Research Projects

CEDB is participating in two research consortia funded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative funded by BP following the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and well failure during the summer of 2010.

The goal of this project is to produce a draft monitoring and reporting plan that is comprehensive, consistent and integrated across the watersheds from St. Andrews Bay to Perdido systems. A unified plan will aid everyone in getting the attention and funding necessary to maintain and enhance critical water quality trends monitoring. UWF’s role is to facilitate coordination of existing effort and identify gaps and discrepancies.

Through use of culture independent techniques such as next generation sequencing, the CEDB evaluates the microbial biogeography of the Bacteria, Eukarya and Archaea in the surface waters of the Pacific Ocean. Microbial communities are analyzed with respect to spatial trends and against recorded environmental parameters.

The northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico is currently being inundated by oil from the Deepwater Horizon well, with total releases now in the 40-60,000 tonne range. Oil has already impacted the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coasts, has begun to appear on beaches and barrier islands in northwest Florida and threatens the entire coast of the Florida panhandle, including Apalachicola area and its fisheries.

Oil and its constituents are primarily degraded by native microorganisms with abiotic processes being less important. Oil provides a high amount of organic material available to support bacterioplankton growth, the specific source of carbon, however may select for specific groups of bacterioplankton – shifting the microbial community structure which may alter other biogeochemical cycles as well.

This collaborative project will perform comparative analyses of the archaeal and bacterial communities in areas impacted by oil or oil dispersants. Samples collected pre- and post-oil impact from locations along the Central Northern Gulf of Mexico will be analyzed for their microbial community using culture dependent and independent techniques.

This project provides for monitoring of atmospheric deposition of mercury, trace metals and major ions in the Pensacola Bay watershed. 

This project focuses on primary production, particularly phytoplankton production because it directly supports higher trophic levels and oxygen dynamics because of the negative effects of low DO on many species.

The Florida Panhandle has suffered significant submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) loss since the 1950’s due to dredging operations (EPA 2007) and industrial wastewater discharges into local estuary systems (EPA 2005).