This award will be used to acquire instrumentation for ecological research, including an epifluorescence microscope and camera and a bottom mount for an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP). These instruments will make it possible to target complex questions in coastal and oceanic environmental biogeochemistry, and they will enhance the undergraduate and graduate education and research experiences within TAMUG. These instruments are critical in supporting research on 2 major topics, 1) the biogeochemistry of monomethylmercury (MMHg), and 2) the establishment of a coastal observatory as a platform for undergraduate training. The new epifluorescence microscope will enable us to determine the bacterial species composition and locations of mercury methylation by applying in situ hybridization techniques in the water column and the sediments. The role of turbulent mixing for vertical distribution of particulates and contaminants will be determined with the help of the bottom mounted ADCP. These new instruments will allow us to study multifaceted aspects of biogeochemistry (e.g., Hg, phytoplankton, and bacteria) in more detail in a variety of locations including, but not limited to, the hypoxic area in the northern Gulf of Mexico, in Arctic estuaries, and in a small coastal bayou in Galveston Bay.
The new instrumentation will enhance the undergraduate and graduate training programs at TAMUG, where a coastal observatory for outreach and education is being established at Offat's Bayou. This observatory is being designed as a scientific methods and instrumentation training area run primarily for and by undergraduates. Approximately 40 undergraduates are expected to learn from the new instruments during any given semester; ideally more than 60% of the student population will have worked with the equipment on several occasions. The instrumentation will also facilitate important research on mercury contamination, a major public health concern on the Gulf coast. In addition, the instrumentation will help attract a higher caliber of undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral scientists.
