Equipment Acquisitions in Support of Research at the Alabama Marine Environmental Sciences Consortium

海洋环境科学联盟（MESC）是阿拉巴马州缅因州的科学研究和教育中心。MESC成立于1971年，包括21所学院和大学，是国家高等教育体系的一部分。MESC的教学和研究活动主要在海豚岛海洋实验室（DISL）进行，这是一个36英亩的校园，位于阿拉巴马州莫比尔以南30英里的海豚岛。在这里，MESC的常驻教师、成员学校的科学家和访问研究者进行个人和合作的研究工作。MESC的研究活动目前集中在了解(1)墨西哥湾北部近岸水域的盐沼、海草和无植被的底部栖息地对鱼类和无脊椎动物生产的相对重要性，以及(2)河口和开放海湾水域之间的能量交换。特别注意了解河口水域对近海“硬底”渔场生产力的影响。为了进一步加强MESC不断增长的研究计划，并促进与访问科学家的更多互动，该项目提供资金购买碳/氮/硫（CNS）分析仪，高速冷冻离心机和大容量超低温冷冻机。这些项目对于MESC研究计划中面向过程的部分的持续增长至关重要。CNS分析仪是测量颗粒有机物中总碳、氮、硫组成不可缺少的仪器。CNS能力的增加将促进旨在了解天然无机和有机营养物质添加到河口与人类活动造成的相对重要性的项目的发展。冷冻离心机和超低冰柜的增加将使几个悬而未决的研究项目成为可能，这些研究项目旨在检查河口和近岸环境中幼虫招募和摄食期间的化学介导反应。

The Marine Environmental Sciences Consortium (MESC) is Alabama's maine science research and education center. Founded in 1971, MESC includes 21 colleges and universities and is part of the state's system of higher education. Teaching and research activities of the MESC take place principally at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL), a 36 acre campus located on Dauphin Island, 30 miles south of Mobile, Alabama. Here resident MESC faculty, scientists from MESC member schools and visiting investigators carry out individual and cooperative research efforts. Research activities at the MESC are currently centered on understanding (1) the relative importance of salt marsh, seagrass and unvegetated bottom habitats to the production of fishes and invertebrates in nearshore waters in the northern Gulf of Mexico, and on (2) exchanges of energy between estuaries and the open Gulf waters, with special attention given to understanding the influence of estuarine waters on the productivity of offshore "hard bottom" fishing grounds. To further enhance the growing research program at the MESC and to stimulate additional interactions with visiting scientists, this project provides funds for the purchase of a Carbon/Nitrogen/Sulfur (CNS) analyzer, a high-speed refrigerated centrifuge, and high capacity ultra-low temperature freezer. These items are essential to the continued growth of the process-oriented component of the MESC research program. The CNS analyzer is indispensable for measuring the total carbon, nitrogen and sulfur composition of particulate organic matter. The addition of CNS capabilities will facilitate the development of projects aimed at understanding the relative importance of natural inorganic and organic nutrient additions to estuaries compared with those caused by man's activities. The addition of the refrigerated centrifuge and ultra-low freezer will make possible several pending research projects designed to examine chemically-mediated responses during larval recruitment and feeding in estuarine and near-coastal environments.