NSF Award
2401066
The CREST Postdoctoral Research Program (CREST-PRP) provides two years of support for research, training, and mentoring experiences for individual early career scientists at active CREST Centers. The goal of the CREST-PRP is to increase the STEM workforce presence of individuals who are members of groups underrepresented in STEM fields. CREST-PRP awards recognize investigators with significant potential and support their research experiences to broaden their perspectives, facilitate interdisciplinary interactions, and prepare CREST-PRP scholars for positions of leadership within the scientific community. The research project “CREST-PRP: Exploring the Impact of Heat-Waves and Nutrients on Bloom-Forming and Habitat-Building Seaweeds Along the South Florida Coast” is in direct alignment with the CREST-PRP goals. Submitted by a postdoctoral researcher affiliated with the CREST Center for Aquatic Chemistry and the Environment (CAChE) at Florida International University, the project will investigate the impact of climate change and nutrient contamination along the South Florida coast by exploring the role of heat waves and nutrients on bloom-forming and habitat-building seaweeds regionally. Seaweeds are a diverse group of primary producers that are critical to the health and prosperity of marine ecosystems. This project will be important in helping predict how this combination of stressors will increase the presence of certain seaweeds that affect the ecosystems they inhabit, like coral reefs and seagrass beds. The effects of climate change and pollution conditions on seaweeds will be studied with field and experimental approaches, thus advancing our understanding of these impacts. Additionally, this project will provide direct educational and research opportunities to Florida International University students, thus promoting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education amongst underrepresented students. These students will be recruited for retention into FIU graduate programs, enhancing support for successful minority students in STEM careers. Data will be made available to educate members of the public about the direct impact of changes in water quality on quality of life, ecosystem response, and the loss of coral reefs.<br/><br/>This project will investigate the effects of heat waves and increased nutrients on bloom-forming and keystone algal species found on reefs in South Florida in an effort to understand how these changes may jeopardize the aquatic environment and affect human welfare. The stoichiometry ratios of stable carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous (C:N:P) in multiple algal species will be analyzed in situ along an urbanization corridor adjacent to nearshore coral reefs and across all seasons. In addition, the study will attempt to detect environmental thresholds for a variety of algal species and functional groups by cultivating seaweeds in laboratory mesocosms and subjecting them to varying nutrient and temperature regimes, measuring algal photosynthetic response to simulated heat waves and determining how the metabolism of nutrients varies across nutrient and temperature gradients. Seaweeds studied will include multi-species communities of algae, and representatives from all four major seaweed clades (Bangiophyceae, Florideophyceae, Phaeophyceae, and Ulvophyceae), addressing how increasing temperature and nutrients affect broad communities of seaweeds, including those of turf algae and crustose coralline algae. Field samples will also be collected and preserved as herbarium specimens (deposited at FIU with photographic scans and metadata uploaded to the online Macroalgal Herbarium Portal), with replicate C:N:P ratios determined after varying preservation times, thus providing initial data necessary to expand surveys of historical herbarium samples. The research will expand upon prior results which showed that just 5% of macroalgal genera are responsible for 50% of global seaweed biodiversity, and that this subset of are significantly positively correlated with increasing sea surface temperatures, and thus more likely to expand during expected climate change scenarios.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
