$327K Florida DEP Grant for Coral Disease Intervention Strike Teams

Karen Neely Ph.D. is a Research Scientist at the Oceanographic Center in the NSU Halmos College of Arts & Sciences. Her Florida Department of Environmental Protection grant project “Florida Keys Coral Disease Intervention Strike Teams” was recently funded for $327,000.

 

Tell me about your recent grant-funded project.

In 2014 a coral disease emerged in Florida and has now spread throughout the state and the Caribbean. This is one of the most devastating events to happen to the Caribbean coral reefs. For many years, we have been developing in-water intervention strategies and were able to develop a topical medicine for dying corals. With my lab we go out to priority reefs and corals to prevent further death. The current project has received annual funding from 2019-2022 to conduct this work.

Part of our research involves going back to the coral reefs every two months to see how previously-treated corals are doing, apply medication if needed, and collect information on their size, location, and growth. We now have data from several thousand corals. This research is a combination of saving corals and collecting information about them.

The goal of this project is to prevent the loss of corals, which are some of the largest and oldest animals in the world and to learn more about this rampant disease. Part of this process is to share what we’ve learned with our partners throughout the Caribbean. I have provided training and information to other professionals working in locations experiencing this disease to try and mitigate its spread.

 

Who is working with you on this project?

I am the Principal Investigator of this project and I work with a team based out of the Florida Keys. We have multiple community partners we work with including the National Park Service, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and other researchers.

 

What advice do you have for other grant seekers at NSU, and what do you plan to do next?

In reference to applying for grants, don’t be afraid to try! I am in the beginning stages of a couple of new grants. My next step is to dive into this mass amount of data we have collected with this current grant as I think we can find some fascinating information there to build on in the future. My hope for this project is to save the Florida reefs—stop the loss from this mass coral disease event and save what we have left.