The FAMU Environmental Sciences Institute (ESI) recently received a $199,706 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to investigate how the BP oil spill of 2010 is affecting microorganisms in the Gulf of Mexico.The principal investigator for the grant Henry Neal Williams.
Williams proposed the research project because of the important role that microorganisms play in a wide variety of natural processes that are critical to maintaining healthy aquatic ecosystems. Many environmental scientists fear that the oil deposits in Gulf waters and sediments will disrupt the microbial community and those system functions for which they are responsible.
The project engages both ESI undergraduate and graduate students in studying how the catastrophic oil spill is impacting the Gulf of Mexico’s bacterial community.