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January 31, 2005

Highlights

• Congratulations to our own Kay Bidle who has won the 2005 American Society of Limnology and Oceanography Lindemann Award! Well Deserved!!!!
• The Ocean Modeling Group took delivery of a 24-processor Linux-based Beowulf cluster parallel computer for ocean simulation and forecasting. The custom-built machine from Penguin Computing Inc. increases by more than ten-fold the group's computer resources. In addition to offering an on-call platform for real-time forecasting, it provides an in-house resource for interactive development of ocean model codes optimized for distributed memory cluster-type computers. The purchase was funded through ONR and NASA grants to John Wilkin, Hernan Arango and Dale Haidvogel.
• The American Australian Association in New York http://www.aaanyc.org has just announced the four American recipients of the Sir Keith Murdoch Fellowship grants (each $20,000 US) for graduate or postdoctoral study at Australian research institutions. Judy Grassle was one of the judges for the competition. The winners are Shaun C. Howard (University of Cincinnati, for graduate studies in chemical engineering at ANU), Leisha Nolen, (University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, for postdoctoral studies on the molecular biology of congenital cataracts at the Children’s Medical Research Institute, Sydney), Kristin Rosen (University of Wisconsin – Madison, for postdoctoral studies on the neurobiological basis of speech disorders at the University of Queensland), and Jill Zamzow (University of Hawaii – Manoa, for postdoctoral studies on mycosporine-like amino acids in the mucus coatings of coral reef fish at the University of Queensland). Marine biology is one of the disciplines in which the AAA welcomes fellowship applications. Students interested in applying for these fellowships should visit the AAA web site (above). The deadline for applications for the next round of fellowships will be in March, 2005.
• Jennifer Francis was invited to serve on the Executive Committee of the American Meteorological Society Council, as well as to serve as a member of the Executive Committee for NSF's Arctic System Science Committee.
  

Meetings Attended

• Jennifer Francis served as overall program chair for the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society from 9-13 January in San Diego, CA. Over 4,000 participants from dozens of countries attended the conference.
• Jennifer Francis gave an invited presentation entitled, "Attribution of Variability in Arctic Minimum Sea Ice Extent" at the 8th AMS Conference on Polar Meteorology and Oceanography, 9-13 January 2005 in San Diego, CA.
• Peter Rona presented a paper co-authored with colleagues from WHOI, the U.S. Geological Survey, and Stony Brook University, "Slope instability and gas hydrates in the Hudson Canyon Region, U.S. Atlantic continental margin," at the AGU Fall Meeting on 14 December, 2004.
• Karen Bemis, Peter Rona, and coauthors presented a paper, "Inferences of particle size and composition from video-like images based on acoustic data: Grotto plume, Main Endeavour Field," at the Fall AGU Meeting on 13 December.
• Peter Rona served on the Organizing Committee of the InterRidge Workshop on the Indian Ocean Ridge System held at the National Institute of Oceanography in Goa, India, 19-21 January 2005, and presented a paper coauthored with Indian colleagues, "Carlsberg Ridge and Mid-Atlantic Ridge: slow-spreading apparent analogs."
• On Dec 6 and 7, Dr. Totten attended a meeting of the Expert Panel advising the Delaware River Basin Commission on establishment of a TMDL for PCBs in the tidal Delaware River.
• Ximing Guo was an invited speaker at the Northeastern Aquaculture Conference and Exposition (NACE) 2004, December 2-4, Manchester, NH. He presented a talk on “Oyster breeding at the biotech age: progresses and challenges.”
• Yongping Wang, Ximing Guo, Gregory DeBrosse and Susan Ford presented a paper at NACE 2004 on “Superior growth of triploids eastern oyster produced from tetraploids.”
• Jim Ammerman presented 3 talks at the recent (Dec. 04) AGU meeting in San Francisco.
  • J.W. Ammerman, "Why and how does a faculty member do education and outreach?" (invited talk).
  • J.W. Ammerman and J.B. Sylvan, "Phosphorus limitation of phytoplankton growth in the Mississippi River plume: A case for dual nutrient control?" (invited talk).
  • J.P. Grassle, J.W. Ammerman, J.A. Quinlan, and M.P. DeLuca, "The Ocean Sciences RIOS REU Site at Rutgers University." (contributed talk).
• Jim Ammerman attended a meeting of the ORION Sensor Sub-Committee in Washington, DC, Dec. 6-7, 2004
• Alan Robock presented the following talks at the 85th American Meteorological Society meeting in San Diego, California:
  • The Peace Corps ­ A Career Enhancing Opportunity (Fourth Annual AMS Student Conference, San Diego, California, January 8-9, 2005
  • Evaluation of Reanalysis Soil Moisture Simulations Using Newly Updated Soil Moisture Observations from the Ukraine and China (with H. Li, M. Mu, and K. Y. Vinnikov; 19th AMS Conference on Hydrology and 16th AMS Conference on Climate Variability and Change; San Diego, California, January 10-13, 2005)
  • Latitudinal distribution of temperature trends at the surface and in the troposphere (with Konstantin Y. Vinnikov, N. Grody, M. D. Goldberg, R. J. Stouffer, and P. D. Jones; presented by Norman Grody; 16th AMS Conference on Climate Variability and Change; San Diego, California, January 10-13, 2005)
  • Tree Ring Records Underestimate Volcanic Cooling (16th AMS Conference on Climate Variability and Change; San Diego, California, January 10-13, 2005)
  • Climate response over North America to a simultaneous El Niño and volcanic eruption (with Megan E. Linkin, G. L. Stenchikov, and W. Stern; presented by Megan E. Linkin; 16th AMS Conference on Climate Variability and Change; San Diego, California, January 10-13, 2005)
  • Non-uniform root distribution in a land surface model to improve soil moisture and surface flux simulations (with Thomas Atkins; presented by Thomas Atkins; 19th AMS Conference on Hydrology; San Diego, California, January 10-13, 2005)
• Tony Broccoli attended the 85th Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society in San Diego, CA from 10-13 January 2005. He served as program co-chair for The Suki Manabe Symposium at which the following presentations were made: -Anthony J. Broccoli, "Paleoclimate modeling and climate sensitivity."
  • John P. Krasting and Anthony J. Broccoli, "Global warming and simulated snowfall trends in eastern North America" (poster)
  • Stephanie A. Weber and Anthony J. Broccoli, "Diagnosis of radiative feedbacks in the latest version of the GFDL AM2 climate model" (poster)

New Grants

• Ximing Guo and Haiyan Wang received $163,310 from NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office’s non-native oyster research program for a study on “Genetic and ecological structures of oyster estuaries in China and factors affecting success of Crassostrea ariakensis” (12/1/04-11/30/05).
• Lisa Totten has been awarded $65,000 from NJDEP to conduct a statistical analysis of the PCB congener patterns in the Delaware River Basin, in cooperation with the Delaware River Basin Commission.
• Jim Ammerman is one of the co-PIs on a new collaborative grant for $760,520 from NSF Biological Oceanography entitled, "DOP Utilization in the Sargasso Sea: Quantifying taxon-specific rates of uptake and hydrolysis" (M.W. Lomas, BBSR, S.T. Dyhrman, WHOI, and J.W. Ammerman, Rutgers; 4/1/05 - 3/31/09)
• Elisabeth Sikes received $188,714 from NSF for her project, "Paleoventilation of the southwest Pacific and Southern Ocean in the holocene and late Quaternary." (11/1/04-10/31/06)
• Eric Simms was awarded $15,000 from the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education for bringing the National Ocean Sciences Bowl to the NJ/PA Region. ((12/1/04-8/31/05)
• John Wilkin received a $52,717 grant from the University of Miami for his project, "US GODAE: Global Ocean Prediction with the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM)." (6/3/04-9/30/05)

Publications

• de Garidel-Thoron, T., Y. Rosenthal, F. Bassinot, and L. Beaufort. 2005. Stable sea surface temperatures in the western Pacific warm pool over the past 1.75 million years. Nature, vol. 433, no.7023, pp. 294-298 (20 January 2005); doi:10.1038/nature03189
• Gioia, R., J.H. Offenberg, C.L. Gigliotti, L.A. Totten, S. Du, and S.J. Eisenreich. Atmospheric Concentrations and Deposition of Organochlorine Pesticides in the US Mid-Atlantic Region. Atmospheric Environment. In press.
• Gong, N., H. Yang, G. Zhang, B.J. Landau and X. Guo. 2004. Chromosome inheritance in autotriploid Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas Thunberg. Heredity, 93:408-415.
• Laursen, A. E. and S.P. Seitzinger. 2004. Dirunal patterns of denitrification, oxygen consumption, and nitrous oxide production in rivers. Freshwater Biology 49:1448-1458.
• Ma, H. 2005. Spatial and temporal variation in surfclam (Spisula solidissima) larval supply and settlement on the New Jersey inner shelf during summer upwelling and downwelling. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 62: 41-53.
• Robock, Alan, 2004: Climatic impact of volcanic emissions, in State of the Planet, R. S. J. Sparks and C. J. Hawkesworth, Eds., Geophysical Monograph 150, IUGG Volume 19, (American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC), 125-134.
• Peter A. Rona, 2004, Marine Mineral Resources: Scientific Advances and Economic Perspectives, a joint publication by the United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs, and the International Seabed Authority, 118 pp.
• Vetriani, C., Y.S. Chew, S.M. Miller, J. Yagi, J. Coombs, R.A. Lutz, and T. Barkay. (2005). Mercury adaptation among bacteria from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 71:220-226.
• Wang, Y. and X. Guo, 2004. Chromosomal rearrangement in Pectinidae revealed by rRNA loci and implications for bivalve evolution. Biol. Bull., 207:247-256.
• Wang, H., X. Guo, G. Zhang and F. Zhang. 2004. Classification of jinjiang oysters Crassostrea rivularis (Gould, 1861) from China, based on morphology and phylogenetic analysis. Aquaculture, 242:137-155.
• Yang, H. and X. Guo. 2004. Tetraploid induction by meiosis inhibition in the dwarf surfclam Mulinia lateralis: effects of cytochalasin B duration. Aquaculture Res., 35:1187-1194.
• Zheng, H., G. Zhang, X. Liu, F. Zhang, and X. Guo. 2004. Different responses to selection in two stocks of the bay scallop, Argopecten irradians irradians Lamarck (1819). J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol., 313:213-223.

Undergraduate & Graduate Student News

The Center for Environmental Prediction and Department of Environmental Sciences sponsored 12 Meteorology undergraduate students to attend the 85th American Meteorological Society meeting in San Diego, California and the 4th AMS Student Conference. They represented the Cook College Meteorology Club, which received an Honorable Mention in the competition for AMS Student Chapter of the Year, which they won last year.

Congratulations

Steve and Shannon Tuorto are the proud parents of Payton Tuorto, born on January 29, 2005 at 1:40 am.

Payton with big sister Sydney