9724766 BERELSON This is a cooperative research project between William Berelson of the University of Southern California and David T. Heggie of the Australian Geological Survey Organisation, Canberra. Funds will be used to support testing the components of new benthic chambers developed with research funding from the National Science Foundation's Division of Ocean Sciences while conducting research into nutrient recycling and denitrification in Australian bays and estuaries. The Australian research projects offer tangible benefit to the U.S. research effort. For example, they make multiple chambers available to conduct side-by-side comparisons, and they have analytical facilities and expertise to process many chamber samples. They offer logistical field support with research vessels and divers, and they are interested in conducting complex and expensive manipulation experiments such as labeled N spike experiments and N2 measurements. This will contribute to the development of the best device for use in shallow coastal Australian and U.S. waters.
