Two FSUCML Faculty Among Researchers Awarded $4 Million in Research Funding to Study the Northeastern Gulf
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (June 16, 2025) — Two lead research faculty from the Florida State University Coastal & Marine Laboratory (FSUCML) are playing major roles in a newly funded $4 million initiative focused on the deep-sea and coral ecosystems of the northeastern Gulf. The funding, awarded by the Florida RESTORE Act Centers of Excellence Program (FLRACEP) through the Florida Institute of Oceanography, supports four collaborative research projects—two of which are led or co-led by FSUCML researchers.
Dr. Dean Grubbs, a Full Research Faculty member and Associate Director of Research at FSUCML, will lead the project "Understanding Long-term Community Structure and Population Dynamics of Large Deep-sea Fishes from De Soto Canyon to the West Florida Escarpment." Dr. Sandra Brooke, also a Full Research Faculty member at FSUCML, will play a significant role as Co-Principal Investigator on a project led by Dr. Mingshun Jiang of Florida Atlantic University titled "Influences of Upwelling and Riverine Nutrient Plumes on the Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems of the West Florida Shelf."
Dr. Grubbs’ project builds on over a decade of deep-sea research spanning from the Deepwater Horizon (DwH) oil spill to the present. Between 2011 and 2020, Grubbs and colleagues used innovative sampling techniques to explore large demersal fish species—such as sharks, deep-sea teleosts, and hagfishes—at depths of 200 to 2,000 meters from Louisiana to the West Florida Escarpment. The team collected thousands of samples across more than 100 species, identified new species, resolved taxonomic uncertainties, and assessed ecological impacts from toxic hydrocarbon exposure following the oil spill.
Now, with this new three-year funding cycle (2025–2028), Dr. Grubbs and his collaborators aim to assess long-term ecosystem changes nearly two decades after the disaster. By resampling previously studied stations, the project will examine biodiversity, community structure, toxicological responses (including lingering polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon exposure), and population trajectories of sentinel species. Novel genomic techniques will also be applied to reconstruct historic population changes across timescales spanning tens to thousands of years—offering rare insight into the ecological stability of deep-sea communities.
Dr. Brooke’s co-led study targets the relatively unexplored mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs) of the West Florida Shelf, located 30 to 150 meters deep. These habitats support diverse coral and fish communities and deliver crucial ecosystem services. Yet, much remains unknown about how they respond to varying food supply driven by oceanographic conditions.
Dr. Brooke will lead the mesophotic habitat characterization and coral species analysis to investigate how nutrient availability influences coral community structure and health. Her work will compare coral physiological metrics—such as growth, energy storage, fatty acid composition, reproductive condition, and metabolomics—of dominant coral species living in nutrient-rich sites affected by the Mississippi River plume and nutrient-poor areas farther south. This research will deepen understanding of how oceanographic features like upwelling and sediment flux influence coral resilience, productivity, and biodiversity across the shelf.
Program Management Team Chair Dr. Bonnie Ponwith and U.S. Representative Kelly Castor have expressed their enthusiasm for the research. The other two projects selected focus on the endangered Rice’s whale and its prey, further demonstrating the program’s commitment to supporting diverse scientific priorities throughout the Gulf.
The selected projects will be supported with vessel access, remote sensing tools, and additional resources from NOAA and the Office of Naval Research. Research begins in summer 2025 and will continue through 2028.