PROJECT SUMMARY

COLLABORATION TO INTEGRATE RESEARCH AND EDUCATION IN MARINE & ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND BIOTECHNOLOGY

Savannah State University M. Gilligan, C. Franklin, J. Richardson	Skidaway Institute of Oceanography P. Verity, M. Frischer

PROJECT SUMMARY
Coastal environments in the southeastern U.S. are expected to undergo unprecedented population growth in the next 20 years. Accompanying this human expansion will be significant increases in land use and the potential for dramatic effects upon resources and environmental quality. To be prepared to handle these issues, our educational systems need to provide the technology, methodology, and information required to assess, predict, and improve marine resources and coastal environmental quality.
This project will take advantage of a fortuitous geographic and administrative relationship between SSU and the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography (SkIO). As members of the University System of Georgia, which administers all of the public educational and research units in the state of Georgia, SSU and SkIO have the potential to create formal ties. Here, we have created a collaboration which includes diversification of existing courses at SSU by inclusion of teaching and research modules by SkIO faculty; formal detailed training in research via research assistantships at SkIO for qualified SSU student interns; reciprocal faculty exchange opportunities; and collaborative curriculum development. The vision of the project is to establish a well-coordinated, long-term collaborative program integrating research and education in marine and environmental science and biotechnology at SSU and SkIO. The program goals are to: (1) Increase the number of SSU students entering advanced degree programs in science, engineering and mathematics, specifically in the marine and environmental sciences and biotechnology. (2) Formally adopt and institutionalize an Inter-Institutional Cooperative Agreement of Savannah State University and Skidaway Institute of Oceanography within the University System of Georgia between SSU and SkIO. (3) Enhance the quality of instruction in marine and environmental science and biotechnology by incorporating research methods and modules developed collaboratively with faculty and staff of SkIO into undergraduate courses in the College of Sciences and Technology at SSU. (4) Enhance the quality and quantity of research activities for the SSU science and technology faculty and students. (5) Collaboratively develop graduate curricular offerings as part of planned new graduate programming in marine and environmental science and biotechnology at SSU. (6) Design and implement a formal visiting lecturer/minority mentor series at SSU.
CIRE Student Research Experiences
The faculty at SkIO who will participate actively in this project, and their central research interests, are listed in Table 1. All of these faculty maintain active research programs including support from core and special initiatives within NSF. We will utilize this expertise to enhance SSU student research experiences. Instructional modules will be offered by SkIO faculty as part of existing SSU courses, which will provide initial conceptual training in these research topics. A teaching laboratory will provide detailed hands-on training in marine environmental and biotechnological research using state-of-the-art equipment. Students with this experience will then have the opportunity to participate in internships.
SSU students will be identified on the basis of merit (interest, prior experience, GPA) from all marine and environmental science and biotechnology classes. Five, eight, and twelve (Yrs 1, 2, 3, respectively) research internships will be available. Students can choose research projects from among the list in Table 2 to form the basis of their training in research. Students are free to pursue their assistantships during the summer or during the academic year. Additionally, students may have the opportunity to travel to a national scientific meeting where they can interact with the scientific community and present their work. Student participation will be organized such that each student will have specific achievable project goals and hypotheses that represent a subset of the overall project objectives. All students will be required to write summaries of their research in the form of a typical scientific manuscript. For additional motivation, they will be graded and receive course credits as independent study.

Table 2. Research Programs Available to SSU Interns

· Mineralization of Organic Matter and CaCO3 Dissolution at the Deep Sea Floor****

· Rates and Controls of Sedimentary Processes regulating Nutrient Regeneration and Burial

· In Situ Measurement of Anthropogenic Contaminants in Marine Sediments****

· Benthic Microalgal Production and Nutrient Dynamics****

· Metal Partitioning in Contaminated Sediments

· Distinguishing between Living and Nonliving Bacteria****

· Molecular Approaches for In Situ Identification of Nitrogen Utilization by Bacteria and Phytoplankton

· Microbial Transformation of Contaminants in Sediments from a Saltmarsh Superfund Site

·Plant Bioavailability and Remediation of Contaminated Salt Marsh Sediments****

· Use of Genetic Probes to Enhance Reseeding of Bay Scallops

· Control of Zebra Mussel Dispersal Using rRNA Probes

· Microbial Indicators and Communities as Evidence of Changing Land Use Patterns

· Applications of Image Analysis Techniques in Plankton Research****

· The Role of Detritus in Coastal Pelagic Ecosystems****

· Transport of White Shrimp Larvae from Shelf Spawning Sites into Estuarine Nurseries

· Use of Fluorescent Stains and Molecular Probes in Microbial Ecology****

· Impacts of Zooplankton on the Fate of Organic Carbon in Shelf Ecosystems****

· Assessing Impacts of Contaminants on Aquatic Resources

· Determination of Toxaphene Components in Fish and Sediments

· Bioavailability of Trace Contaminants in Sediments

· Use of Comet Assays for Assessing DNA Strand Damage in Grass Shrimp Embryos****

· Benthic Invertebrate Embryos as Bioassays for Metal Contaminants****

· Use of Microbial Mats in Bioreactors to Remove Metals from Contaminated Waters****

· Microbiology of Salt marshes and Sub tidal Sediments

·Tracing Microbial Activity in Sediments

· Saltmarsh Ecology· Effects of Grazing and Biogenic Disturbance on Benthic Primary Production****

· Influence of Sediment Nutrient Chemistry on Recruitment Choices of Benthic Invertebrates****

· Numerical Modelling of Transport Reaction Processes at the Sediment-Water Interface****

· Field and Modelling Studies of Estuarine Circulation

· Trace Element Contamination of Riverine and Estuarine Systems****

·Remediation of Contaminated Aquatic Environments****

· Environmental Records in Estuarine and Coastal Depositional Zones****

·Sedimentation Processes in Estuaries and Continental Shelves ****

· Sources and Behavior of Organic Matter in the Marine Environment****

Table 1. SkIO Faculty Involved in the Proposed CIRE Project
Clark Alexander	Associate Professor of Marine Geology and Sedimentology
Marc Frischer	Assistant Professor of Marine Microbiology, Molecular Biology, and Biotechnology
Richard Jahnke	Professor Sediment Geochemistry
Richard Lee	Professor Marine Biotechnology and Environmental Toxicology
Keith Maruya	Assistant Professor Environmental Organic Geochemistry and Ecotoxicology
Harvey Seim	Assistant Professor Circulation Processes, Engineering, and Numerical Modelling
Peter Verity	Professor Plankton and Microbial Ecology
Stuart Wakeham	Professor Organic Biogeochemistry
Herbert Windom	Professor Environmental Geochemistry