Pollution investigations include evaluation of effects of ship groundings, oil spills, and beach renourishment dredging. These studies have implications for the protection and restoration of coral reefs. Fishes Diverse research studies on fishes are currently underway, including natural history, functional morphology, larval fish recruitment, artificial reef functions, stress response in elasmobranchs, and aquaculture. This research is both applied and basic in nature. Macrobenthic Community Ecology Current studies examine the effects of dredging and beach renourishment on estuarine and coastal soft-bottom communities of marine invertebrates, and provide a baseline for understanding spatial and longterm temporal variations in community composition and diversity.
Marine bacteria are an extremely important, but little understood, group.
Valuable baseline data are being collected for understanding of the oceanic ecosystem. Techniques for determining primary production by the oxygen method also are being investigated. Marine Mammals Annotated referenced marine mammal projects will be accepted for capstone paper credit. This includes a full survey of all relevant literature on the management, physiology, functional anatomy, and intra- and interspecific interactions of cetaceans, pinnipeds, sirenids, and polar bears. One group in particular, the amoeboid protozoa, are being investigated because these inconspicuous protists are often overlooked in ecological studies.