Dr. Bernhard Riegl heads a team of NSU researchers that is studying the effects of climate change on coral reefs. |
The pioneering and synergistic research at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) in Fort Lauderdale is a critical component of the university’s academic mission, healthcare services and public service. In 2009, NSU received nearly $50 million from external sources to fund more than 150 research projects in areas such as life sciences, health, biotechnology, environment and social interactions. NSU is expanding its research vision by enhancing basic, applied and clinical research; generating revenue through technology transfer; and fostering economic development in the community.
Currently, NSU research teams are finding cures for debilitating health conditions, developing ways to protect the environment, furthering the understanding of substance addictions and inventing new products to improve lives. Many research projects will soon be conducted in NSU’s 208,000-square-foot Center for Collaborative Research, which will be one of Florida’s largest wet research laboratories.
HIV prevention
NSU’s Behavioral Health Promotion Program, led by Isa Fernandez, Ph.D., is engaged in groundbreaking research to help reduce the spread of HIV among Hispanic and black men who have sex with men, a demographic group heavily impacted by the AIDS epidemic.
Fernandez’s research, funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is examining the acceptability and feasibility of delivering risk-reduction programs via the Internet, which is a more cost-effective method than traditional face-to-face encounters. This critical public-health research
has the potential to advance HIV prevention efforts both nationally and internationally.
Climate change and coral reefs
Researchers at NSU’s Oceanographic Center, led by professor Bernhard Riegl, Ph.D., are studying the effects of climate change on coral reefs. Using underwater observations to document environmental changes impacting coral reefs in the Mariana Islands, the Caribbean and other international waters, Riegl and his team are seeking to determine whether warmer ocean temperatures, likely caused by greenhouse gases, kill corals. To date, Riegl’s work has shown that climate change reduces coral reef populations and that climate changes affect some reefs, such as branching corals in particular, more acutely than others.
Findings from this research have important implications for the management of coral reefs, supporting the belief that the best way to make coral reefs resilient to climate change is to stress them as little as possible.
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