the basis of the aquatic food web and provide a link between simple organic matter and higher trophic levels. Microbial communities can produce, transform, and degrade organic matter, forming a network of interactions known as the microbial loop. Therefore, changes in the structure and thus metabolic functionality of microbial communities directly affect the ecology of the entire aquatic ecosystem. Here, I propose the creation of a database based on the GTDB database of key functional genes involved in organic matter degradation processes, categorized by aquatic type, with emphasis on freshwater and coastal ecosystems. The goal of the project is to create a high quality functional database with comprehensive and validated genome and ecosystem data, containing the pool of functional diversity in organic matter degradation with environmental metadata on a global scale for broad application in future studies and interdisciplinary use.

Gene mining techniques, microbial ecology, limnology, data analysis, GIS, interdisciplinarity

A reappraisal of Odum’s approach in biological productivity estimates in aquatic ecosystems

Quantitative estimations of ecosystem functions are vital. Biological productivity is one of the functions closely tied to elemental cycling, e.g., carbon cycles and food webs. Modelling biological productivity in various ecosystems has been pursued by decades. The oxygen-based technique was first introduced by Dr. Odum, which is broadly applied into ecosystems from small streams to gigantic oceans. This technique relies on continuous observations of aquatic oxygen diel cycles. While all the applications bear identical ecology fundamentals, developments over the past few decades allow improvements specific to different environments. These improvements are reflected in many aspects, including numerical methods, observational tools, and physical or hydrological changes in water properties. I propose to review our decadal efforts in metabolism estimation models across various ecosystems. This review aims at consolidating ecological concepts and promoting further model developments. It may also help to refine material and energy flow between two connected ecosystems.

Observationalists that use autonomous platforms in marine and estuary, numerical models, oxygen cycles

Should I stay or should I go? The role of biotic indicators in assessing aquatic ecosystem health in the 21st century

Until the 1980s, water quality monitoring programs in the United States primarily relied on physical and chemical monitoring; however, using organisms as indicators of biotic integrity (i.e., biotic indicators or bioindicators) has since become a standard practice in the assessment of aquatic ecosystem health. One key advantage of using biotic indicators to assess water quality is that they provide a spatially and temporally integrated measure of aquatic ecosystem health. However, recent technological advances in auto-sampling techniques and water quality analyses have made it financially and practically feasible to collect temporally and spatially integrated physio-chemical measurements of water quality. Here, I propose to examine whether there are common attributes that predict the contexts in which biotic indicators are more effective in evaluating aquatic health than traditional physio-chemical measurements of water quality. To do this, the manuscript will review three to six case studies of water quality assessment that effectively utilized biotic indicators because physio-chemical measurements did not suffice. This paper will then synthesize knowledge from the case studies to present a framework that describes under what context(s) biotic indicators may be more effective than traditional physio-chemical measurements of water quality in assessing ecosystem health.

limnology, oceanography, aquatic resource management, sociological impacts, modeling, ability to stick to a timetable

How do different types of aquatic systems respond to extreme climatic events?

Aquatic systems (e.g., ponds, lakes, and oceans) are being disturbed by climate change-induced stressors that go well beyond a gradual increase in the mean temperature to include extreme climatic events that are becoming more frequent, intensified, and prolonged. However, our understanding of the impacts of extreme climatic events on aquatic systems is limited relative to the impacts of long-term warming and other disturbances. Understanding how these systems respond to extreme climatic events is important for risk assessment and ecosystem services management. A system might sometimes be managed based on findings from studies on different types of systems, which will be effective when they share similar responses to a disturbance. Nevertheless, different types of water bodies may have various characteristics, which can result in different responses to extreme climatic events. We currently lack empirical evidence of whether the type of water bodies influences their responses to these events, and this gap limits our ability to predict and mitigate outcomes of extreme climatic events using existing knowledge. I would fill this gap by conducting interdisciplinary research using systematic review and meta-analysis approaches and generating a qualitative network model that outlines the connections between water body characteristics and responses to extreme climatic events.

geochemical processes in aquatic systems; ocean systems; extreme climatic events; ecosystem services

Global synthesis of darkening lake and coastal water color and associated thermal response

Freshwater and coastal marine systems have been experiencing water color shifts from blue to green or brown in recent decades. These color shifts, referred to as brownification in freshwater systems and coastal darkening in marine systems, are associated with recovery from acidification, changes in climate (i.e., increases in precipitation), and land cover changes that increase nutrient availability and terrestrial dissolved organic matter (tDOM) export. The associated increase in light extinction due to this color shift limits kelp carbon sequestration, reduces phytoplankton biomass and secondary production, and alters invertebrate community structure. However, studies of water color shifts have remained confined to either freshwater or marine systems, thereby limiting the cross-system synthesis of these spatially heterogeneous yet global phenomena. Furthermore, inland and coastal systems have been warming in recent decades. Dark surfaces reflect less incoming solar radiation, so color shifts to darker surface waters may accelerate increasing surface water temperature trends. This study proposes to conduct a global synthesis of lake and coastal water color to characterize spatiotemporal patterns of water color change and how these shifts affect surface water temperature trends.

Experience with remote sensing and geospatial databases, including Landsat color band data acquisition and calibration.

All in the timing: How do phenological cues affect ecosystems across the aquatic continuum

In terrestrial ecosystems, physical factors like light, temperature, and precipitation impact ecological processes, such as the timing of green-up in forests. In inland aquatic ecosystems, however, the terrestrial landscape can exert additional forms of control over ecological processes, such as delivery of nutrients and availability of light. Thus, the timing of both seasonal events and the phenology of the surrounding terrestrial environment control aquatic ecological processes. Climate change is altering both the timing and duration of these phenological cues. While this is well studied in terrestrial ecosystems, there have been far fewer studies on inland waters. This proposal aims to synthesize current research on how climate change is impacting aquatic ecosystem phenology while providing a framework for explicitly evaluating this across different ecoregions and ecosystem types.

I am looking for collaborators who have worked with meta-analyses, literature synthesis, or large data compilations.

Quantifying Variability in Microbial N Loss Processes via an Autonomous Environmental Sample Processor-like Device or a Collaborative Network

Nitrogen (N) plays critical roles in biochemistry. N occurs in many different forms, from the abundant but biologically unusable N2 gas of the atmosphere, to inorganic ions like NH4+, NO2-, and NO3-, and organic N. These forms have widely different abundances and abilities to be metabolized by organisms into biomass. In the open ocean, microbial metabolisms are the main forces that convert one form of N into another. As a result, accurately measuring the rates of these transformations is essential to create an realistic budget of bioavailable N. Of the pathways involved in the marine N cycle, two are obligately anaerobic – the N loss processes of denitrification and anammox. These processes occur in oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) or in anoxic marine sediments (AMSs) and are measured during sporadic occupations of a given station by research vessels. Due to the financial and logistical difficulties in obtaining N loss measurements, the daily to yearly variability of microbial N loss processes is not well understood. This proposal suggests two ideas to address this challenge: (1) the creation of an autonomous sampler that could perform stable isotope experiments for N loss processes in situ for timescales of several months and then return the samples to shore for measurement on an MS. (2) The creation of a regular sampling program at institutes located by OMZs and AMSs.

Autonomous marine robotic vehicles / floats
Initiating multi-institution collaborations
Securing research funding through federal, state, and private foundation sources

Biophysical controls on Hood Canal hypoxia and its responses to marine heatwaves and future climate change

Hypoxic areas have spread in many coastal and inland waters, inducing large impacts on the health of aquatic ecosystems. In Hood Canal, an inland fjord-type estuary, the seasonal variations in dissolved oxygen and attendant fish kill events are well documented, yet a comprehensive evaluation of its biophysical controls, connections with the open ocean, responses to extreme climate events (e.g., marine heatwaves) and future climate change is lacking. Using extensive observations and the capability of a well-established hydrodynamic and biogeochemical model, this project aims to elucidate important aspects underlying oxygen depletion in Hood Canal, especially contributions from the upwelled nutrient-rich and oxygen-depleted waters from the coast, interactions between biological and physical processes, and impacts of more frequent extreme climate events. I would also like to project possible changes in oxygen under future climate change.

Biogeochemical cycles; Biogeochemical modeling; Dissolved oxygen dynamics; Marine Heatwaves; Earth System Model

How to best include observations in ocean models?

As an important component of the Earth system, simulations and projections of the marine ecosystem are highly uncertain. This is not only due to a lack of observational data and insufficient model complexity but also to the weak link between observations and model simulations. As a result, the goal of this project is to determine the best way to incorporate observations into ocean models, whether as calibrations, or model equations. To do so, we need to learn from what has been done so far, base our analysis on the existing examples, and further enhance the role of observations in model simulations. I am hoping that by combining the efforts of observationists and modellers, we will be able to develop an efficient procedure for when and how to include certain processes, thereby contributing to a better understanding of the ecosystem and its response to climate change.

Plankton experts who works in the field or lab; Biogeochemical modellers who interested in plankton dynamics