A good thing has come from the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
Some of the proceeds from the penalties assessed are being used to fund environmental research, including a project involving Michigan Technological University and five other universities.
Louisiana State University (LSU) is leading the research to study how coastal land loss restoration practices impact ecosystems in coastal marshes. The project just received a $2.1 million competitive grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s(NOAA) RESTORE science program.
The overall goal of the research is to understand how river diversions and the salt-water concentration changes that result affect plants, animals and their interactions with each other in natural and man-made coastal marshes.
In addition to LSU and Michigan Tech, collaborating universities are Rutgers, University of Florida, University of Tennessee-Knoxville and Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium.
Coastal Marshlands
Michigan Tech’s principal investigator on the project is Jill Olin, a research scientist at Tech’s Great Lakes Research Center. She has a background in community ecology of marine and coastal ecosystems.
She aims to use naturally occurring markers or ‘ecological tracers’ to help understand the responses of aquatic and terrestrial species that inhabit coastal marsh habitats to efforts aimed at reducing land erosion along the Gulf of Mexico coastline.
Olin has worked in coastal Louisiana for a number of years. Her role in the research will be to evaluate the presence of fish at various concentrations of salinity or saltiness, to determine whether or not fish are using restored or natural marshes. One of her research interests is developing ecosystem models to evaluate the effects of environmental change
“The Gulf Coast of Louisiana has lost more than 4,800 kilometers of coastal land area since the 1930’s and, without preventative action, it is predicted that an additional 4,500 kilometers may be lost in the next 50 years,” she says. "Remediation activities such as river diversions, tidal flow reintroduction and freshwater discharges are aimed to minimize coastal land loss, but little is known regarding how these efforts may affect plants, animals, and their interactions with each other in natural and man-made coastal marshes."
Through the use of fatty acid and stable isotope environmental tracers, Olin will investigate how a variety of species and their food webs respond to changing environmental conditions and efforts to minimize such loss of coastal habitat.
NOAA RESTORE
Funding for the research is part of the RESTORE act, which authorized NOAA to establish and administer the RESTORE science program, predominantly funded by penalties paid by parties responsible for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Fifteen projects received a total of $16.7 million in NOAA RESTORE funds. Over the next 16 years, the RESTORE program will receive $133 million in research funding from the Gulf Coast Restoration Trust Fund.
http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2017/july/michigan-tech-joins-louisiana-state-others-coastal-marshes-research.html $10.8 million awarded to build resilient coastal communities in Gulf of Mexico National Academies' Gulf Research Program and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation award $10.8 million to build healthy, resilient coastal communities
NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES, ENGINEERING, AND MEDICINE
WASHINGTON - The Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) today announced awards totaling $10.8 million to support four new projects in Louisiana and Alabama. All four projects are aimed at enhancing the science and practice of resilience in coastal communities located in the Gulf of Mexico region. The projects will increase understanding of community attributes that influence resilience and develop tools and strategies communities can use to strengthen their resilience.
Gulf Coast communities are frequently challenged by a variety of unique environmental stressors stemming from climate change and both natural- and human-caused disasters. In recent years such events have included droughts, hurricanes, sinking coastal areas, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. While adverse events are a major challenge for any community, the degree to which communities effectively respond and recover can differ significantly.
"In creating this opportunity with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, we sought to bring together researchers, practitioners, and community members to work on a less-studied area of community resilience: how various health, social, cultural, and economic factors interact to influence a community's ability to withstand adverse environmental challenges," said LeighAnne Olsen, director of strategic initiatives for the GRP. "The goal is to identify and develop practical things communities can do to enhance their ability to deal with future challenges."
"We are working with diverse Gulf communities to better understand their capacity to prepare for, withstand, and recover from acute and chronic adversity," said Brian Quinn, associate vice president of Research-Evaluation-Learning at RWJF. "For too many of us, our prospects for good health are limited by where we live. Whether it is vulnerability to environmental disasters or chronic poverty, we know that the confluence of the diverse factors that impact resilience are closely tied to health equity. Ultimately, we hope to uncover what nurtures resilience in our communities, which is essential to building a Culture of Health. We all benefit when we all have a fair shot to live the healthiest lives possible."
The four projects were selected after an external peer-review process. These awards are part of the portfolio of Gulf Research Program funding opportunities outlined at
http://www.national-academies.org/gulf/grants. Listed in alphabetical order by project title, the awarded projects are:
Community and Family Resilience, Strength, and Well-being: Socio-cultural Influences on Cambodian and Laotian Refugee Communities' Responses to Environmental Challenges - $3,076,000 Project Director: Denise Lewis (University of Georgia)
Project Team Affiliations: University of Georgia in cooperation with Cambodian Association of Mobile and Lao Association of Mobile
Refugee and immigrant communities' histories and cultural differences present unique vulnerabilities and challenges for achieving community resilience in response to environmental stressors and disasters. This project will engage with Cambodian and Laotian families in coastal Alabama to determine how individual, family, and community-level strengths and vulnerabilities contribute to community health and well-being and how individuals utilize social networks and formal services to respond to stressors. Culturally responsive interventions and strategies for increasing community capacity and resilience will be developed.
Community Resilience Learning Collaborative and Research Network - $2,522,000 Project Director: Benjamin Springgate (Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center - New Orleans)
Project Team Affiliations: Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center - New Orleans in cooperation with Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program; Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development; Community and Patient Partnered Research Network;
Greater New Orleans Inc.; Healthy African Families II; Louisiana Community Health Outreach Network; Louisiana Department of Health; Resilient Baton Rouge; St. Anna's Episcopal Church; Tulane University; University of California - Los Angeles; and University of Southern California
The project aims to improve resilience and mental health outcomes in six communities in southern Louisiana that are vulnerable to poor health outcomes and the impacts of disasters. By establishing a community-partnered learning collaborative and research network, this project will build capacity to test and promote practices that can strengthen resilience. The project team will directly engage with communities within Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and coastal southern Louisiana, although the efforts and lessons are likely scalable to other Gulf States and beyond.
Housing Resilience in Greater New Orleans - $2,266,000 Project Director: Carlos Martin (Urban Institute)
Project Team Affiliations: Urban Institute in cooperation with Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Center; Texas A&M University; and University of California - Berkeley
Though homes provide a first line of defense for individuals against environmental stressors and disasters, little is understood about how housing shapes community resilience. This project plans to examine housing policy and practices that affect household vulnerability to disasters along with the quality and accessibility of related tools and resources households can use to reduce those vulnerabilities. The project will develop strategies for equitable housing programs, policies, and practices that can strengthen the resilience of whole communities. The focus will be on populations most vulnerable to the effects of climate change in the greater New Orleans area, but the information and tools developed are intended to help build household resilience throughout the Gulf region.
Inland from the Coast: A Multi-Scalar Approach to Regional Climate Change Responses - $2,936,000 Project Director: Jeff Carney (Louisiana State University Coastal Sustainability Studio)
Project Team Affiliations: Louisiana State University - Baton Rouge in cooperation with Louisiana Sea Grant and University of New Orleans
Risks from sea-level rise, land subsidence, and extreme weather are not limited to coastal areas but threaten entire inland-coastal regions. This project takes a multi-scalar, multi-disciplinary approach to river flood modeling, health and well-being research, and applied community design to improve flood recovery and long-term resilience across the greater Baton Rouge inland-coastal region. The team links university researchers with professional architects, engineers, landscape architects, planners, policymakers, and community members to improve understanding of inland-coastal environmental conditions and vulnerabilities, determine indicators of community health and well-being, and develop design and planning best practices for reducing risk and increasing adaptive capacity. While the project is focused on helping the greater Baton Rouge region emerge more resilient from the devastating 2016 floods, the resulting framework will be applicable to inland-coastal regions across the Gulf Coast and beyond.
The GRP and RWJF jointly developed and funded this opportunity, with GRP contributing $5.8 million and RWJF contributing $5 million. GRP will administer the awards. For more information, visit
http://www.nas.edu/gulf/grants.
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