March 27, 2025 — An East Carolina University professor is taking part in a series of interdisciplinary research cruises aimed at exploring biological organisms off the coast of North Carolina and gauging how climate and oceanic conditions affect marine resources.
Dr. Rebecca Asch, associate professor in the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Biology, is a collaborator on the $1.5 million Research Opportunities Initiative grant. ROI grants are funded by the North Carolina General Assembly to encourage innovative and collaborative research projects across the state. Dr. Bradley Tolar, assistant professor of biology and marine biology at UNC Wilmington, leads the project with partnerships from ECU, UNC Chapel Hill and N.C. State University.
“It’s a really important initiative, and I am proud to represent ECU,” Asch said.
Transect Expedition to Assess Land-to-Sea Habitats via Interdisciplinary Process Studies (TEAL-SHIPS) is the name of the project. It involves researchers exploring the continental shelf of North Carolina to collect data and better understand physical, chemical and biological oceanographic processes. Surveys of the coast, from estuaries along the Cape Fear River near Wilmington to the Gulf Stream, will span two years of data collection throughout eight research cruises (four times per year, or once per season), with one year to analyze the data and findings. They will traverse the same locations, collect the same information and use the same equipment on each research cruise.
Transect Expedition to Assess Land-to-Sea Habitats via Interdisciplinary Process Studies (TEAL-SHIPS) is the name of the project. It involves researchers exploring the continental shelf of North Carolina to collect data and better understand physical, chemical and biological oceanographic processes. Surveys of the coast, from estuaries along the Cape Fear River near Wilmington to the Gulf Stream, will span two years of data collection throughout eight research cruises (four times per year, or once per season), with one year to analyze the data and findings. They will traverse the same locations, collect the same information and use the same equipment on each research cruise.
Asch said many of these offshore areas have not been surveyed by biologists since the 1990s.