NSU Horizons Fall 2011

16 horizons John Santulli, vice president for Facilities Management, and Richard Dodge, dean of the Oceanographic Center, examine plans for the new center. Coral Reef Ecosystems Science Research Facility. The $40-million center was made possible because of a $15-million federal research grant—the largest in NSU’s history—from the U.S. Depart- ment of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology. As the country’s largest coral reef research cen- ter, the facility will be dedicated to coral reef ecosystem science research and will attract top visiting scientists, postdoc- toral fellows, and graduate students. “The Center of Excellence will be transformational for coral reef science and will help NCRI bridge the gap to the future of coral reef research,” said Bernhard Riegl, Ph.D., NCRI’s associate director and OC professor. Building a Reputation A leader in coral reef research, NCRI began garnering attention in the scientific community with innovative research funded by millions of dollars from public and private entities. These awards have come from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra- tion, U.S. Navy, U.S. Geological Survey, Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Coast Guard, state of Florida, and Broward County, as well as private foundations and corporations. NCRI was the first to map the Southeast Florida coral reef track, a system that’s part of the Florida reef system, but not as well understood as the reefs of the Keys. The true Florida reef track runs hundreds of miles from Mar- tin County in the north; down through Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties; and through the Florida Keys and the Dry Tortugas. This reef includes many species of corals such as staghorn, brain, and pillar. “We mapped the reef track to make people aware of it,” Riegl said. “It was virtually unknown until the early 2000s. People never considered this reef system to be as major as it is.” He added that, “NCRI scientists also have made advances in producing 3-D computerized maps of coral reefs in Florida, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Atlantic, and the Caribbean.” NCRI’s contributions to science have included developing an understand- ing of the importance of high-latitude reefs, including those of Florida. Many reefs grow strictly in the low-latitude tropics, but a significant number of reefs also form outside the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. NCRI has produced scientific knowledge through studying and understanding the dynamics of coral reef larvae, investigating the history of reefs and how they were influenced by ocean conditions over time, and growing juvenile corals in on-shore and off-shore nursery areas before they are released into the wild in order to replenish dead or injured corals. Researchers have col- laborated with and provided outreach, management, research, and training products to U.S. agencies, scientists, and agencies of foreign countries. Additionally, NCRI scientists invented pioneering software, now used by many scientists throughout the world. For example, Coral Point Count allows researchers to analyze a wide range of underwater photographs of reefs. Habitat Equivalency Analysis is another NCRI-generated software product. This program has a graphical user interface and facilitates calculation of the amount of compensation needed to pay the man- ager of the natural resource for damages caused to coral reefs by incidents such as anchorings or ship groundings. NCRI’s research and discoveries grace the pages of the world’s top scientific journals such as Nature , Science , and Coral Reefs . The institute has published 123 peer-reviewed articles since its founding, a pace of almost 10 publications a year. “It’s the same level of productivity per investigator as Ivy League universi- ties,” Riegl said. As the institute’s reputation grew, so did the opportunities. In 2008, NCRI