(Ocean Springs, Mississippi) – The Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium (MASGC) has recommended five research projects for funding as part of its 2024-2025 funding cycle. The selected university-based projects aim to help people, policymakers, industries and resource managers make decisions that lead to the responsible use of ocean and coastal resources in Alabama, Mississippi, the Gulf of America region and the nation.
MASGC strategically focuses its programs in the areas of environmental literacy and workforce development, healthy coastal ecosystems, resilient communities and economies, and sustainable fisheries and aquaculture.
“The Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium is an outcome-driven program that relies on a steady stream of high-quality and relevant scientific research,” MASGC Director LaDon Swann said. “We conducted technical and relevance reviews for many good research proposals and were able to recommend five projects for funding that will address high-priority needs in our focus areas.”
The projects selected include the following:
Creating resilient oysters for reef restoration and assessing disease infection rates. $303,226. Research team includes Benjamin Belgrad (project lead), Dauphin Island Sea Lab; Delbert Smee, Dauphin Island Sea Lab and University of South Alabama; and Andrea Tarnecki, Auburn Shellfish Laboratory.
This project will address questions that are important for the success of oyster restoration. Scientists will determine how common the oyster disease-causing protozoan parasite Perkinsus marinus is in oysters within Alabama and Mississippi coastal waters. They also will test a new way of growing oysters with predator cues and discover if this technique increases an oyster’s likelihood to get infected with the pathogen. Researchers will study how normally grown oysters and oysters exposed to predator cues grow and survive along the Mississippi and Alabama coasts and identify areas where the oysters survive best. Working with state agencies and local oyster farmers, scientists will share their results and offer best practices for restoring oyster populations and growing oysters on farms. Citizen scientists and high school students will be included in this research to raise their awareness of environmental issues and develop aquaculture skills.
Pollution exposure: Examining the relationship between onsite wastewater system (OWTS) prevalence and water contamination. $305,944. Research team includes Stephanie Rogers (project lead), Jake Nelson, Ann Ojeda and Natalia Malina, Auburn University.
This research team will build a database of the locations of onsite wastewater treatment systems in Alabama and Mississippi’s five coastal counties. One prominent type of onsite wastewater treatment systems is a septic system. In areas lacking septic system location data, the group will generate a model that will predict septic system density in coastal locations where density is unknown. They will also develop and test the accuracy of a pollution potential model that will predict areas of high septic system failure risk based on environmental, climatic and septic system criteria (for example, slope of terrain, precipitation amounts, storm surge and age of systems). The team will test the model using targeted water quality sampling strategies and lab analysis. The creation of this model will provide a critical first step in understanding where the environment and surrounding communities might be at risk of contaminant exposure from septic systems now and into the future. The project results will provide a mechanism to identify communities that face social and or economic burdens that make them more vulnerable to septic system pollution outcomes. The researchers will work closely with an advisory committee made up of local government, extension and research entities to ensure project relevance for local stakeholders.
Infrastructure integrity assessment of floating cage oyster farms in the Northern Gulf of America. $298,160. Research team includes Shenghua Wu (project lead) and Zhilong Liu, University of South Alabama; and Brian Dzwonkowski, Dauphin Island Sea Lab and University of South Alabama.
This research team will create a computer model to imitate how floating cage oyster farms respond to wind, waves, water level and current during tropical storms and hurricanes. The model will consider mooring systems, farm layout, cage location (floating or sunken during storms) and other factors to analyze farm resistance to severe conditions. Scientists will use their model to run different scenarios and study the results to make recommendations to minimize economic losses on farms and improve design specifications, such as line spacing, orientation, anchoring systems, and sinking and refloating cages.
Predicting impacts of changing temperatures on blue crab growth, size at maturity, and reproductive output. $278,238. Research team includes M. Zachary Darnell, The University of Southern Mississippi.
This project will explore how water temperature affects blue crab growth and will develop a temperature-dependent molt-process model that predicts impacts of temperature change on the growth process. Scientists will determine the relationship between size at maturity and reproductive output over the female lifespan. Using their model, researchers will run computer simulations to show how crab growth, age and size at maturity, and lifetime reproduction might change under different temperature conditions. These simulations will lend insight into the potential impacts of temperature changes on blue crab populations and may help inform resource management and stock assessment.
This Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant research funding comes from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through the National Sea Grant College Program. Project award amounts include matching funds.
Meet the author
Melissa Schneider
Communications Coordinator
Melissa Schneider coordinates public information, educational media and communication services for Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant. Some of MASGC's communications projects include our website, social... Read more
Phone: 228-818-8838
Email: [email protected]