This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
A grant has been awarded by NSF to the University of Southern Mississippi for the purchase of instrumentation to expand faculty resources for ecological research and to improve student education and training. This instrumentation includes a CHNS Nutrient Analyzer, Nutrient Autoanalyzer, Automated Soil CO2 Flux Systems, and Portable Photosynthesis / CO2 Gas Exchange Systems. In addition, this award provides funds to purchase equipment infrastructure (aquatic mesocosms and incubators) to support the use and integration of this instrumentation into current research and educational training activities. The University of Southern Mississippi has a core group of faculty interested in the role and impact of carbon and nutrients on organismal biology and ecology. These faculty range from physiological to community and ecosystem ecologists, who focus on a variety of taxonomic groups including plants, algae, protozoa, fungi, bacteria, invertebrates, and vertebrates. This instrumentation will establish new and critical analytical capabilities for faculty to measure carbon and nutrient dynamics within terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Thus, this instrumentation will foster and strengthen collaborative interactions among faculty and students interested in quantifying carbon and nutrient processes and impacts within ecosystems. This instrumentation also will support the research, coursework, and training of both undergraduate and graduate students in the ecological sciences. Student education and training will be significantly enhanced, as undergraduate and graduate students expand their analytical skill level with modern instrumentation. This opportunity will help students integrate theoretical learning with hands-on practical skills, thus increasing their competitiveness in a demanding job market likely to see growth in environmental sectors.
