NOAA Awards More than $4 Million to the New York Botanical Garden for a Plant Research Laboratory

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration granted $4,038,800 to the New York Botanical Garden for a new plant research laboratory. NOAA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The grant will support the design, development and construction of a plant research laboratory at the New York Botanical Garden. The lab will be the principal site at the NYBG for conservation genetics studies of protected, rare and endangered plant species. With a modernized laboratory space, biodiversity-prospecting projects have an important conservation implication that highlight the economic value of selected natural resources.

“Funding from this NOAA grant will provide scientists with the tools and information that they need to accurately study marine plant life,” said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “NOAA and the Bush Administration are working to improve the understanding of our environment as well as strengthen local plant research initiatives like the New York Botanical Garden”

Each year, NOAA awards approximately $900 million in grants to members of the academic, scientific and business communities to assist the agency in fulfilling its mission to study the Earth’s natural systems in order to predict environmental change, manage ocean resources, protect life and property, and provide decision makers with reliable scientific information. NOAA’s goals and programs reflect a commitment to these basic responsibilities of science and service to the nation for the past 34 years.

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of our nation’s coastal and marine resources. To learn more about NOAA, please visit: http://www.noaa.gov.