David Hinton studies the causes and effects of environmental contaminants on ecosystem health, particularly on fish. He has bred a strain of guppy-like Medaka fish that are highly sensitive to contaminants and can be used as sentinels to detect water quality problems in urban drinking water.
tel: (919) 613-8038: e: dhinton@duke.edu

Research focus: Mechanistic and integrative understanding of the manner in which environmental contaminants exert their effects. Pathobiology and toxiopathology of persistent environmental contaminants in fishes. Deciphering deleterious effects and establishing causal linkages.
   
Some of Hinton’s specially bred Medaka sentinel fish have been sent to Orange County, Calif., where they are being use to evaluate the safety of its drinking water. Any hints of lesions on or in their tiny bodies may hint of unseen toxic agents.

Mike Orbach served as a scientific advisor to the US Commission on Ocean Policy and is an expert on marine and coastal management and policy. He is director of the Duke Marine Lab.
tel: (252) 504-7606  e: mko@duke.edu

Research focus: Applications of social science to environmental policy and management. Marine fisheries and integrated coastal management. Public involvement and participatory action in environmental policy. Environmental sociology and anthropology.
   
Orbach has conducted research on all U.S. coasts, as well as Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and the Pacific Rim.

Joseph Ramus studies the impact of nitrogen pollution from animal and human waste on estuarine and coastal marine health. He also studies the impact of hurricanes on water quality.
 tel: (252) 504-7617: e: jramus@duke.edu

Research focus: Algal ecological physiology, especially photosynthesis; estuarine and coastal ocean productivity; wastewater management; marine ecology.
   
As more land in coastal regions is cleared for suburbia or converted into intensive agricultural operation, water quality is suffering downriver in environmentally sensitive estuaries and coastal waters, Ramus says. With “more and more land use change, more water comes off the watershed and it comes off faster," Ramus says. “One major consequence of this is that excess nitrogen runoff from automobile emissions, animal wastes and fertilizers enters the water, where it nurtures algae growth that robs the water of oxygen and promotes fish kills.”
   
To learn more about the impact of hurricanes and tropical storms on coastal water quality, Ramus and his colleagues have monitoring stations on three ferries -- two running from mainland North Carolina to Ocracoke Island in the Outer Banks, and the third crossing the Lower Neuse River, near where it empties into Pamlico Sound. When a hurricane or tropical storm hits, they have the tools in place to monitor water quality (data on dissolved oxygen, salinity, temperature, turbidity, chlorophyll levels and other parameters) in these waters.

Kenneth Reckhow is director of the Center for the Analysis and Prediction of River Basin Environmental Systems.
tel: (919) 613-8026: e: reckhow@duke.edu

Research focus: Reckhow is an expert on water quality assessment and management, risk assessment, water quality modeling and decision analysis.
  
Recent work by Reckhow and his research team has focused on the assessment of nonpoint source pollution on surface water quality and the development of "Total Maximum Daily Loads" (TMDLs). One current project involves the modeling and assessment of allowable nitrogen loads to the Neuse River estuary in North Carolina in order to achieve compliance with the chlorophyll standard. Reckhow was recently chair of the National Academy of Sciences Committee assessing the scientific basis of the EPA TMDL program.