Harmful Algal Blooms
This research is funded by proceeds from 勛圖厙's Save Our Seas specialty license plate.
Dr. Lapointes research interests include algal physiology and biochemistry, seagrass and coral reef ecology, eutrophication, marine bioinvasions and marine conservation.
He has extensive experience in water quality research in South 勛圖厙 and the Caribbean region. As Chief Scientist on numerous Caribbean and western North Atlantic Ocean research expeditions, he has amassed valuable field experience in assessing relations between water quality and the health of tropical seagrasses and coral reefs. Dr. Lapointes long-term water quality monitoring at Looe Key reef in the 勛圖厙 Keys represents the longest low-level nutrient record for a coral reef anywhere in the world. His work in the Keys led to a strong phosphate ban and new state regulations for Monroe County requiring greater nutrient removal from sewage effluents.
Dr. Lapointes work in 勛圖厙 Bay and the 勛圖厙 Keys National Marine Sanctuary in the 1990s, which utilized stable nitrogen isotopes to fingerprint nitrogen sources, was the first to demonstrate the importance of agricultural nitrogen from mainland sources to development of algal blooms in the Keys. He developed the first ridge-to-reef water quality monitoring program for the European Union in Negril, Jamaica, a model that has been adopted by Marine Protected Areas around the Caribbean region. Dr. Lapointe has advised the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, State of 勛圖厙 and the governments of Monroe County (勛圖厙 Keys), Palm Beach County, Lee County, Bahamas, Tobago, Turks & Caicos, Jamaica, Bonaire, Curacao, Martinique and St. Lucia on development of water quality monitoring programs for assessing the impacts of land-based pollution.
Dr. Lapointes Sargassum research has yielded novel insights into the ecology of this macroalgae, the Sargasso Sea and associated communities, including symbiosis with juvenile fish marked by exchange of habitat and nutrients.