Discipline: Ecology Environmental and Earth Sciences
Subcategory: Water
Session: 1
Room: Senate
Alain Despeignes - Florida Institute of Technology
Co-Author(s): Rebecca Beltran, Aquinas College, MI; Alyssa Sharma, Appalachian State University, NC; Sandra Rech, Florida Institute of Technology, FL; Kelli Hunsucker, Florida Institute of Technology, FL; Ryan White, Florida Institute of Technology, FL; Nezamoddin N. Kachouie, Florida Institute of Technology, FL
Water pollution negatively impact the ecosystem causing damage to many marine and land species as well as causing waterborne disease for humans. The main goal of this research is to identify benthic organism(s) that can provide the fastest growth rate for optimum water filtration capacity and investigate what environmental factors can promote their growth to mitigate or possibly reverse water pollution at the Indian river lagoon (IRL). Kruskal-Wallis and Wilcoxon Pairwise test were used to compare the organisms’ growth. Organism growth was further modeled using environmental factors by Beta regression. Among the organisms that were studied in this research, three of them including Barnacles, Encrusting Bryozoans, and Oysters demonstrated significant growth and therefore, became the focus of this research. The optimal Beta regression model was identified for each organism using AIC and pseudo R2 values. Dock location along with the 7-day average of salinity and turbidity were identified as significant factors to predict barnacle growth using the Beta regression model with the highest pseudo R2. The Beta regression model also identified the dock location as the most significant predictor for oyster settlement. Moreover, dock location, season, the 7-day average of pH and temperature were identified as significant factors of the Beta regression model to predict the growth of encrusting bryozoans. Based on settlement data, collected within the IRL, the central and southernmost parts of the lagoon seem to foster more oyster settlement. Acidity, measured in pH, was the factor which had the greatest impact on the settlement of encrusting bryozoans. Barnacle growth was significantly impacted by dock location, salinity, and turbidity. Oysters did not show any relevant preference in their growth according to our analysis, but it did show an unfavorite but minimal response from environmental interactions between salinity-turbidity. As we gather more data/information about these organisms, further research will provide better understanding on how to ensure which organism(s) will grow to better mitigate the water pollution at the Indian River Lagoon.References: Indian River Lagoon 2011 Consortium (IRL2011C). Superbloom report: evaluating effects and possible causes with available data. St. Johns River Water Management District, Bureau of Environmental Sciences, Estuaries Section, Palatka. 2015. Barile, P. J., Widespread sewage pollution of the Indian River Lagoon system, Florida (USA) resolved by spatial analyses of macroalgal biogeochemistry, Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2018, 128, 557-574.Vargha A., Delaney H. D., The Kruskal–Wallis test and stochastic homogeneity. Journal of Educ Behav Stat, 1998, 23: 170–192.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): Funding was provided by an NSF REU Grant to Dr. Nezamoddin N. Kachouie, Florida Institute of Technology
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Nezamoddin N. Kachouie, nezamoddin@fit.edu, adespeignes2015@my.fit.edu
Role: I was involved in all aspect of the research except for data collected. I was mainly involved with data analysis, Interpretation, and conclusion with the supervision of Dr. N-Kachouie. This was research program based on REU for the summer of 2021.