Research Infrastructure: FAU Marine Science Lab Renovations at the Gumbo Limbo Environmental Complex

The Florida Atlantic University Marine Science Lab is located within the Gumbo Limbo Environmental Complex in Boca Raton, Florida. This lab is adjacent to an estuary and across the street from the Atlantic Ocean. Its location enables scientists to conduct subtropical marine research on a range of organisms, including some species of sharks, rays, marine plants, and threatened and endangered sea turtles.

While national and international researchers, as well as students and postdocs, have conducted research at the lab, the facility has been limited by an insufficient sea water system, and no outdoor facilities for research. These limitations restricted the variety of organisms that could be studied. Recent investments by the City of Boca Raton and the Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards (a local nonprofit organization) to upgrade the lab’s seawater system have vastly improved sea water conditions and availability.

This award will provide crucial resources to expand the research infrastructure of the lab and provide outdoor research tanks, flexible plumbing arrangements for experiments, secure fencing, back-up power, and additional educational displays. These enhancements will allow a broader array of marine organisms to be studied and will support three to four times the number of research projects that can be conducted at the lab per year.

More robust research studies will also benefit the larger community, promoting greater science awareness and understanding to the more than 220,000 members of the public that visit the environmental complex every year.

Historically, several factors have limited the range and variety of research that could be conducted at the Florida Atlantic University Marine Science Lab. The old seawater system delivered air-saturated water that many marine organisms could not tolerate, restricting lab users to research with air-breathing species. There are no outdoor water tables or even moderately deep tanks in the lab tank inventory.

Many marine study systems and species benefit from or require natural light and photocycles. This award will enable expansion of the exterior holding and experimental tank capacity by adding outdoor tanks and flexible configuration water table facilities. Outdoor tanks and water tables will facilitate concurrent experimental and control study designs, plus provide holding space adjacent to experimental space.

Additionally, funding will facilitate construction of mandatory secure enclosures around outdoor tanks and water tables Retractable shade covers add versatility. Supply and drainage lines for these tanks for raw or filtered flow-through seawater provide essential resources. A dedicated generator to ensure continuity of water distribution and treatment, as well as data acquisition in the event of power outages, will also be acquired.

The award will support the sharing of research with the larger community via additional new weather-tolerant displays, reflecting contemporary studies. The infrastructure improvements award will lead to more timely and innovative research and will enhance research at the lab on biology of diverse marine life including sea turtles, fishes – especially of elasmobranch fishes, diverse invertebrates, as well as mangrove, algal, and seagrass community studies.

This award by the Infrastructure Capacity for Biological Research program within the Division of Biological Infrastructure is jointly supported by the Division of Ocean Sciences.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.