Grant: Engage Grants Program

The sunlit upper layer of the ocean is naturally fertilized with iron, yet phytoplankton productivity is limited bylow iron across wide oceanic regions. For example the waters offshore central Chile are high in nitrogen andphosphorus but phytoplankton growth, and therefore the entire ecosystem, is limited by scarce iron. Ourhypothesis is that adding iron to stimulate a phytoplankton bloom at location(s) and time(s) when juvenile fishare shoaling and eggs are hatching will decrease mortality and increase recruitment, increasing fish biomass.Lucent Biosciences, Inc. has developed proprietary nutrient formulations to stimulate phytoplanktonproductivity. To develop these formulations to stimulate harvestable marine productivity they must determine:i) Whether the formulation supports accelerated growth and higher population sizes of diverse marinephytoplankters.ii) Whether the formulation shows toxicity to diverse marine phytoplanktersii) Whether the formulation alters the sinking rate of marine phytoplankters which determines how longincreased production is available for transfer up the food web.The Campbell lab has expertise in high throughput analyses of phytoplankton growth rates and sinkingrates. They will analyze the effects of the Lucent Biosciences formulations on growth, sinking and vitality ofmarine phytoplankton.