Category: Featured

Researchers are leveraging a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence transformer model to better manage the water flow from Lake Okeechobee to the Caloosahatchee River, which will reduce the amount of released nutrients that produce harmful algal blooms (HABs). CCS Postdoctoral Associate Enrique Orozco López, Ph.D., collaborates with University of Florida Associate Professors David Kaplan, Ph.D., and Maitane […]

Congratulations to Britney Hay, winner of a 2023 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Award, a prestigious and highly competitive fellowship that helps support outstanding graduate research across the country. With this support, Hay, who’s a doctoral candidate in Environmental Engineering Sciences, will advance her research on mangrove ecology and coastal restoration, and hopes to […]

Dear Friends and Colleagues, Spring has sprung here in North Florida, bringing a sense of growth and renewal. Nothing says possibility like the gorgeous red flowers blooming on the Amaryllis in my garden! Here at the Center for Coastal Solutions, we’re also growing and changing. This month, we’re delighted to introduce our new newsletter, Coastal Edges, in which […]

In February, researchers from four institutions across Florida began work on a multidisciplinary project to better predict and manage harmful algal blooms (HABs) in Lake Okeechobee and the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee River estuaries. The goal of the $2.5 million project, funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), is to develop an advanced […]

CCS Associate Research Scientist Ron Fick, Ph.D., is harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) to forecast the water quality parameters of red tide blooms and chlorophyll-a concentration (i.e., the amount of algae growing in a body of water) in the Peace River Basin. Fick partners with CCS affiliates Zhe Jiang, Ph.D., and Guangming Zheng, Ph.D., a research […]

UF Ph.D. student Sara Swaminathan and ecologist Andrew Altieri joined a global consortium of experts in deoxygenation, which is the decline in oxygen levels in oceanic and coastal waters, at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia to collaborate on two synthesis papers that will harness global perspectives to advance knowledge […]

A study examining the effects of mussels on salt marshes showed that animals may have a much greater role than previously expected in helping these vital coastal ecosystems adapt to climate change.   “As sea levels rise, some marsh habitats are at risk of drowning. Our goal was to understand how the ecological community living […]

Congratulations to UF Emeritus Professor Tom Ankersen on winning the 2022 Nature Coast Champion Award from the IFAS Nature Coast Biological Station (NCBS) in December. The award recognizes his extensive work in supporting the conservation, restoration and management, protection of coastal and aquatic resources in Florida’s Nature Coast, an area that encompasses eight counties bordering […]

A supercomputer that can predict climate change, natural infrastructure that slows flooding in coastal areas, and a highly maneuverable robotic fish for monitoring coastal waters were among the innovations shared by scientists and engineers at a summit hosted by the UF Center for Coastal Solutions (CCS) on December 2 at the Harn Museum of Art. […]

Two days after Hurricane Ian slammed into the Southwest Florida coast as a near Category 5 storm, SCCF Marine Lab Director Eric Milbrandt, Ph.D., began to mobilize a coordinated effort to assess water quality impacts.

“I reached out to our colleagues at University of Florida’s Center for Coastal Solutions (UF-CSS) who we’ve been working with on a current harmful algae bloom research project funded by EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,” said Milbrandt. “After seeing the devastation of the causeway and the islands, I knew that our routine monthly sampling from Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico would not be possible with SCCF equipment.”

Even if you manage to tune out the constant media coverage of Hurricane Ian’s toll on human lives and property on Sanibel, the sensory reminders are everywhere: chainsaw whine, shattered homes, boarded stores, muck stink on the breeze.
But what about nature?

The University of Florida’s Center for Coastal Solutions, or CCS, and the SAS Institute, a global leader in data analytics software, are joining forces to study the factors that influence water quality and the connections between water quality and economic activity in southwest Florida.

New WATERSHED series investigating water quality and marking the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act launches with an article focusing on collaborative red tide research by CCS and the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation.

The CCS Coastal Policy Lab focused the Spring semester on the development of science-to-policy tools to advance the development of restoration aquaculture to enhance water quality in Florida and on governance issues associated with Florida’s wild oyster fishery.

In a new study that is the first to explain what some have long suspected, researchers found that human activity helps sustain and intensify naturally occurring red tide blooms in Southwest Florida.

By Tom Ankersen, Legal Skills Professor & Legal Program Director, UF Law Students and faculty in the CCS Coastal Policy Lab (CPL) kicked off Spring Break with a field trip to Tampa Bay to get out on the water and meet the stakeholders where they work. The CPL is an experiential learning partnership between the […]

Students of CCS-affiliated faculty presented their research at the 2022 UF Water Institute Symposium Poster Session. Topics included macroalgae decay rates, impact of sea level rise on wave loads, morphodynamics of oyster reefs, crabs as ecosystem engineers, invasive species databases, tidal flows in fjords, sturgeon conservation, invasive hog impact on salt marshes, water modeling of […]

For the 8th UF Water Institute Symposium, the CCS has organized a program of sessions and panels that explore what the future of coastal water quality monitoring, modeling, management, and policy should/could look like from a technological, scientific and engineering perspective, as well as through a management and policy lens.

This project, funded through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineering With Nature initiative, will advance understanding of how and why coastal landforms, including dunes, salt marshes, and oyster reefs, are evolving through innovative coastal sensing, modeling, and experimental research. A team of six Principal Investigators (PIs) from Civil and Coastal Engineering (Professor Alex Sheremet, […]

The inaugural semester of the CCS Coastal Policy Lab came to close in early December with a field trip to Sanibel Island to present the results of the students’ interdisciplinary projects. The Coastal Policy Lab (CPL) is a student-centered experiential learning collaboration between the University of Florida Colleges of Law and Engineering, and Florida Sea […]

CCS Associate Director Dr. David Kaplan, and a team of CCS-affiliated scientists and engineers from UF, the USF, NCSU, and the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation have received $2.3 million from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study how water and nutrients flowing from Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee River watershed interact with tides, currents, and waves at the coast to affect coastal water quality.

A post-doctoral associate fellowship and six graduate student research assistantships are available starting in August 2022 at the University of Florida for an interdisciplinary project, funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineering With Nature initiative, based out in the UF Center for Coastal Solutions. A team of six PIs from the departments of […]

Salt marsh resilience compromised by crabs along tidal creek edges A long-term study in Elkhorn Slough revealed the impact of superabundant crabs on salt marsh vegetation and the vulnerability of tidal creek banks to erosion     Excerpt from press release by Tim Stephens / UC Santa Cruz News, August 09, 2021: Coastal marshes are […]