Burroughs Wellcome Fund Project: New River Biodiversity and Water Quality – Conserving Our Home in South Florida

The Project

The non-profit Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance (GIGA) has been awarded a 2023 Climate Change and Human Health Seed Grant. The primary aim of our project is to determine the current, baseline health of the New River of Fort Lauderdale where it enters the Sistrunk community in South Florida. This will be accomplished using state-of-the-art molecular microbiology methods A second goal of this project is to form new alliances among diverse communities – sciences, academia, social sciences, and resident stakeholders in the context of conserving biodiversity and climate change.

Our vision

Our vision is to realize and promote cleaner waters that sustain biodiversity in both natural and human-impacted habitats.

“Clean, unpolluted waters host more biodiversity than disturbed ones.”

— GIGA New River Research Team

Our methods

A baseline of public climate literacy within the Sistrunk neighborhood will be assessed through a pre-test survey instrument at the initial citizen science event introducing the project and working to gain community participation and interest. Biological sampling results will be shared with the community through a series of inter-generational public education and engagement activities including citizen science, and science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) workshops to bolster interest, knowledge and understanding of how humans impact our environment, historically, contemporarily and the actions that are needed now in order to ensure a viable future for our community and our species. The intersections of biology, health, human impacts on the environment and climate change will be key factors of discussion and deliberation. Factsheets/ checklists will be designed to distribute to participating households as a reminder and reference to information exchanged about how to reduce pollution and climate related human health disparities and what steps can help to increase the quality of our riverine ecosystem and our lives and longevity as residents within the New River biome. A post-test survey instrument delivered at the conclusion of the second biannual citizen science workshop event will assess the extent to which the project was successful in increasing the climate literacy of Sistrunk community residents.

Upcoming events

The Burroughs Wellcome New River (BWNR) team will attend the Jan 15 2024 MLK Day event at Carter Park to provide information, demonstrate water tests that will raise awareness for the Sistrunk. Community. Contact us for more details (wabigun@yahoo.com).

Archived events and data

The New River team attended the Sistrunk Civic Association meeting and was welcomed with enthusiasm and engagement from residents and local commissioners. Tara Chadwick led the discussion which can be found here –

https://youtu.be/v0odpBmKLXY?si=KBFoAuyw5pJD0SS1