The National Science Foundation Office of Integrative Activities awarded Tulane University $299,895 on January 1, 2027, under the Integrative Activities program (CFDA 47.083) to support an EPSCOR Research Fellows project improving understanding of mercury cycling in the global ocean.
The fellowship funds an associate professor and graduate student training at Tulane to investigate how mercury moves through seawater and transforms into methylmercury, a toxic form that accumulates in seafood. The research integrates long-term ocean observations, laboratory studies, and advanced computer modeling to identify processes controlling mercury storage, transport, and transformation. The project compiles and harmonizes decadal mercury concentration and chemical speciation observations from international oceanographic programs and combines these datasets with experimental marine biogeochemistry to improve mechanistic representations within the Community Earth System Model ocean framework. The resulting model will quantify how biological productivity, particle export, ocean circulation, and environmental conditions regulate mercury dynamics and atmospheric exchange.
The work is conducted in collaboration with Dr. Amina T. Schartup at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The fellowship strengthens Tulane's research capacity, expands collaboration between an EPSCOR institution and a leading oceanographic research center, provides interdisciplinary training for students, and generates knowledge supporting environmental management and international mercury pollution reduction efforts.
The period of performance runs from January 1, 2027, through December 31, 2028, with place of performance at La Jolla, California.