This Americas Program award will fund a two year cooperative research project between Dr. Ronald Gibbs, University of Delaware, Dr. Carlos Guerra, University of Belize, and Ismael Fabro, Chief Environmental and Hydrology Officer, Belmopan, Belize. The project will include two US graduate students from the University of Delaware as well as students from the University in Belize. The research will focus on harbor sediments and pollution, that pose a potential threat to the magnificent barrier coral reef off the Belize coast. This is the second longest in the world, and one of the most pristine, but its decline has begun because of increasing human contact, overfishing and sedimentation from coastal rivers. The most deleterious factor has been determined to be phosphorous in nature, which causes algal and planktonic blooms to cloud the water and prevent photosynthesis, causing the mortality of the hard coral..
The proposed study will investigate why the muds and toxic metals associated with them accumulate in the harbor. Measurements of river area salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and both the turbidity and the velocity of the water will be taken by the US and Belizean collaborators. These profiles will provide sufficient data to calculate a box model which will indicate transport and deposition of the muds and pollutants. A comparative study will allow the determination of the amount of pollution entering the river and estuarine environment and their possible source areas. The results of this project will benefit, not only Belize, but also could contribute to saving other coral reefs which are also facing disappearance.
