Research Initiation Award: Quantifying the effects of ocean acidification on visual and auditory neurobiology in marine fishes

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Research Initiation Awards provide support for junior and mid-career faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities who are building new research programs or redirecting and rebuilding existing research programs. It is expected that the award helps to further the faculty member's research capability and effectiveness, improves research and teaching at his home institution, and involves undergraduate students in research experiences. The award to Hampton University has potential broader impact in a number of areas. The goal of the project is to investigate how possible changes in ocean acidification may affect visual and auditory neurobiology in marine fishes. Undergraduate students will gain research experiences. The project's interdisciplinary approach ensures that the principal investigator and the undergraduate scholar-researchers will make significant impacts in this rapidly emerging field that will be of broad interest to the marine science community.The goal of the project is to apply electrophysiological techniques and morphological analyses to assay the effects of increased carbon dioxide concentrations that are representative of projected changes over the next century on the form and function of marine fish visual and auditory systems. The effects of both acute and chronic aqueous carbon dioxide exposure will be studied on the morphological development of visual and auditory sensory structures, the functional performance of auditory and visual systems, and the capability of a gamma-aminobutyric acid A receptor antagonist to alter potential sensory deficits during acute and chronic acidification using fishes from diverse phylogenies, geographic regions, and life histories. While resulting behavioral changes have been documented, the extent to which the physiological function of fish neurosensory systems is altered as a consequence of ocean acidification, and the morphological changes and functional deficits it may cause, remains largely unknown.