Contact: dkenney@mbl.edu; 508-289-7139

A diver measuring the size of a newly outplanted bunch of Eucheumatopis isiformis, a red seaweed native to the Caribbean. The research team will monitor the algae throughout its cultivation to determine which environmental conditions and farm operations lead to optimal algal growth and composition. Credit: Loretta Roberson

WOODS HOLE, Mass. and La Parguera, P.R. – A team of researchers led by Loretta Roberson, associate scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, has installed the first seaweed farm in Puerto Rico and U.S. tropical waters.

The research array furthers the design and development of a system for offshore cultivation of tropical seaweeds to support large-scale production of biomass for biofuels and other valuable bioproducts.

“Puerto Rico has stable warm temperatures and ample sunlight year-round, as well as a wide range of exposure to prevailing winds and waves. These conditions make its southern coastline an ideal test bed for exploring how environmental conditions influence the biological, physiological, and chemical properties of cultivated macroalgae, as well as the impact of seaweed farms on the surrounding environment,” says Roberson, the lead principal investigator on this research effort. Additional farms are being tested in Florida and Belize to assess scalability.

As the site is the first of its kind in the region, authorizations were required from numerous agencies including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources.

“Facilitating research of this nature will be key for the development of sustainable aquaculture in this area,” says Roberson. “We have tested similar farm designs in New England and Alaska, but this will be the first test of the array in warm tropical waters where we expect higher fouling rates from other marine organisms, UV damage, and threats from hurricanes.” Unlike kelp cultivation, which is usually seasonal, tropical seaweed farming can support year-round harvesting.

The research team includes experts in ocean farm systems design, modeling of nutrient dynamics in ocean systems, environmental impact assessment and stakeholder engagement, and economic analysis.

The team members are affiliated with an additional 16 organizations: Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System, University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez, University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, C.A. Goudey & Associates, Tend Ocean, University of Connecticut Stamford, Cascadia Research Collective, Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute Merida, Makai Ocean Engineering, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Rutgers, The Nature Conservancy, Two Docks Shellfish LLC, University of California Irvine, and University of California Santa Barbara.

David Bailey (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) and Loretta Roberson (MBL) preparing to dive on the seaweed farm site off Puerto Rico. Divers will conduct frequent ecological monitoring and routine gear assessments throughout the course of the project. Credit: Domenic Manganelli

The researchers are currently targeting commercially valuable red algal eucheumatoid species, which are primarily cultivated in East Africa and Asia. To date, eucheumatoids have been difficult to propagate in a cost-effective manner and production has been limited to easily accessible areas near shore. In addition to developing the best methods for cultivating these species in offshore environments, the project team seeks to further quantify the ecosystem services associated with the farming activities. These likely include habitat provision for a variety of marine species and the improvement of water quality through removal of excess nutrient and buffering of pH.

Cliff Goudey and Domenic Manganelli of C.A. Goudey & Associates/Tend Ocean, transporting the anchors, line, and buoys used for the seaweed farm off Puerto Rico. Credit: Loretta Roberson

MBL received funding for this research from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) competitive Macroalgae Research Inspiring Novel Energy Resources (MARINER) program. The MARINER program seeks to develop the tools to enable the United States to become a leading producer of macroalgae, helping to improve U.S. energy security and economic competitiveness.

For additional information about MBL and this project, please visit: mbl.edu/tropical-seaweed/.

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The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is dedicated to scientific discovery – exploring fundamental biology, understanding biodiversity and the environment, and informing the human condition through research and education. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution and an affiliate of the University of Chicago.

The MBL’s Rowe Laboratory, where many of the Whitman Center labs are located. Credit: Tom Kleindinst

Due to COVID-19-related restrictions, nearly all of the 2020 Whitman Fellows and Early Career Investigators deferred until this year.

“After last year’s restrictions, we are thrilled welcome this year’s Whitman Fellows,” says David Mark Welch, MBL Director of Research. “The magic of the MBL is its power to bring people together and offer scientists the space, time, and inspiration to pursue their research.”

In a typical year, nearly 300 principal investigators, staff, and research associates from institutions worldwide convene in the Whitman Center, which offers them an unparalleled environment for collaboration. The MBL provides access to a diversity of marine and other organisms for research, state-of-the-art instrumentation, innovative imaging technologies and research, genome sequencing, and modern laboratory facilities.

Due to ongoing social distancing guidelines, the MBL is hosting about two-thirds of the typical number of Whitman investigators this summer.

The Whitman Center scientists interact extensively with the dynamic and creative research environment at MBL, which encompasses its resident scientists and international faculty, students and lecturers who participate in MBL’s Advanced Research Training Courses.

Using a wide range of experimental research organisms, from sea anemones to sea robins and many organisms in between, this year’s Whitman Fellows are pursuing a variety of fundamental research questions related to cell biology and imaging, neuroscience, modeling, regeneration and development, evolution, genomics, marine biology and diversity, microbiomes, and more.

Several of the 2021 fellows are coming to the MBL for the first time to launch new projects and others will continue research established in the Whitman Center in prior years.

The acorn worm (Saccoglossus kowalevskii) is being used as a research organism by one of this year's Whitman Fellows. Credit: Tom Kleindinst

The 2021 Whitman Fellows and their proposed research projects are:

Karen Crawford, St. Mary’s College of Maryland
Beyond proof of concept: using CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing in Doryteuthis pealeii to ask important fundamental biological questions

André Fenton, New York University
Integrating across levels of biology to learn how memory is sustained

Suresh Jesuthasan, Nanyang Technological University
An investigation of the amphibian Leydig cell: from mucosal immunology to conservation biology

Veronica Martinez-Acosta, University of the Incarnate Word
Photoreception in Lumbriculus variegatus, an aquatic annelid

Gerardo Andres Morfini, University of Illinois at Chicago
Axon-specific effects of neuropathogenic proteins on kinase-based signaling and organelle motility

Anthony Moss, Auburn University
Establishing a standardized, reproducible system for the study of geotaxis and mood in ctenophores

Ed Munro, University of Chicago
Dynamics of gastrulation and neurulation in ascidian
Cortical septin dynamics during polarization in early C. elegans embryos
NIKON FELLOW

Indu Sharma, Hampton University
Bacterial cell shape and size as predation avoidance strategy in marine environment
E.E. JUST FELLOW

Ava Udvadia, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
Elucidating evolutionarily conserved mechanisms regulating successful optic nerve regeneration in vertebrate species

Gert Jan Veenstra, Radboud University
Evolution and development of cardiac cell types

Trevor Wardill, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities
Encoding 3D space in the cephalopod brain

Fiona Watson, Washington and Lee University
Optic nerve regeneration

Elizabeth Willbanks, University of California – Santa Barbara
Biogeography of rapid evolution in bacterial symbiosis: the pink berries revisited

Ricardo Zayas, San Diego State University
Functional analysis of the transcription factor COE in the regeneration of the nervous system of the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis
 
 
The 2021 Whitman Early Career Investigators are:

Vincent Boudreau, University of California – Berkeley
Stentor pyriformis: a novel cell biological model for uncovering evolutionary mechanics of photosynthetic activity regulation

Amy Herbert, Stanford University
Sea robins as a model for evolutionary trait gain in vertebrates

Dragomir Milovaniovic, German Center for Neurogenerative Diseases (DZNE)
Molecular detriments of synaptic vesicle clustering in the nerve terminals

Tetsuto Miyashita, Canadian Museum of Nature
Functions of the “isthmic organizer” and the head-trunk differentiation of the nervous system in a non-chordate deuterostome (hemichordate) Saccoglossus kowalevskii

Christina Zakas, North Carolina State University
Finding the genetic basis of developmental evolution

Contact: Diana Kenney
508-289-7139; dkenney@mbl.edu

Biomedical Fellow Olivia Willis of Australian Broadcasting Corp. training in microscopy and imaging. Credit: Maryn McKenna

Environmental Fellows Sarah Kaplan of The Washington Post and María Mónica Monsalve of El Espectador field sampling in Woods Hole. Credit: Craig LeMoult

The Fellows take a break from research to visit the Cape Cod National Seashore. Credit: Diana Kenney

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The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is dedicated to scientific discovery – exploring fundamental biology, understanding marine biodiversity and the environment, and informing the human condition through research and education. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution and an affiliate of the University of Chicago.

The Logan Science Journalism Program is sponsored by: George & Helen H.B. Logan; Friends and Alumni of the Science Journalism Program; Golden Family Foundation; Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Irving Weinstein Foundation, Inc.; Ross Foundation; and the Byron H. Waksman Fund for Excellence in Science Communication.

The Swope Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory.

In a study published in Environmental Research Letters, scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) Ecosystems Center examine ways to reduce the nitrogen footprint of smaller institutions, like the MBL, by focusing on a bottom-up approach.

“This bottom-up approach is all about balancing the needs of various stakeholders to come up with the best, most feasible solution for the institution,” says Sarah Messenger, lead author and research assistant in the MBL Ecosystems Center.

At the MBL, and many institutions like it, the biggest sources of nitrogen are food production and consumption. That’s because nitrogen is used as fertilizer to grow our food and produce the feed that supports livestock animals.

Researchers found that switching to an all-vegan diet (no animal products) in dining halls would make a huge dent in the institution’s nitrogen footprint, but MBL’s dining team called it a non-starter. The kitchen staff isn’t trained for that, nor would the customers be open to it, they said. It would also mean big changes for the department’s budget.

“The problem here is not just at an institutional level, but at a family level, at the community level, at regional, state, and national levels. The problem is that these things cost a lot of money and they are difficult to implement,” says Javier Lloret, MBL research scientist.

The scientists also found that upgrading the institution’s HVAC systems, fitting new, more efficient windows, or going 100% solar could cut the institution’s nitrogen footprint. But all of those solutions come with a large price tag.

“The MBL is really small, so we don’t have the personnel resources of larger Institutions,” says Messenger. “We don’t have a sustainability department. We have limited manpower, limited resources, and limited money that we can put towards making these big changes.”

But what the MBL and many smaller institutions have are people who are experts at what they do. So instead of searching for a solution to the institution’s nitrogen footprint that could require a large budget commitment from the director or the board of trustees, the scientists identified on-the-ground stakeholders in the departments that were responsible for the biggest portion of MBL’s nitrogen footprint—food and facilities—and modeled “low-effort” solutions for those departments. They focused on ideas that didn’t require new personnel, a large investment or a change in normal operations, and could be accomplished over the short term (three to five years).

“The goal was to only model changes that these department leaders could implement in their departments without needing sweeping changes and institution approval,” says Messenger, adding that the team “completely disregarded any reduction strategies that weren’t acceptable to the people that know their department best.”

People eating in the MBL cafeteria. Credit: Emily Greenhalgh

The MBL’s facilities team was already implementing an upgrade of the institution’s lighting, so the research team adding those upgrades to their model — calculating a 7.3% drop in the nitrogen footprint of the utilities sector and a 2% drop in the MBL’s overall nitrogen footprint. Purchasing extra renewable energy credits to power the MBL with solar energy was also modeled.

Combining all the approaches, the scientists calculated a 7.7% drop in the MBL’s nitrogen footprint with no major disruption to operations and no additional monetary support from the institution.

“It might not seem like a lot, but 8% is a lot of nitrogen,” said Lloret. “These small changes do make a difference.”

While no measures have been implemented yet, the team said they were optimistic by the response from the department stakeholders and hoped that the MBL, and other small institutions like it, could use this paper to examine ways to minimize their nitrogen and carbon footprints.

“We all want the same thing,” says Messenger. “We would all love the MBL to reduce the impact on our environment as much as possible, but exactly how to get there is challenging. We’re hoping that this paper can be a map forward.”

Other co-authors include MBL Ecosystems Center Director Anne Giblin and MBL Trustee James Galloway.

The authors of the paper wanted to thank MBL’s Erin Hummetoglu, Marie Russell, and Bill Brosseau for their contributions to this project.

Citation: Messenger, S., Lloret, J., Galloway, J. N., & Giblin, A. (2021). Identifying and assessing effectiveness of alternative low-effort nitrogen footprint reductions in small research institutions. Environmental Research Letters, 16(3), 035014. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/abd9f6

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