SEA 



SCIENCE 



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JLhis 



.his spring, 

 North Carolina Sea Grant 

 researchers will begin a new 

 round of projects, each aimed 

 at a particular aspect of our 

 coast and its vast resources. 



In the next year, Sea 

 Grant will spend more than 

 $1 million on research. 

 Nearly $770,000 will be 

 awarded for 17 projects at 

 five campuses in the 

 University of North Carolina 

 System. And $300,000 will 

 support graduate students working on the 

 projects. 



"Each project meets an identified need in 

 our state," explains North Carolina Sea Grant 

 Director Ronald G. Hodson. "We anticipate 

 scientific results that will have direct impact on 

 coastal issues." 



Such direct impacts have been the 

 hallmark of Sea Grant's "applied research" 

 projects since the program first funded studies in 

 North Carolina more than 30 years ago. 



Sea Grant results are shared with 

 researchers around the country and the world, 

 and with state agencies, community groups, 

 business leaders and others who must make 

 tough decisions regarding coastal resources. 



The scientists are not alone in efforts to 

 share the results. Sea Grant extension specialists 

 and communicators link university researchers 

 and the public, during the data gathering process 

 and when final results are available. 



"Our Sea Grant staff members can 

 translate the technical research techniques — 

 and often complicated results — into terms that 

 the public can understand," Hodson says. 



While the science of each new project may 

 be targeted, the research is within the context of 

 important overall questions, such as: 



• Can we find better ways to assess the quality 

 of North Carolina's coastal waters? And how 

 does water quality affect the stocks of fish that 

 have crucial nursery grounds in our sounds 

 and estuaries? 



• How can we ensure seafood is safe to eat? 



• How can we improve aquaculture techniques 



f J», 1 



and procedures to provide a sounder 

 economic return? 



• How is our coastal population changing? 

 What groups are moving to our coast? 



• How can coastal science topics be included 

 in more classroom lessons? 



The projects are selected through a 

 stringent review process. Last spring, researchers 

 across the state were invited to submit 

 "preproposals," which were reviewed by an in- 

 state committee that looked at the particular 

 relevance and need in North Carolina. 



Based on comments from the task force, 

 the researchers developed "full proposals." Sea 

 Grant then sent those proposals to out-of-state 

 peer reviewers who are experts in specific fields. 

 Those reviews — which evaluated scientific 

 hypotheses, research techniques, etc. — were 

 considered in the final review process by an out- 

 of-state review team of expert scientists and 

 managers. 



Of the 32 full proposals submitted last year, 

 17 were selected, reflecting a spectrum of coastal 

 issues. Organized into broad topic areas, they are: 



Fisheries 



• "Hypoxia and Estuarine Nursery 

 Habitat Quality: An Experimental and 

 Modeling Approach Linking Low Dissolved 

 Oxygen with Fish Survival and Growth," by 



Jim Rice of NC State University, in collaboration 

 with Sea Grant researchers from Delaware and 

 Louisiana. (This project started in the 2000-2002 

 cycle and will continue for one more year.) 



• "Impact of Striped Bass Predation on 



Many North Carolina Sea Grant research 

 projects focus on estuarine ecosystems and 

 habitats. Some projects result in models based 

 on laboratory experiments on hypoxic 

 conditions (left). Other research focuses on data 

 gathered in the field (right). 



Young-of-the-Year River Herring in the 

 Albemarle Sound Estuary," by Jeffrey A. 

 Buckel and Joseph E. Hightower, both of 

 NC State. (Hightower also serves as the assistant 

 leader of the N.C. Cooperative Fish and Wildlife 

 Research Unit.) 



• "Broken Rungs at the Bottom of the 

 Ladder: Effects of Stratification-Induced 

 Hypoxia on Trophic Transfer Between 

 Plankton and Grazers in a Shallow 

 Eutrophying Estuary," by Peter S. Rand of 

 NC State. 



Aquaculture 



• "Reproduction of Domesticated 

 Striped Bass: Coldbanking to Arrest 

 Maturation and Atresia," by Craig V. Sullivan, 

 NC State. (This project started in the 2000-2002 

 cycle and will continue for one more year.) 



24 SPRING 2002 



