Contract C76632

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection awarded a fixed-cost agreement valued at $145,765.55 for a one-year period commencing July 1, 2026, and concluding June 30, 2027. The contract (C76632) focuses on identifying chemical cues that enhance coral settlement and assessing their applicability in reef restoration initiatives. The project encompasses four primary tasks: developing a Quality Assurance Plan, characterizing waterborne chemical cues for different coral larval species, isolating chemical cues from the crustose coralline algae Hydrolithon boergesenii, and extracting coral samples for metabolomics analysis. The work specifically evaluates the impacts of tetrabromopyrrole, a known settlement cue, on bacterial microbiomes of coral recruits while simultaneously discovering new chemical cues for future restoration purposes.

Deliverables are structured across four quarterly milestones, with the majority of project costs allocated to the second and fourth quarters. Quarter Two deliverables (due December 1, 2026) account for $71,679.48 and include experimental documentation, larval settlement data, chemical extraction analyses, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectral data. Quarter Four deliverables (due June 15, 2027) represent $72,882.77 and consist of a final presentation, presentation slides, and a 508-compliant final report in both portable document format and Microsoft Word. The contract structure indicates that coral samples will be shipped to Georgia Tech for metabolomics analysis, suggesting multi-state coordination in project execution.