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January 31, 2007

Highlights

• Jim Ammerman presented a seminar entitled: Phosphorus Limitation on the Louisiana Coast: A Tale of Nutrients, Controversy and the “Dead Zone” at the Institute of Marine Sciences (UNC) in Morehead City, NC, on Jan. 12, 2007.
• Tony Broccoli was a participant in a panel discussion in the New Jersey Network (Trenton, NJ) television documentary entitled "Drought and Deluge--The New Weather," January 15, 2007.
• Tony Broccoli was interviewed about the relationship between the recent warm weather and climate change by WNBC-TV (New York, NY) during its "Live at Five" broadcast and on tape during the 11 PM news, January 5, 2007.
• Peter Rona's and Karen Bemis' recent Geophysical Research Letters paper on time series acoustic imaging of the behavior of a major seafloor hydrothermal plume is highlighted by the NSF Ridge 2000 program on their webpage http://www.venturedeepocean.org
• Eric Powell and Dave Bushek were interviewed by Patrick Regan of NJN News at the Delaware Bay Science conference in Cape May on January 24, 2007 about the status of oysters in Delaware Bay. Aired on TV and public radio January 24, 2007. To view the video “Oyster Outlook” NJN News, January 24, 2007 click on link: http://www.njn.net/newspublicaffairs/science/
• Josh Kohut, Scott Glenn, and Oscar Schofield were interviewed by Patrick Regan of NJN News about their collaborative research project with Columbia University and Webb Research. With a grant from the National Science Foundation, a Slocum Glider built by Webb Research was deployed in the ocean off the coast of Antarctica, where it collects data and sends it back to the COOL Room in New Brunswick. The video “Rutgers Antarctica Exploration” NJN News, January 10, 2007 can be seen by clicking on the link: http://www.njn.net/newspublicaffairs/science/
• Alan Robock gave an invited presentation at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France, January 9, 2007 (On "Can Volcanic Eruptions Produce Ice Ages or Mass Extinctions?")
• On January 26, 2007, WHOI marine biologist Tim Shank (formerly a graduate student and postdoc at Rutgers University, Rich Lutz, advisor), while two miles under water in the Alvin submersible communicated with astronaut Sunita Suni Williams, as she orbited 250 miles in space on the International Space Station. Click here to listen to the recorded conversation “From the Seafloor to the Space Station.”
• “Volcanoes of the Deep Sea” was named best film in the Scientific Exploration category, at the fifth annual Explorers’ Club Film Festival. Richard Lutz and Peter A. Rona served as scientific advisers to the film-makers, The Stephen Low Co. of Montreal, Stephen Low, Director. For more information, click on the press release.

Meetings Attended

• The following 2 posters were presented at the Microbiology at Rutgers Mini-Symposium (Jan. 25-26).
  • Automated Shipboard and in situ Measurements of Microbial Enzyme Activity
    Brian Gaas, James Ammerman, Stephanie Jeager, Gary Klinkhammer
  • Microbiology and Biogeochemistry of Phosphorus Stressed Marine Ecosystems
    Jason Sylvan, Marta Sebastian, Brian Gaas, James Ammerman
• January 16-17, 2007, Fred Grassle attended a special meeting of the Consortim for Oceanic Research and Education (CORE) and the consortium of Joint Oceanographic Institutions (JOI) in Miami, at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

New Grants

• Ammerman, J., PI. Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, "Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS): Support for An OBIS liaison with Ocean.US." 1/1/07-12/31/07, ($44,735)
• Arango, Hernan, PI. Office of Naval Research, "Characterization and Modeling of the Lombok Strait Dynamics Using the ROMS 4DVAR." 12/1/06-12/31/08 ($149,980)
• DeLuca, Michael, PI. Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education, "Bringing the National Ocean Sciences Bowl to the NJ/PA Region." 11/08/06-6/30/07, ($15,000)
• Schofield, O., PI. National Science Foundation, "Collaborative Research: Slocum Glider in Western Antarctic Peninsula Continental Shelf Waters Pilot Study." 1/15/07-12/31/07, ($56,438)

Publications

• Allen, D. M., S.S. Haertel-Borer, B.J. Milan, D. Bushek, R.F. Dame, R. F. (2007). Geomorphological determinants of nekton use of intertidal salt marsh creeks. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 329: 57-71.
• Bemis, K., D. Silver, P. Rona and J. Cowen, 2006, A particle sedimentation model of buoyant jets: observations of hydrothermal plumes, Cah. Biol. Mar., 47:379-384.
• Hare, J.A. and K.W. Able. 2007. Mechanistic links between climate and fisheries along the east coast of the United States: explaining population outbursts of Atlantic croaker (Micropogonias undulatus). Fisheries Oceanography 16:1, 31-45
• Hunter, E., R. Chant, L. Bowers, S. Glenn, and J. Kohut (2007), Spatial and temporal variability of diurnal wind forcing in the coastal ocean, Geophysical Research Letters, 34, L03607, doi:10.1029/2006GL028945.
• lls, M. J., L. Oman, A. Robock, and O. B. Toon, 2006: Here`s how \'\'nuclear winter\'\' might occur. (Guest Opinions) Daily Camera, Boulder, Colorado, Dec. 28, 2006.
• Pälike, H., R.D. Norris, J.O. Herrle, P.A. Wilson, H.K. Coxall, C.H. Lear, N.J. Shackleton, A.K. Tripati, and B.S. Wade, B.S. 2006. The heartbeat of the Oligocene climate system. Science, 314 (5807): 1894-1898.
• Robock, A., 2007: Nuclear power`s costs and perils. (Letter to Editor) Physics Today, 60, No. 1, 14. http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-60/iss-1/13_1.html
• Taylor, K.E., M. Crucifix, P. Braconnot, C.D. Hewitt, C. Doutriaux, A.J. Broccoli, J.F.B. Mitchell, and M.J. Webb, 2006: Estimating shortwave radiative forcing and response in climate models, J. Climate, in press.
• Wade, B.S., W.A. Berggren, and R.K. Olsson. 2007. The biostratigraphy and paleobiology of Oligocene planktonic foraminifera from the equatorial Pacific Ocean (ODP Site 1218). Marine Micropaleontology, 62: 167-179.

Let's Welcome

• Nora Lopez: "I received my BS in Biology (in 2003) from Fairfield University, CT where I then continued to work as the Molecular Lab Supervisor until June 2006. I am a first year PhD student in the Molecular BioScience Graduate Program and have joined Dr. Lee Kerkhof's lab in collaboration with Dr. Max Haggblom studying dehalogenating endosymbionts of Atlantic marine sponges. "
• Emilio Mayorga: "I received my PhD from the University of Washington (Seattle), where I focused on carbon cycling in rivers throughout the Amazon basin using a combination of carbon isotopes, data synthesis, and modeling. As a post-doc in Sybil Seitzinger's lab, I'm now working with models of global nutrient export from rivers ("Global NEWS"). We're interested in improving the existing models, applying them to scenarios of climate change and economic development, and linking predicted and observed nutrient fluxes to coastal impacts (eutrophication, harmful algal blooms, etc)." (Room 205B, ext. 338)
• Ezgi Taskinoglu: "I received my PhD from the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department of Rutgers University. My research interests include computational fluid dynamics, design optimization and high performance computing. I joined Ocean Modeling group this February as a postdoctoral associate and will be working with Enrique Curchitser." (Room 210, ext.246)