Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune Marsh Surface Microlayer

Critical military training and testing on lands along the nation’s coastal and estuarine shorelines are increasingly placed at risk because of encroachment pressures in surrounding areas, impairments due to other anthropogenic disturbances, and changes in climate and sea level. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) intends to enhance and sustain its training and testing assets and also optimize its stewardship of natural resources through the development and application of an ecosystem-based management approach on DoD installations. To accomplish this goal, particularly for installations in estuarine/coastal environments, the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) launched the Defense Coastal/Estuarine Research Program (DCERP) as a 10-year effort at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune (MCBCL) in North Carolina. The results of the second 5 years of the program (DCERP2) are presented in the DCERP2 Final Report. There were four overarching objectives of DCERP2. The first objective was to understand the effects of climate change impacts, including warming temperatures, variability in the hydrological cycle, storm events, and sea level rise on the coastal ecosystems at MCBCL from observations and measurements made over the 10-year program. The second objective was to understand the carbon cycle of the coastal and terrestrial ecosystems at MCBCL through a highly integrated sampling program. The third objective was to develop models, tools, and indicators to evaluate current and projected future ecosystem state changes and translate scientific findings into actionable information for installation managers. The last objective was to recommend adaptive management strategies to sustain ecosystem natural resources within the context of an active military installation. Measurements were made of sediment contained in the surface microlayer of water in the creek channel and marsh at Freeman Creek. The measurements were made to compare with the suspended sediment concentrations measured at Freeman Creek.美国沿海与河口沿岸地带的关键军事训练与测试活动，正日益面临多重风险：周边区域的侵占压力、其他人为活动造成的生态破坏，以及气候与海平面变化的影响。美国国防部（U.S. Department of Defense, DoD）计划通过在其设施内开发并应用基于生态系统的管理方法，强化并维持其训练与测试资产，同时优化自然资源管护工作。为达成这一目标，尤其是针对河口/沿海环境中的军事设施，战略环境研究与发展计划（Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program, SERDP）启动了国防部沿海与河口研究计划（Defense Coastal/Estuarine Research Program, DCERP），将其作为在北卡罗来纳州勒琼海军陆战队基地（Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, MCBCL）开展的一项为期10年的研究项目。该计划第二个五年阶段（DCERP2）的研究成果已收录于《DCERP2最终报告》。DCERP2共设定四项核心目标：第一项目标为依托10年研究周期内的观测与测量数据，明晰气候变化影响——包括气温升高、水文循环波动、风暴事件及海平面上升——对勒琼海军陆战队基地沿海生态系统造成的效应；第二项目标为通过高度整合的采样计划，探究勒琼海军陆战队基地沿海与陆地生态系统的碳循环过程；第三项目标为开发模型、工具与指标，以评估当前及预测的未来生态系统状态变化，并将科学研究成果转化为可供设施管理人员使用的可付诸行动的信息；第四项目标为提出适应性管理策略，以在军事设施持续运行的背景下，维持生态系统自然资源的健康状态。研究人员对弗里曼溪（Freeman Creek）河道与沼泽的水体表面微层中的沉积物进行了测量，旨在与弗里曼溪处测得的悬浮沉积物浓度开展对比分析。