Projects: FOCAL:  Fisheries and Oceanography of Coastal Alabama. We are monitoring primary production of water in four variably different regions of the coast of Alabama. Samples are taken along a transect starting some 20 miles off shore in 35 meters of water, coming near shore 11 miles off at 20 meters deep and on up into the mouth of the Mobile Bay where depth decreases to 3 meters.  We are using these four vastly different environments to not only look at production between off shore and inshore, but also at varying depths and light intensities.  This data will be combined with abundances in larval fish and benthic communities to determine just how productive the coast of Alabama really is.  For further information on this project go to:  http://focal.disl.org/ Bringing the Rossette back on board full of phytoplankton from below. Little Lagoon, Alabama Looking at how groundwater inputs affect phytoplankton community structure, in particular the toxic pseudo-nitzia sp.

Weeks Bay, Alabama Monitoring the numerous phytoplankton bloom events and their community structures. Emily, Justin, and Lucie sampling during a bloom event of the toxic Karlodinium veneficum featured in the picture on the right. Volunteer Outreach Our lab has combined efforts with volunteers from around the community to better improve monitoring efforts. Justin showing members of the Little Lagoon Preservation Society, LLPS, how to measure temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen using a YSI. Lucie teaching a volunteer how to count and identify phytoplankton.

A few of our instruments:


HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromotography)
  


Our instrument cage for Mooring



Some of our cultures