The agreement between UCF and Florida Park Service centers on a building in Econfina River State Park in rural Taylor County, about an hour southeast of Tallahassee. A former restaurant, the building will be renovated over the coming months to serve as a research station for exploring the surrounding ecosystem. It will also provide a base for several undergraduate field courses under development.

Econfina’s ecosystem, which encompasses coastal seagrasses to upland pine forest, is relatively pristine and free of pollution thanks to state and federal environmental protections along with the remote location. Its low-lying ground is also an excellent model for coastlines around the world threatened by rising sea levels. UCF’s National Center for Integrated Coastal Research, also known as UCF Coastal, is leading the new center.

“The work we will be able to accomplish at this unique site will help us better understand the threats to coastlines so many states and nations face. The kind of findings we will no doubt discover will bring us national prominence as we help solve some of the biggest challenges to our coasts.�

UCF Coastal, brings together experts across multiple fields of study to address coastline vulnerabilities ranging from extreme weather and public health to tourism and urban planning.

The location will also be invaluable to students by providing them hands-on opportunities to conduct field research and to include the community.

That variety of experts perfectly fits the scope of opportunities presented by the new research facility. Apart from biology students studying Econfina’s natural habitats, anthropology students can dig into historic sites dating back to pre-colonization; civil engineering students can research storm surge; and chemistry students can chart the long-term environmental impact of the area’s paper mills.

A big focus of the project will be community involvement and including area residents in basic research and outreach. It’s critical, Worthy said, that the knowledge gained through research is transferred back to the people in easy-to-understand language.

“Citizens gain a respect for science if they’re part of it and see the quality of what we’re uncovering,� Worthy said.

The value of the agreement is also in exposing students to field research, he said, adding that it’s one thing to learn science from a book, but quite another to use the tools and methods to draw real conclusions.

“It really changes the way you see things,� Worthy said.

UCF biology Pegasus Professor Graham Worthy also will speak about the pressures of population growth on the future of Florida’s coasts.

TED Talks date back to 1981 and are known for their thought-provoking and society-changing topics. Leaders of industry, education and business have presented their powerful stories. In 2007 the talks, which were then held in only one location, were put online. Local talks started a few years later. TEDx Orlando launched in 2010, but took a hiatus last year. Saturday’s program from the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center in Orlando is the relaunch of the program.

The focus of the afternoon program is Growth, Identity and Conflict. Speakers include Manero, who will discuss how 3-D printed bionic arms and art have the power to help children who have been perceived as disabled discover their identities. He will share the story of his nonprofit organization, which started as a group of students at UCF in 2014. The group builds functional bionic arms with artistic designs and gives them to children at no cost. The organization received national attention when actor Robert Downey Jr. helped the students deliver an Iron Man-themed arm in March 2015.

Worthy, an expert in marine biology and director of UCF’s Sustainable Coastal Systems Cluster, will discuss Florida’s population growth and its impact on coastal communities. He makes the case that because the marine environment influences far-inland areas, even Orlando residents should consider themselves as coastal citizens. He concludes that since all Floridians are coastal citizens, we all need to be concerned about coastal issues because ultimately, we’re all contributing to coastal problems.

Organizers say the goal of the local presentation is to showcase unsung heroes in the community, help the community heal from past conflicts and find ways to tackle some big problems.

Tickets for the show sold out within 15 minutes, which is why the organization decided to livestream the event on Facebook (facebook.com/TEDxOrlando).

Those who didn’t get a ticket and would like to check out the Knights in action along with a crowd, are invited to a free simulcast from 2 to 6 p.m. at the Pops Parlour at Knights Plaza on the main campus. UCF Alumni will hosti the event, and donations are welcome for Limbitless Solutions at .

To effectively teach conservation and other environmental concepts, organizers said it is more effective to focus on an animal that young children can identify with. So in Central Florida, the black bear was chosen as the most appropriate critter to focus on and use to teach about biology, management, human interactions and how all of these systems affect each other. UCF and Florida Gulf Coast º£½ÇÖ±²¥ in Fort Myers created the program modeled on a similar program, the Panther Posse, run by Wings of Hope, a nonprofit organization at FGCU.

“As a biologist and a parent I’ve seen children lose interest in science early, even before middle school. But if you show them science, really make it relevant where they can see it, taste it, smell it, they are floored and want to know more and more,� said Graham Worthy, chair of UCF’s biology department. “That’s why we wanted to do this, to help young children stay excited about science. We need to be reaching out to them earlier.�

The bear also was picked to represent the program because UCF has an in-house expert, biology researcher Dan Smith, who can advise the group. Smith is currently studying bear movements and behavior along the urban perimeter and corridors connecting habitat areas around the Wekiva River.

The goal of the Bear Brigade program is ultimately to increase student interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields, and with this endeavor, especially biology. The program is not just about bears but also the concept that by protecting the large blocks of wildlife habitat needed for a species like the black bear, you also help with water conservation and other critical ecosystem services.

Classroom sessions in topics such as anatomy, habitat, feeding habits, and dangers facing the bears will be lead by UCF students Molly Grace, Hannah Perkins, Liezelle Calina, Mirian Burrow, Madison Hall, Carly Kestranek and the FGCU partners, led by Ricky Pires, director of Wings of Hope. The organizers are planning to take the elementary school students on a field trip to Wekiwa Springs State Park next spring to see the habitat where the bears live so they can get a better appreciation for the whole ecosystem.

“The timing is perfect for such a program in Central Florida with the bears of Wekiva prominent in the news of late,� Worthy said. “Bear management and conservation and public safety in the surrounding neighborhoods is garnering a lot of public attention.�

The bear population in Florida is estimated at 3,200, he said, and in Central Florida the areas of highest density are Wekiwa Springs State Park and Ocala National Forest.

The schools that will participate in the pilot Bear Brigade project are: Evans Elementary, Oviedo; Heathrow Elementary, Lake Mary; Wetherbee Elementary, Orlando; Wekiva Springs Elementary, Wekiva Springs; and Clay Springs Elementary and Rock Springs Elementary, both in Apopka.

“Science is all around these kids every day,� Worthy said. “As a department we’re trying to encourage STEM education and outreach so they have a better appreciation of the world around them, and Bear Brigade is a great opportunity to achieve both of these goals.�

The Bear Brigade project is a partnership involving UCF and FGCU faculty and students, local school teachers and students, Florida State Parks, Disney Wilderness Preserve, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Friends of Wekiva River, National Park Service, and the Wekiva National Wild and Scenic River System.

For the past two years, scientists have been trying to figure out why there were a high number of dolphin deaths, part of what’s called an “unusual mortality event� along the northern Gulf of Mexico.

Most troubling to scientists was the exceptionally high number of young dolphins that made up close to half of the 186 dolphins that washed ashore from Louisiana to western Florida from January to April 2011.  The number of “perinatal� (near birth) dolphins stranded during this four-month period was six times higher than the average number of perinatal strandings in the region since 2003 and nearly double the historical percentage of all strandings.

“Unfortunately it was a ‘perfect storm’ that led to the dolphin deaths,� said Graham Worthy, a UCF provosts distinguished professor of biology and co-author of the study.  “The oil spill and cold winter of 2010 had already put significant stress on their food resources, resulting in poor body condition and depressed immune response.   It appears the high volumes of cold freshwater coming from snowmelt water that pushed through Mobile Bay and Mississippi Sound in 2011 was the final blow.�

The cold winter of 2010 was followed by the historic BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in April 2010, which dumped millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, likely disrupting the food chain. This was in the middle of the dolphins’ breeding season. A sudden entry of high volumes of cold freshwater from Mobile Bay in 2011 imposed additional stress on the ecosystem and specifically on dolphins that were already in poor body condition.

“When we put the pieces together, it appears that the dolphins were likely weakened by depleted food resources, bacteria, or other factors as a result of the 2010 cold winter or oil spill, which made them susceptible to assault by the high volumes of cold freshwater coming from land in 2011 and resulted in distinct patterns in when and where they washed ashore,â€� said Ruth Carmichael, a senior marine scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, an assistant professor of Marine Sciences at the º£½ÇÖ±²¥ of South Alabama and the lead author of the study.

The majority of perinatal strandings were centered on the Mississippi-Alabama coast, adjacent to Mobile Bay, the 4th largest freshwater drainage in the U.S. The onshore movement of surface currents during the same period resulted in animals washing ashore along the stretch of coastline where freshwater discharge was most intense.

Others who contributed to the study include: William M. Graham and Stephan Howden from the º£½ÇÖ±²¥ of Southern Mississippi, Stennis Space Center and Allen Aven from the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and the º£½ÇÖ±²¥ of South Alabama.

Worthy is the Hubbs Professor of Marine Mammalogy. He received his PhD in 1986 from the º£½ÇÖ±²¥ of Guelph in Canada and then completed post-doctoral training at the º£½ÇÖ±²¥ of California at Santa Cruz, where he studied elephant seals, bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions. He spent 11 years as a faculty member in the Department of Marine Biology at Texas A&M º£½ÇÖ±²¥ at Galveston and served as the State Coordinator for the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network.

Worthy and his team at UCF have been studying dolphin populations in the Pensacola and Choctawhatchee bays for years.

Those numbers are unusually high, said Professor Graham Worthy, an expert on dolphins who ran Texas’ Marine Mammal Stranding Network for a decade.

“I suspect what we might be seeing are several things coming together to form a perfect storm,� Worthy said. “The cold was a very unusual circumstance, but one which dolphins can normally survive, but we may also be seeing an indirect effect stemming from the BP oil spill.   If oil and the dispersants have disrupted the food chain, this may have prevented the mother dolphins from getting adequate nutrition and building up the insulating blubber they needed to withstand the cold.  That type of stress could ultimately have resulted in calves dying.�

Worthy is one of 27 Florida scientists studying the impact of the nation’s largest oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of a $10 million grant from BP. The grant was awarded to the Florida Institute of Oceanography, a coalition of scientists from public universities around the state.

The researchers are presenting preliminary findings and giving study updates today, May 25, and Thursday, May 26, at UCF’s Fairwinds Alumni Center in Orlando. Worthy will make his presentation at 1:40 p.m. Thursday, May 26. For a list of the other speakers and times, visit

Worthy, whose team has been studying dolphin populations in the Pensacola and Choctawatchee bays for years, has historical data that may be critical to ultimately understanding how the oil spill and clean up efforts may have impacted the dolphins.

The oil spill occurred during the dolphins’ breeding season. Worthy is interested in finding out if the young population survived and, if so, how healthy it is. Another question he seeks to answer is whether the fish the dolphins consume have been impacted by the spill.

Worthy is the Hubbs Professor of Marine Mammalogy. He received his Ph.D. in 1986 from the º£½ÇÖ±²¥ of Guelph in Canada and then completed post doctoral training at the º£½ÇÖ±²¥ of California at Santa Cruz, where he studied elephant seals, bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions. He spent 11 years as a faculty member in the Department of Marine Biology at Texas A&M º£½ÇÖ±²¥ at Galveston and served as the State Coordinator for the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network.