The Kick off meeting of the project "Bacterial Community Shift Associated with Coral Reefs in Gulf of Aqaba" was held at the University of Jordan / Hamdi Mango Center for Scientific Research (HMCSR) on 3rd of April 2014, under the patronage of Prof Khaled Al Fawares, The Dean of Academic Research at the University of Jordan.
The two year project is funded by the Scientific Research Support Fund (SRF).
The specific objective of the project is to answer the following questions:
1- What are the effects of human activities on bacterial communities associated with selected species of stony coral in the Gulf of Aqaba?
2- Which bacterial disease(s) are affecting coral reefs in the Gulf of Aqaba?
3- Which bacterial community structure is associated with coral?, and what is the influence of temperature on abundance of these microbes?
4- Is there any antagonistic bacteria associated with the healthy coral reefs that can suppress disease development?
The project team that participated in the meeting are : The project coordinator, Dr. Nehaya Al-Karablieh from HMCSR, Prof. Dr. Musa Abu-Zarqa form Department of Chemistry / The University of Jordan, Prof. Dr. Fuad Al-Horani and Dr. Mamoon Al-Rshaidat from Faculty of Marine science/The University of Jordan -Aqaba branch.
This initiative aims to strengthen the capacity of Hamdi Mango Center for Scientific Research to be a national central laboratory, and to reinforce the cooperation between researchers at HMCSR and researchers from other research institutes, and to introduce the center to local research funding agencies.
