UTMSI Professor, Ben Walther was just awarded a National Science Foundation award to better understand the sub-lethal effects of hypoxia on Atlantic Croaker. Walther and his colleagues will use fish ear stones (otoliths) to identify periods of hypoxia exposure.  The otoliths will tell researchers if exposure to hypoxia results in differential growth and survival patterns compared to non-exposed fish.  The project will compare consequences of hypoxia exposure in several species from the Gulf of Mexico, the Baltic Sea, and Lake Erie, thus examining the largest anthropogenic hypoxic regions in the world spanning freshwater, estuarine, and marine ecosystems.