WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH GRANT PROPOSAL
WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH GRANT PROPOSAL
Project ID: 2002NJ8B
Title: Salt Marsh Macrophyte Rhizosphere Effects on Sediment Microbial Community Catabolic Response Profiles
Project Type: Research
Focus Categories: Wetlands, Sediments, Methods
Keywords: polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, PAH, organohalide, nutrient pollutants, New York Bight, phragmites, spartina, rhizosphere, microbial, catabolic response profiles, CRP
Start Date: 03/01/2002
End Date: 03/01/2003
Federal Funds: $4,000
Non-Federal Matching Funds: $8,673
Congressional District: 6th
Principal Investigators:
B.W. Ravit
Rutgers University
Joan G. Ehrenfeld
Rutgers University
Abstract
Due to their high assimilative capacities salt marshes may act as a sink for introduced compounds, retaining substances transported by terrestrial and tidal inflows, and often changing the chemical composition of transported substances through transformations that occur within the estuarine system. Of concern are polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), halogenated organics and metals which are manufacturing byproducts which can threaten human health.
This study will use catabolic response profiles (CRP) to characterize differences in substrate utilization by microbial communities associated with Spartina alterniflora and Phragmites australis vegetation in contaminated and non-contaminated systems.