Lter: environmental drivers and ecosystem state change in a coastal barrier landscape

Active Project Grant Awarded Last action

Award ID
2425178
Recipient
Awarding agency
Obligated
$2,275,000

Award facts

Assistance listing
47.074 Biological Sciences
Completion date 23% complete
Place of performance
Charlottesville, VA, USA

Award details come from USAspending.gov.

Description

As the agency reported it.

Abstract
This project uses long-term data to predict how coastlines will change in response to environmental change. Nearly half the world?s population lives on the coast. Even more humans depend on coastal resources. These resources are threatened by sea-level rise, warming air and water temperatures, and changes in the frequency and strength of storms and rainfall. The best way to understand how and why coasts are changing in response to these threats is to use long-term ecological data. This project will use long-term experiments and models to predict how future environments will affect coasts and their resources. The research will be done at the virginia coast reserve long-term ecological research (VCR lter) site. The results will benefit society by improving coastal management that will protect shorelines, increase biodiversity, and produce seafood. VCR lter research builds on prior research and addresses three themes that test fundamental theories of ecosystem state change and spatial ecology: 1) mechanisms and consequences of state change within ecosystems; 2) connectivity and coupled dynamics between ecosystems; and 3) landscape-scale dynamics of ecosystem function, synchrony, and stability. VCR lter research will identify biophysical feedbacks that either maintain or facilitate transitions in ecosystem states – including disturbance, recovery and restoration – and threshold responses to environmental drivers. The project will develop mechanistic models, calibrated and validated with short- and long-term data, and will use these to project state change. Additionally, the consequences of state change and cross-scale interactions for ecosystems attributes will be investigated, focusing on biodiversity, organic matter, nutrient cycling, and carbon sequestration. Collectively, this research increases the current and predictive understanding of how coastal ecosystems and their functions respond to environmental drivers. Cross-site and synthesis studies enhance the impact of the site-based research and contribute to broader knowledge on ecosystem transitions in response to long-term trends and variation in the environment. 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.- subawards are planned for this award.

Transactions

Action Obligated Date
Amendment $0
Amendment $0
Amendment $1,000,000
Original award $1,275,000

Subawards

Subrecipient Amount Awarded
Virginia Institute Of Marine Science Co‐PI Kirwan’s principal role will be to investigate the response of marshes and coastal forests to sea level rise at the VCR. Kirwan will participate in the… $83,600
Virginia Institute Of Marine Science Forest-boundary experiment An experiment will be conducted at the forest-marsh boundary to test feedbacks that govern the transition from forest to salt marsh… $83,600
Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University Virginia Tech’s proposed activities relate to Theme 3 (Landscape-scale dynamics) in the larger collaborative proposal. Specifically, our work and that of… $83,600
Virginia Commonwealth University This study will build on many years of continuous data collection by quantifying mechanisms of state change in the terrestrial component of barrier islands of… $83,600
Moravian University This research plans to extend the current data collection spanning several years by analyzing the mechanisms driving state changes in the terrestrial… $83,600
George Washington University (The) Keryn Gedan will serve as the wetland ecologist for the Virginia Coastal Reserve Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site. Her focus is coastal and wetland… $83,600
Trustees Of Boston University Salt marshes are migrating inland and replacing coastal forests as sea level rises (Schieder & Kirwan 2019, Chen & Kirwan 2022a, b). In VCR VII, we began a… $83,600
University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill Over the course of the 6-year project PI Laura Moore will oversee the work of a part-time research technician and a UNC-CH graduate student(s) who will: 1)… $83,600

Quick answers

Who received award 2425178?

2425178 was awarded to Rector & Visitors Of The University Of Virginia by Division of Environmental Biology (National Science Foundation) on June 1, 2025.

How much is award 2425178 worth?

$2,275,000 has been obligated on 2425178.

Which agency awarded 2425178?

Division of Environmental Biology (National Science Foundation) awarded 2425178, with funding from National Science Foundation.

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