In a collaboration with Georgia Tech and funded by the National Science Foundation, Coastal Carolina University is sending graduate student Elana Ames and undergraduate student Alec Villafana on a monthlong research cruise off the coast of Brazil to study nitrogen fixation.

The R/V Endeavor sailed from Barbados on May 6 for a two-day cruise to the study site, about five miles off Brazil's coast where the Amazon River dumps into the Atlantic Ocean.

Ames, a graduate student in the Coastal Marine and Wetland Studies program, will be taking water samples and looking for unique isotope tracers among the phytoplankton in the Amazon plume to better understand nitrogen fixation, which is the process that converts nitrogen to a usable form for plant production.

Villafana, a junior marine science major, will be documenting the research process, and you are invited to follow along by reading Villafana's blog (coastal.edu/coastal-now/amazonadventure) or following the CCU Student View Instagram account at @CCUStudentView.

Questions can be directed to Richard Peterson, assistant professor in the Department of Coastal and Marine Systems Science, at rpeters2@coastal.edu or 843-349-4057. Learn more about the Coastal Marine and Wetland Studies program here.