RAPID: Oceanographic Instrumentation: R/V CAPE HATTERAS 2010 Rapid Response

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

This proposal requests a variety of items for R/V Cape Hatteras to help fulfill the change of scope for OCE-0926699, Dr. Tracy Villareal, PI. The original plan was to study he diazotrophic communities in the Gulf of Mexico, but the oil spill has seriously affected these communities. The scope of the study will now concentrate on the impact of the spill on the planktonic communities. The studies will include fluorimetric and analytic measures of hydrocarbons, functional and taxonomic changes in microbial and metazoan communities, and isotopic signatures of both the dissolved and particulate fractions of the spill. The instrumentation requested in this proposal is necessary to fulfill the change in scope. Broader Impacts: The acquisition, maintenance and operation of shared-use instrumentation allows NSF-funded researchers from any US university or lab access to working, calibrated instruments for their research, reducing the cost of that research, and expanding the base of potential researchers.