Infrastructure Planning for a Coral Reef Genomic Observatory

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The University of California Berkeley is awarded a grant to carry out strategic planning for the Gump South Pacific Research Station, host of the NSF Moorea Coral Reef Long Term Ecological Research (MCR-LTER) site, located on the island of Moorea, French Polynesia. The Pacific islands are home to some of the world's best-preserved coral reefs. These ecosystems are hotspots for biological diversity and are sources of great societal significance and economic value. Local and global processes, often associated with human activities, increasingly threaten the continued health of coral reefs. New research on their population dynamics, ecosystem processes, biodiversity and resilience is critical for their successful management, conservation, and restoration. With recent technological advances, there is a growing opportunity to study coral reefs from 'genomes up', including the study of key microbial processes that underlie ecosystem health. This requires the integration of genomics and other 'omics' technologies with environmental sensor networks and computational platforms to enable the full contextualization of molecular observations. The goal of this project is to develop a decadal vision for a Coral Reef Genomic Observatory, together with a concrete implementation plan for the first five years. Planning activities will include faculty from the University of California and from the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB). Over two workshops, the project will develop a strategic plan for building a Coral Reef Genomic Observatory over the next 5 years. The observatory will take advantage of the transpacific submarine fiber-optic cable that now connects research activities on Moorea to those on Hawaii. Planning will be inclusive of present and potential future users, with the goal of enhanced research, training and educational use of the Gump Station. The strategic plan will consider how the Coral Reef Genomic Observatory can be used to promote advanced training in marine science at the graduate and undergraduate level, benefiting students from universities and colleges from California, Hawaii, and across the United States. The Gump Station has a strong outreach program through collaborations brokered by its partner local community organization: Association Te Pu Atitia. Planning activities will consider how a genomic observatory might offer innovative new ways to communicate scientific findings to Polynesian communities - particularly K-12 schools - in Moorea, Hawaii and elsewhere, and to develop programs that reach out to historically underrepresented groups in science, including Polynesians and other Pacific Islanders.For more information about the Gump Station, please visit the website at http://moorea.berkeley.edu.