1. Research focus
In view of scientific questions with regards to the formation and evolution of the earth’s critical zone, the functioning of natural resources and ecological environment, and the strategies for sustainable development in the coastal region of the Bohai Rim, the research focuses on the following three aspects:
(1) Evolution of the structure and pattern of the earth’s critical zone in coastal areas under the influence of global change
This study includes the coevolution mechanism of climate, geomorphology, and ecology in the coastal area, and analyzing the historical evolution of the composition, structure, and pattern of the earth critical zone. The aims of these researches are to explore the formation and evolution mechanism of soil, biological, and freshwater resources in the earth critical zone, and to reveal the evolutions of key biogenic elements of the earth critical zone and their impacts on the ecological environment under the influences of global climate change and human activities.
(2) Earth’s critical zone processes, fluxes, and changes in ecological function
This study includes investigating the temporal and spatial patterns of key environmental elements (e.g., atmosphere, hydrology, soil, and vegetation) in the coastal region of the Bohai Rim to explore the processes of material and energy transport, biogeochemical cycle, and their occurrence mechanism in the marine-terrestrial interlaced zone. It also focuses on the influence mechanism of land-sea interactions on air environment, water and soil environment, and coastal water pollution and eutrophication as well as its ecological effect and restoration mechanism.
(3) Environmental protection and sustainable development in coastal areas
This study includes the indicators of ecological environment protection, water and soil resources utilization, and social and economic sustainable development in coastal areas. It attempts to reveal the relationships of the changes in the process and function of the earth critical zone with the sustainable utilization of water resources, agricultural development strategy, and sustainable urbanization construction. The regulation and control technologies of wetland purification, pollutant control and treatment, and water resource regulation strategies will also be developed.
2. Scientific research projects
By the end of 2022, including key and surface projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, key research and development projects of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and surface projects of the Tianjin Science and Technology Commission, relying on more than 20 ongoing research and research projects of the National Station around the Bohai Sea, research has been carried out on scientific issues such as the process and functional evolution mechanism of the Earth's key belt in the Bohai Sea region.
3. Research achievements
In 2022, researchers at the Bohai National CZO published more than 20 papers, including top international academic journals such as Environmental Science & Technology, Water Research, and Journal of Hydrology. Major research outputs include:
（1）Revealed that the sulfate reduction coupled methane anaerobic oxidation (S-AOM) process dominated the methane consumption in Tianjin Beidagang wetland, indicating that the sulfate concentration of surface water affects the sulfate reduction pathway of coastal wetland sediments (S-AOM and organic matter sulfate reduction processes). In coastal wetlands with higher sulfate concentration, the consumption of methane and sulfate by S-AOM is more significant, and almost all the upward diffusion of methane (96%) is consumed, which helps to understand the mechanism of methane production and emission in coastal wetland system. The findings are entitled "Sulfate reduction pathways and methane consumption in coastal wetlands" and concentrations affect sulfate reduction pathways and methane consumption in coastal wetlands, They are published in Water Research.
（2）The process of surface energy distribution and its control factors in coastal wetlands are explained, indicating that meteorological factors in coastal wetlands have strong interaction, and the interaction is more complex on the half-hour scale; Meteorological factors play a major role in surface energy distribution of coastal wetlands; Vegetation was stressed by salt and flooding in the dry season and the wet season respectively, which resulted in obvious changes in energy distribution of coastal wetlands, which provided a new understanding of land-air coupling intensity of coastal wetland ecosystem. The results of the research are summarized as Interactive impacts of atmospheric, soil, and vegetation conditions on land surface energy partitioning over a coastal wetland in Northern China, And appears in the Journal of Hydrology.
（3）Proposed a new mechanism by which molecular trade-offs drive organic pollutant degradation in biomateralized shell, and confirmed that nanobiohybrid changes the molecular trade-offs of crystal lattice oxygen and oxygen vacancy on mineral surface. Combined with highresolution nanoion probe (NanoSIMS) atlas and synchrotron radiation scanning transmission soft X-ray microscopy (STXM), It was revealed that the iron mineral content in the fungal shell was as high as 5%-10%, which provided scientific basis for the mechanism of fungi relieving organic pollutant stress in the environment. The results of the study are entitled "Molecular trade-offs between lattice oxygen and oxygen vacancy drive organic pollutant degradation in fungal biomineralized exoskeletons, "is published in Environmental Science & Technology.
