Acquisition of Instruments to Facilitate and Enhance Research Projects and Undergraduate Education in Aquatic Environmental Biogeochemistry at TAMUG

这笔款项将用于购买生态研究仪器，包括一台落射荧光显微镜和照相机以及一台声学多普勒海流剖面仪的底部安装装置。 这些仪器将使人们有可能针对沿海和海洋环境地球化学的复杂问题，他们将加强本科生和研究生教育和研究经验在TAMUG。这些仪器对于支持两个主要课题的研究至关重要：1）一甲基汞的地球化学; 2）建立沿海观测站，作为本科生培训平台。新的落射荧光显微镜将使我们能够确定细菌的物种组成和汞甲基化的位置，通过应用原位杂交技术在水柱和沉积物。湍流混合对颗粒物和污染物垂直分布的作用将在底部安装的ADCP的帮助下确定。这些新仪器将使我们能够研究地球化学的多方面（例如，汞，浮游植物和细菌）在不同的位置，包括但不限于，在墨西哥湾的北方，在北极河口缺氧区，并在加尔维斯顿湾的一个小的沿海河口更详细。新的仪器将加强TAMUG的本科生和研究生培训计划，该计划正在Offat的Bayou建立一个用于推广和教育的沿海观测站。这个观测站被设计成一个科学方法和仪器培训区，主要由大学生管理。大约40名本科生预计将学习新的仪器在任何给定的学期;理想情况下，超过60%的学生人口将与设备的工作在几个场合。该仪器还将促进对汞污染的重要研究，这是墨西哥湾沿岸的一个主要公共卫生问题。此外，仪器将有助于吸引更高水平的本科生，研究生和博士后科学家。

This award will be used to acquire instrumentation for ecological research, including an epifluorescence microscope and camera and a bottom mount for an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP). These instruments will make it possible to target complex questions in coastal and oceanic environmental biogeochemistry, and they will enhance the undergraduate and graduate education and research experiences within TAMUG. These instruments are critical in supporting research on 2 major topics, 1) the biogeochemistry of monomethylmercury (MMHg), and 2) the establishment of a coastal observatory as a platform for undergraduate training. The new epifluorescence microscope will enable us to determine the bacterial species composition and locations of mercury methylation by applying in situ hybridization techniques in the water column and the sediments. The role of turbulent mixing for vertical distribution of particulates and contaminants will be determined with the help of the bottom mounted ADCP. These new instruments will allow us to study multifaceted aspects of biogeochemistry (e.g., Hg, phytoplankton, and bacteria) in more detail in a variety of locations including, but not limited to, the hypoxic area in the northern Gulf of Mexico, in Arctic estuaries, and in a small coastal bayou in Galveston Bay. The new instrumentation will enhance the undergraduate and graduate training programs at TAMUG, where a coastal observatory for outreach and education is being established at Offat's Bayou. This observatory is being designed as a scientific methods and instrumentation training area run primarily for and by undergraduates. Approximately 40 undergraduates are expected to learn from the new instruments during any given semester; ideally more than 60% of the student population will have worked with the equipment on several occasions. The instrumentation will also facilitate important research on mercury contamination, a major public health concern on the Gulf coast. In addition, the instrumentation will help attract a higher caliber of undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral scientists.