ESSIC’s Arianna Sutton-Grier is co-PI of a newly funded exploratory grant sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Gulf Research Program. The one-year grants provide seed money for research in its early conceptual phase, for activities that can accelerate concept to testing, or for development of novel approaches. The program funded 12 grants, totaling more than $1.5 million, for award year 2015. Sutton-Grier’s project will examine how human health and well-being are affected when people in the affected area derive fewer benefits from ecosystems, following a natural or technological disaster.