Wednesday, August 08, 2001

Media contacts:

Dr. Steven Miller, NURC/UNCW, center director: millers@uncwil.edu, 305-451-0233

Mark Ward, NURC Public Affairs: markeward@aol.com, 407-975-6569

Key Largo, FL -- On August 13, scientists from the University of Tampa (U of T), and the University of Central Florida (UCF) will take up residence on the ocean floor in Aquarius, the nation's "innerspace station." Their 10-day mission is designed to study a significant seaweed problem on coral reefs in Florida Keys. The seaweed, known by its scientific name as Dictyota, grows both as free-standing individuals, but also attaches to hard corals, seas fans, sponges, fire coral, and a variety of other organisms on the reef. Chemicals produced by the seaweed deter fish grazing, which may partially explain its abundance.

Base-camp for the 10-day underwater expedition is Aquarius, an underwater laboratory where scientists live and work on the seafloor for extended periods using a special technique called saturation diving. Aquarius is located in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, 60 feet underwater, and 3.5 miles offshore. Owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and operated by the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW), Aquarius is the only undersea research platform of its kind in the world.

The mission's principal investigator is University of Tampa researcher Kevin Beach. Beach studies seaweed on coral reefs and wants to know why it's become so abundant in Florida waters. If too much seaweed crops up, like is happening with Dictyota, it can smother and kill delicate corals. "The best way to think about the coral reef is as the equivalent of a rain forest, but underwater,'' Beach says. "Seaweed has benefits, but when people see less coral and more seaweed, when you see a reef that's 70 percent seaweed, it's a problem.'' Changes in reef environments from coral dominated habitats to seaweed dominated ecosystems are now common throughout many tropical and subtropical coastal regions, especially in Florida and the Caribbean.

As with every Aquarius science mission, the crew consists of two live-aboard operations specialists (Thor Dunmire and Byron Croker of UNC Wilmington) and four scientists. Beach's science team includes Linda Walters, Julie Liss, and Laura Wick from UCF. The team will spend most of each day outside the lab, scuba diving as much as a quarter mile away from Aquarius, at depths to 120 feet. "We plan to spend eight to 10 hours a day in the water, which is fantastic,'' Beach says. "Spending that kind of time in the water increases the magnitude and precision with which we can do science. We'll get work done that would otherwise take months to complete.''

During their time underwater, the team will look at how nutrients and light affect the growth of Dictyota. The seaweed could be feeding off pollution, but scientists aren't sure. "What we really want to know is what's driving the changes in the ecosystem down there,'' Beach says. In addition to facilitating undersea research projects for universities from across the country, Aquarius conducts live media and outreach events and operates web cameras in and around the undersea laboratory during missions. Detailed information on Aquarius and each of its missions is available at: www.uncwil.edu/nurc/aquarius.