DISL’s Dorgan receives marine grant

Dr. Kelly Dorgan, an assistant professor of Marine Sciences at the University of South Alabama and the senior marine scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL), has received a prestigious CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation. The Faculty Early Career Development Program created by NSF gives early career faculty the support to advance their research and educational programs. Dr. Dorgan’s focus is in marine sediments and the diverse community of marine organisms, mostly worms, which live within those sediments. Marine worms play a vital role in the health of the world’s oceans. “Marine sediments are important because that’s where nutrients get regenerated,” she explained, and these marine worms are “important recyclers of the organic matter.” Dr. Dorgan plans to use the grant in the environments of Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, and laboratory to better understand how these worms change the physical structure of sediments, a process called ecosystem engineering, and in the classroom to expand the implementation of technology and tech skills into marine science lessons for middle and high school students to college graduate students. (Source: DISL 04/15/19)