TEAL-SHIPS 8

TEAL-SHIPS (Transect Expedition to Assess Land-to-Sea Habitats via Interdisciplinary Process Studies) seeks to characterize the ecological processes across a diverse environmental gradient. Our team consists of physical, chemical, and biological oceanographers and students. Funded by the University of North Carolina (UNC) System Research Opportunities Initiative (ROI), TEAL-SHIPS has initiated collaborations across multiple institutions in our state to conduct eight research cruises seasonally over two years, from the mouth of the Cape Fear River (near Wilmington, NC, USA) to the Gulf Stream. Thus far, we have completed five cruises on board the R/V Cape Hatteras , managed by the Cape Fear Community College (CFCC) Marine Technology program, who are partners and collaborators in this project. On each of these previous expeditions, we have assessed coastal-to-offshore habitats across our transect including physical (e.g., temperature, salinity, oxygen, currents), chemical (e.g., chlorophyll, carbon, metabolites, nutrients), and biological (bacteria/archaea, plankton, fish) parameters from CTD casts, net tows, and trawls.