Grants

Submission by Ed Proffitt, former Director, LERC.
GRANTS OBTAINED

U.S. Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service grant ($60,000), 1993. To arrange and host a symposium on the remediation of the effects of oil spills on coastal ecosystems and to edit the proceedings. Symposium held in New Orleans in July of 1994.

U.S. Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service ($120,000), 1994. To study the effects of oil on survival, health, reproduction, and genetic mutations of mangroves. Co-PIs R. Lowenfeld (MSU) and E. Klekowski (University of Massachusetts).

U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service ($20,000), 1995. To initiate an assessment of marine turtle strandings along the southwestern Louisiana coast. The focus is to be on correlation of strandings of turtles with activities such as Gulf of Mexico hypoxia, red tides, shrimping activity, and pollutant runoff.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ($490,000), 1995. Proffitt was Project Manager and Principal Investigator of a two-year multi-disciplinary study of salt marsh restoration created from dredged ship channel sediments that contain low-moderate levels of metal and organic contaminants. In sites of varying ages, we studied plant colonization, growth, biomass, and succession and colonization by selected animal species (PI: Proffitt); population genetics of Spartina alterniflora (PIs: Proffitt, R. Lowenfeld); sediment metals (PI: J. Sneddon); sediment organic contaminants and physical characteristics (PI: J. Beck); vegetation and faunal accumulation of metals (PI: M.G. Heagler); and changes in site elevation (PI: C. Norman).

Florida and Louisiana Sea Grant (Part of total $188,994), 1996. To study oil spill contingency plans of states bordering the Gulf of Mexico with respect to appropriate remediation and restoration activities. Lead PI: C. Douligeris (University of Miami).

U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service ($15,000), 1996. To continue an assessment of marine turtle strandings along the southwestern Louisiana coast. The focus is to be on correlation of strandings of turtles with activities such as Gulf of Mexico hypoxia, red tides, shrimping activity, and pollutant runoff.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ($500,000), 1996. Proffitt was Project Manager and Co-Principal Investigator with S. Travis and R. Lowenfeld on a grant to expand our on-going research into the mutagenic effects of pollutants on Louisiana marsh plant species.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ($750,000), 1997. Proffitt was Project Manager on a grant that we have received in which the Louisiana Environmental Research Center will establish an insitute devoted to management and statistical analyses of environmental data. The primary concepts are to set up a database in which published and gray literature data can be combined and where hypotheses tested using meta-statistics.

U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service ($11,000), 1997. To continue assessment of marine turtle strandings along the southwestern Louisiana coast. The focus is to be on correlation of strandings of turtles with activities such as Gulf of Mexico hypoxia, red tides, shrimping activity, and pollutant runoff.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ($630,000), 1998. Proffitt was (before leaving McNeese State University) Project Manager and am still Co-Principal Investigator with Dr. Steve Travis on a grant to study among-genet interactions (i.e., competition, outcrossing) of the marsh grass Spartina alterniflora in restored sites. This project will involve a post-doctoral researcher and graduate students.