UNC program receives NSF, NIH grant to study Neuse River nutrient flow

By STEPHANIE GUNTER
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- The Carolina Environmental Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill recently received a $1.6 million grant to study what happens when nutrients and microbes interact and flow into the Neuse River – and possible implications for public health.

The Ecology of Infectious Diseases award, given to researchers at UNC and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, is funded jointly by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

"We want to develop a set of models that policy-makers can use to help control the spread of infectious diseases," said Dr. Doug Crawford-Brown, the grant’s principal investigator and Carolina Environmental Program director.  Crawford-Brown  is also a professor of environmental sciences and engineering in UNC's School of Public Health and public policy in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Increased nutrients in the water, or eutrophication, allow pathogens to thrive, Crawford-Brown said. Pathogen populations may increase in this environment – allowing greater human exposure to pathogens. Investigators hope their research will help determine whether one can increase the public’s health by controlling the nutrients flowing into a river, Crawford-Brown said.

In the past, eutrophication and disease were not viewed as linked, he added.

The National Science Foundation had sent out a request for proposals and received about 100 applicants. Only six proposals were chosen for funding.

"We were excited about it here for two reasons," said Crawford-Brown. "It’s a very important topic, and it helps create a very interdisciplinary group. The environmental change and human health (group) links environmental science, ecology, policy and public health."

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Carolina Environmental Program: Tony Reevy, (919) 966-9927 or reevy@email.unc.edu