Dr. Allison B Schwartz

The UWF GeoScholars program was designed based on the inherently interdisciplinary nature of geoscience research and careers. Specifically, we sought to demonstrate to undergraduate geoscience students the need for including content and skills from other academic areas, while also showing non-geoscience undergraduate majors the application of their fields of study to a range of geoscience topics, including climatology, soil science, and geomorphology. We secured NSF IUSE funding to pair faculty and undergraduate researchers from the UWF Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences with faculty-student partners from non-geoscience UWF departments, including Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Information Technology, and Mathematics & Statistics. Research team faculty mentors collaborated to identify an interdisciplinary geoscience research project that employed specific areas of interest and expertise from the geoscience and non-geoscience participants. Faculty then worked with the UWF GeoScholars directors to identify and recruit students from a targeted pool of eligible undergraduate students. Research teams then conducted related research, with students funded as part of the UWF Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) and continuing through the subsequent academic year(s) culminating in each student presenting research at a regional or national geoscience conference, also attended by the non-geoscience faculty mentors. Additionally, the UWF GeoScholars program developed a series of professional development engagement activities that began in the UWF SURP program and continued in regular GeoScholars programs during the academic year. Professional development highlights included student researcher sessions with regional geoscience employers and representatives from national geoscience PhD graduate programs. Now in its third year, the UWF GeoScholars has facilitated multiple new interdisciplinary faculty collaborations, trained more than 20 undergraduate students in research and professional skills, and engaged regional industry partners with the University community as demonstration of the multitude of paths into the geosciences.

The Delaware River and Bay Estuary is one of the major urbanized estuaries of the world. The 100-km long tidal river portion of the estuary suffered from major summer hypoxia in the past due to municipal and industrial inputs in the urban region; the estuary has seen remarkable water quality improvements from recent municipal sewage treatment upgrades. However, the estuary still has extremely high nutrient loading, which appears to not have much adverse impact. Since the biogeochemistry of the estuary has been relatively similar for the past two decades, our multiple year research database is used in this review paper to address broad spatial and seasonal patterns of conditions in the tidal river and 120 km long saline bay. Dissolved oxygen concentrations show impact from allochthonous urban inputs and meteorological forcing as well as biological influences. Nutrient concentrations, although high, do not stimulate excessive algal biomass due to light and multiple nutrient element limitations. Since the bay does not have strong persistent summer stratification, there is little potential for bottom water hypoxia. Elevated chlorophyll concentrations do not exert much influence on light attenuation since resuspended bottom inorganic sediments dominate the turbidity. Dissolved inorganic carbon and dissolved and particulate organic carbon distributions show significant variability from watershed inputs and lesser impact from urban inputs and biological processes. Ratios of dissolved and particulate carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus help to understand watershed and urban inputs as well as autochthonous biological influences. Owing to the relatively simple geometry of the system and localized anthropogenic inputs as well as a broad spatial and seasonal database, it is possible to develop these biogeochemical trends and correlations for the Delaware Estuary. We suggest that this biogeochemical perspective allows a revised evaluation of estuarine eutrophication that should have generic value for understanding other estuarine and coastal waters.

A research project initiated by faculty from a community college and a nearby regional comprehensive university has provided faculty and students from both institutions with a variety of educational and research opportunities. The continuing project assessing harmful algal bloom dynamics in NW Florida has prospered due to the synergy between faculty and students pursuing separate, but mutually beneficial goals within the research collaboration. The coastal biogeochemistry project was launched two years ago in an estuarine site that is located in close proximity to the Northwest Florida State College (NWFSC), a community college with a two-year science program, and is built upon an existing research project being performed by University of West Florida (UWF) faculty and graduate students. NWSFC students actively participate in both field collection and lab processing of samples and provide manpower for the project and NWFSC lab facilities close to the field site benefit the project by facilitating high sampling frequency. UWF graduate students provide continuity between field seasons and access to UWF's advanced research analytical capabilities that are not available at NWFSC. As such, the project depends on the interaction of parties (faculty and student) from both institutions and prospers where the individual institutions would likely fall short. The research project has been incorporated into NWFSC courses, is related to at least two UWF master's theses, and was the foundation for a funded NSF research grant and additional research proposals with NWFSC and UWF personnel as PIs. Additionally, the collaborators are a married couple and this project has provided an opportunity to deal with the challenge of being a couple with two academic careers in the same discipline.