NC Sea Grant-Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership Fellowship

The NC Sea Grant-Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership Fellowship offers funding for graduate students in North Carolina to conduct applied research in estuarine management. Supporting focus areas include estuary spatial planning, submerged aquatic vegetation, coastal water quality, ecological flows, and wetlands. The program encourages proposals from students at Historically Black Colleges, Minority Serving Institutions, and those who can demonstrate outreach benefits to underserved communities, aligning with the goals of the North Carolina Sea Grant and APNEP.

This fellowship is supported by North Carolina Sea Grant and the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership, or APNEP. The opportunity provides funding for graduate students based in North Carolina to conduct applied research within the North Carolina portion of the APNEP management area.
Fellows must conduct research that addresses focus areas identified in the North Carolina Sea Grant 2018-2021 Strategic Plan and management actions identified in the APNEP Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan. The programs strongly encourage proposals from graduate students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions and/or from traditionally underserved and underrepresented communities, as well as from graduate students who can demonstrate how their work and related outreach will benefit underserved and underrepresented communities.
Purpose
The Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership (APNEP) and North Carolina Sea Grant (Sea Grant) are accepting applications for the 2022 Graduate Fellowship in Estuarine Research.
The fellowship provides funding for graduate students based in North Carolina with an opportunity to conduct applied research within the North Carolina portion of the APNEP management area. Fellows must conduct hypothesis-based research that addresses one or more
of the following broad focus areas:

• Estuary Spatial Planning

Advances North Carolina’s ability to manage existing and emerging commercial and recreational uses of the Albemarle-Pamlico estuarine system to maximize benefits of ongoing coastal habitat and water quality protection and restoration efforts.
Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV)
Uses innovative approaches to describe the ecology of and quantify the ecosystem services provided by mesohaline and oligohaline SAV species.
Coastal Water Quality
Assesses nutrient and sediment loadings under varying conditions and the effects on water quality.Investigates the use of relative source tracking for nutrients and sediments.
Determines the impact of emerging contaminants and micro-plastics to water quality.
Ecological Flows
Identifies hydrologic conditions that support biotic integrity and habitat function.
Wetlands
Assesses vulnerability of and impacts to coastal wetlands from factors associated with pollution, land conversion, or climate change.Identifies structural and functional loss in coastal wetlands to inform and prioritize restoration.