Research Activity

Main emphasis of current research is in the applied environmental microbiology, microbial ecology and microbial physiology of microorganisms that respond to or affect environmental health or ecosystem function. I have also initiated a project “Phytopathogens as Agents of Bioterrorism” that will develop methods for the detection and risk assessment of introduced phytopathogenic microorganisms on food and fiber production. Other interests include: hydrocarbon biodegradation; includes the environmental effects of both hydrocarbon pollution and of remediation efforts on polluted sites. Biosurfactants produced by microorganisms facilitate biodegradation of hydrocarbons; I am interested in the genetic and physiological regulation of biosurfactants production by bacteria, their toxicity relative to synthetic surfactants, and their utility in remediation of hydrophobic spills (four Master’s students). These research activities have components in analytical chemistry, molecular biology, microbial physiology, and environmental toxicology. I have a strong interest in environmental water quality, particularly regarding microbiological, nutrients, and hydrocarbon contamination.

Petroleum hydrocarbon degradation and environmental effects

• Remediation, safety and efficacy of petroleum-hydrocarbon spill bioremediation
• Microcosms and mesocosms that model oil spills
• Molecular biological and conventional approaches to microbial population diversity shifts in response to hydrocarbon or bioremediation stresses
• Application of biological surfactants in remediation of oil- and other hydrophobic spills

Biological surfactants

• Regulation of biosynthesis by physiological response to environmental cues and by gene induction and repression
• Toxicity of biosurfactants relative to that of synthetic surfactants
• Application of biosurfactants and biosurfactants-producing microorganism in remediation of hydrophobic spills
• Physical chemistry of biosurfactants classes and its effects on emulsification and surface tension reduction

Surface and groundwater quality

• Microbiological indicators of water quality; microbiological threats to water quality
• Effects and remediation of hydrocarbon and nutrient contamination

Microbial Indicators for ecosystem health

• Use of microbial diversity and ecophysiology as indicators of ecosystem health
• Use of microbial indicators to assess impacts of nutrient contamination and other pollutant in surface waters

Phytopathogens as Agents of Bioterrorism

• Use molecular biological tools to specifically detect introduced phytopathogenic microorganisms (fungi, viroids, viruses, bacteria) that may be used as agents of bioterrorism.
• Risk assessment for introduced phytopathogens to national production of food and fiber.

Coordinated oil-spill related projects

• Cooperative research to develop protocols for the safety and efficacy evaluation of oil spill bioremediation products and strategies. Project combined the efforts of the University of West Florida; the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Gulf Breeze, Florida; the National Environmental Technology Application Corporation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; EPA labs in Cincinnati and Athens; and the EPA administrative headquarters in Washington, DC.
• EPA-funded project to investigate fundamental principles of biodegradation of oil in microcosms and mesocosms that model open water, beach, and wetland spill scenarios. Work dealt with the microbial ecology as affected by oil contamination and by remediation efforts; molecular biological and conventional methodologies were employed to study microbial population diversity shifts in response to these stresses. The UWF project funded beach field trials in England in collaboration with the U. K. Atomic Energy Authority, the English National Environmental Technologies Centre, and England Nature (EPA equivalent). The project also developed and supported work at University of Newcastle Upon Tyne to apply molecular biological methods to study the diversity of bacterial degraders of aromatic hydrocarbons.
• Use of biosurfactants in oil-spill remediation. Funded by Amoco Oil Company and Marine Spills Response Corporation (a Petroleum Environmental Research Forum project). The work used molecular biological and microbial physiological methods to study the response of microbes to environmental cues for producing surfactants.