FSML: Acquisition of Controlled Environmental Spaces for Skidaway Institute of Oceanography

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The Skidaway Institute of Oceanography is awarded a grant to improve the capacity of Skidaway Institute of Oceanography (SkIO) to provide environmentally-controlled conditions for experimental studies in the marine sciences. The additional infrastructure improvements are an essential complement to the analytical facilities, and will allow researchers to perform controlled microcosm experiments or maintain sensitive organisms on campus while using the laboratories and instrumentation. The upgrades to infrastructure have two components: (1) funds are requested for the construction of two flowing seawater laboratories in which air temperature, seawater temperature, and light can be controlled to modest tolerances, and (2) funds are requested for the purchase and installation of two walk-in environmental rooms that will provide tightly regulated environments for more demanding experimental work. The new facilities will be housed within an existing structure on campus that is convenient to laboratories. The proposed facilities will significantly improve SkIO?s capacity to do experimental biological research and ecological research on campus.Broader Impacts: Skidaway serves a very diverse population of students and is a hub for graduate education at a large number of other parts of the Univ. of Georgia system. They have good outreach to K-12 students and teachers, as well as to the local community. They have strong collaborations with several nearby HBCU institutions. The Environmental Entrepreneurship Program in collaboration with Clark Atlanta University will directly benefit from the infrastructure improvements. In addition, the Institute hosts a Marine Science Day for the local community which was attended by over 3000 people in 2007 and informs them of local marine research and environmental issues. The Institute maintains a speaker's bureau which provides more than 50 lectures/year to local communities. The Institute has a bi-directional teleconferencing system that permits lectures at SkIO to be transmitted to some 300 locations around Georgia and this increase exposure to the land-locked areas of Georgia has increased interest in research and training opportunities at the lab.