Articles

• Balancing Resources with Sustainability
• 10 Questions on Nature Tourism
• COSEE:CGOM Workshop Brings Researchers, Teachers Together
• What's Coming... Research Projects of 2008
• Regional Project Funding
• Featured Publication
• From the Director

Sea Briefs is a report on the results of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium.

Editor: Valerie Winn

This newsletter is available in PDF format from:
masgc.org/seabriefs

MASGC supports applied, interdisciplinary marine science research, education and outreach efforts to foster the sustainable development and management of the Mississippi and Alabama coasts and nearshore ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico

Mississippi-Alabama
Sea Grant Consortium
703 East Beach Drive
Ocean Springs, MS 39564
Phone: 228-818-8840
E-mail: seabriefs@masgc.org
MASGP 07-011-02

What's Coming...

Research Projects of 2008

From a field of 18 proposals, The Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium has chosen nine research projects to fund for its next omnibus cycle which will run Feb. 1, 2008, to Jan. 31, 2010. Two of these projects are one-year Program Development projects. Additionally, MASGC has teamed up with Florida, Louisiana and Texas Sea Grant to fund two regional projects. Each project was chosen after reviewing several criteria including its relationship to MASGC’s strategic plan and the project’s significance to its scientific field. Details of these projects will soon be available on MASGC’s Web site.

In addressing the impact of population growth and urbanization in the watersheds of Weeks Bay in Alabama, Dr. Latif Kalin of the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences of Auburn University will assess the effect of land use/cover on the water quality of the Fish River, a major water supplier. By comparing data collected more than 10 years ago with the to-be-collected data, Kalin plans to develop population projections and zoning maps that will aid local authorities in making science-based decisions regarding environmental and ecosystem health.

Using acoustic technology, Dr. Eric Hoffmayer, assistant research scientist for the Centers for Fisheries Research and Development at The University of Southern Mississippi, Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, will identify and map the spawning habitats of one of the most highly prized inshore game fish throughout the northern Gulf of Mexico: spotted seatrout (better known as speckled trout). This project, to be conducted in the Mississippi estuaries of Grand Bay and Biloxi Bay, will complement a spotted seatrout stock enhancement project currently under way and will help fishery resource managers develop improve supervision of the species.

To benefit the soft crab industry as well as consumers of seafood, Dr. R. Douglas Watson, a professor in the Department of Biology at The University of Alabama at Birmingham, will study the possibility of using a cloned blue crab molting gland receptor that could induce molting in blue crabs. The process could provide an abundant and predictable supply of soft-shelled crabs and could benefit economies in states with existing or potential soft crab fisheries.

Dr. D. Allen Davis, associate professor of Auburn University’s Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquaculture, is working to provide west Alabama shrimp farmers with much needed information about salinity and temperature tolerance of post-larval and early juvenile state shrimp. The information will help increase survival, growth and thus production of inland low salinity farms. The information will help provide income to a depressed region of Alabama and will be applicable to other cultured species that can survive in waters in a wide range of salinity.

In investigating the effects of fire on the water quality, plant production and biogenic accretion of a Juncus roemerianus marsh, Dr. Julia A. Cherry of The University of Alabama is addressing the lack of understanding of the effects of prescribed burning, a common management practice for many ecosystems. The effects of fires on nutrient availability, water quality, productivity and accretion of organic matter in a J. roemarianus marsh is poorly understood. The findings will provide insight into the effectiveness of prescribed burning as a management strategy and the relative importance of biogenic accretion for the maintenance of marsh habitat. The data can also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of fi re for removal of debris after severe storms.

Because wastewater treatment plants account for more than 30 percent of shellfish area closures in the United States and more than 70,000 acres in Mobile Bay, Dr. Ruth H. Carmichael of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab will collect data that will examine the relationship between shellfish habitat, wastewater treatment plants and human health. This data will enhance coastal economies by helping to maintain and restore local shellfish populations, increase the area of land available for shellfishing and inform the processors on efficiently determining shellfish that is safe for consumption. Data collected can be applied immediately to aid end-users regarding land-use planning, temporal and spatial scales for future water quality sampling, and evaluation of shellfish sanitation indicators.

In a study that may be instrumental in giving the American shrimp processing industry a competitive edge, Dr. W. Todd French of the Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering at Mississippi State University will determine the most effective process for converting the carbon in seafood processing waste into a feedstock that could be a source of biofuel. This process would reduce operational costs by eliminating some waste disposal costs and provide additional income streams from the sale of products generated from shrimp processing waste. This project could offset the negative impacts on the Gulf Coast seafood industry brought about by imports from Asia and South America due to cheaper seafood production costs in these regions.

To understand how changes in fish diet may be reflected in different sites and seasonal variances, Dr. Kevin S. Dillon, assistant professor at the Department of Coastal Sciences of The University of Southern Mississippi Department Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, is studying samples of spotted sea trout taken four times a year from Mississippi’s Bay of St. Louis and Biloxi Bay. These samples will be compared for differences between location, season and tissue type. This one-year project will provide a baseline dataset for analysis of future larger stable isotope datasets collected to address specific questions about coastal ecosystems, such as the relative importance of benthic verses nutritional pathways to sport fish production.

To help curtail outbreaks in infectious diseases related to the consumption of seafood products, Dr. Mark T. Hamann, a professor in the departments of Pharmacognosy, Pharmacology, Chemistry and Biochemistry of the National Center for Natural Product Research of The University of Mississippi, is working to develop milder techniques for pasteurization or inactivation of bacterial contaminants to extend the shelf life of oyster products and reduce the transmission of seafood borne infectious diseases. For this one-year project, Dr. Hamann will test the use of dense phase carbon dioxide to treat oysters infected with Vibrio bacteria.