- (Back Row) Richard E. Dodge, Ph.D., Dean of NSU’s Oceanographic Center and executive director of NSU’s National Coral Reef Institute; Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore; and NSU President George L. Hanbury II, Ph.D. (Front Row) NSU Oceanographic Center graduate students give the vice president a demonstration on how the NSU onshore coral reef nurseries work.
Former Vice President Al Gore spoke at the Sept. 27 grand opening of Nova Southeastern University’s $50 million coral reef research center.
Vice President Gore, the environmentalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, toured the scientific laboratories of NSU’s 86,000-square-foot Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Ecosystems Research. The facility is located at NSU’s Oceanographic Center at John U. Lloyd Beach State Park. U.S. Congresswoman and Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Weston), who helped NSU secure a $15 million federal grant to fund the center, as well as other federal dignitaries, also spoke at the grand opening ceremony. Wasserman Schultz was the keynote speaker.
The Center is focused on researching coral reef ecosystems in South Florida, throughout the nation, and around the world. The study of coral reef ecosystems is vital to the protection of our oceans. The Center has created 22 new academic jobs and 300 construction jobs; and it will employ 50 graduate students as well as preserving 22 existing academic jobs. NSU received a $15 million competitive grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce (using funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) to build the center, while the university funded the rest of the project.
“By opening this state-of-the-art facility, NSU is taking a leadership role in Florida’s marine science research and helping boost an important multibillion-dollar coral reef industry that employs thousands of South Floridians and sustains many small businesses,” said NSU President George L. Hanbury II, Ph.D., who went diving on the morning of the grand opening to visit NSU’s offshore coral reef nurseries. “The research Center is critical for the environmental sustainability of coral reefs, which are the life blood of our region and oceans, and their ecosystems.”
The grant was one of 12 given by the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology as a result of a nationwide competition. NSU was one of two institutions to receive the largest amount awarded at $15 million. Other grantees included the Woods Hole Oceanographic Center, Columbia University, Purdue, Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Georgetown University, and University of Maryland, putting NSU in elite company. The new Center will be the largest and only research facility in the nation solely dedicated to coral reef ecosystems research.
Receiving the largest research grant in NSU’s history to build this Center is recognition of the tremendous value of coral reefs to the United States and the considerable threats and stressors now impinging upon them, said Richard E. Dodge, Ph.D., dean of NSU’s Oceanographic Center and executive director of NSU’s National Coral Reef Institute (NCRI). The Center aims to develop solid research products and information that will lead to better management and conservation solutions.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) considers NCRI as an important partner. In turn, NCRI has long supported NOAA’s mission by providing outstanding scientific research to support federal, state and local resource managers in addressing local solutions to global oceanographic crises.
“NSU’s new Center of Excellence fits perfectly within NOAA’s mission and provides both urgently needed physical facilities and expanded scientific capacity regionally, nationally and globally,” Dodge said.
Research at the Center allows for greater understanding of how reefs respond to threats. Eliminating or mitigating local threats to coral reefs is part of that solution. Some of these are easy fixes that include stopping overfishing, controlling pollution, and establishing marine protected areas.
As a multi-disciplinary facility, the Center generates information and research products to help understand, conserve and protect coral reef ecosystems. Its coral reef research aims to:
- Assess the health of coral reefs and their ability to recover from injury and damage;
- Examine effects of climate change on reefs;
- Cultivate species of corals in nurseries for re-introduction to the ocean;
- Map the extent and nature of coral reefs throughout the world;
- Study coral growth rings to reconstruct the history of reefs and environmental conditions;
- Investigate the flow of water in and around reefs;
- Reveal molecular biology of reef animals to understand connectivity; and
- Determine the effects of pollution, including oil that may impinge on reefs.
In addition to having laboratories and sophisticated equipment, the Center has space for research collaboration, training, and fieldwork staging, a marine science library and an 85-seat auditorium. The building’s design promotes research by current and new faculty, researchers, visiting scientists, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students.
The Center of Excellence houses NSU’s National Coral Reef Institute (NCRI), the Guy Harvey Research Institute (GHRI) and Save Our Seas Shark Center. Artwork by renowned marine artist Guy Harvey, Ph.D., who also donated $200,000 to GHRI, is prominently featured in the building’s interior.
For more information, please visit: http://www.nova.edu/ocean/excellence/index.html