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July 28, 2002
Highlights
- Amber Paschal (Rutgers), Victoria Friedel (U. Maryland), Lissette
Jimenez (Brown U.), and Victoria Williams (Delaware State U.)
are working as summer undergraduate interns in Jim Ammerman's
lab. The first two are IMCS interns and the second two are RISE
@ Rutgers minority interns. Three of them participated in a Gulf
of Mexico cruise from June 29 to July 8 which also included grad
student Jason Sylvan, marine science major Frank Natale (P. Falkowski's
lab), two former interns from last year, and two high school science
teachers.
- Jim Ammerman served on the EPA review panel for the Ecology
of Harmful Algal Blooms program (EcoHAB) in mid April, and the
NSF review panel for the Integrated Carbon Cycle Research program
(ICCR) in early June.
- Michael Gochfeld lectured on "Lessons Learned from New
Jersey's Anthrax experience" at the Biological and Chemical
Terrorism Symposium, Rutgers University, June 7, 2002.
- Michael Gochfeld lectured on "Mercury in New Jersey waters,
fish and people: Work of the Mercury Task Force" on June
11, 2002.
- Donna Gioffre, a 7th grade science teacher at Hillsborough Middle
School, has begun her summer teacher internship with the folks
working on the Sediment BioComplexity project. So far, she has
developed a Sediment Permeability lab to be used in her classes,
and is working on a Eutrophication lab, a Dissolved Oxygen Activity,
and a Groundwater Research Activity. Stop by Gary Taghon's lab
(110) to meet Donna in person or in cyberspace at http://marine.rutgers.edu/biocomplexity/donna.html
- Sybil Seitzinger has returned to IMCS after a year on sabbatical
at the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)
in Paris, France. While there, she developed a new program area
for UNESCO-IOC in global modeling of nutrient transport by rivers
to coastal ecosystems. The working group for this program is composed
of an international, multidisciplinary (hydrologists, biogeochemists,
atmospheric chemists, etc.) team of scientists that will be developing
new model systems for nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, and silica
export as a function of human activities and natural processes.
The UNESCO-IOC program office for this project will be located
at IMCS in Seitzinger's group.
- The Rutgers University Marine Field Station was the focal point
of a site visit to New Jersey by members of the U.S. Commission
on Ocean Policy: Ted Beattie, President and CEO of the Shedd Aquarium;
Lillian Barrone, former Port Director of the Port of NY &
NJ; Ann D'Amato, former Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles; Marc Herschman,
Director of the School of Marine Affairs at the University of
Washington; and Frank Muller-Karger, Professor,
Univ. of S. Florida. IMCS was asked to provide information on
coastal observing systems and coastal development.
Presentations were made by Ken Able, Fisheries Habitat; Scott
Glenn and Oscar Schofield, Science Objectives of Coastal Observatories;
Mike DeLuca, Tools for Meeting Coastal Development Challenges;
and Fred Grassle Observing System Recommendations. The N.J. DEP
Commissioner Brad Campbell spoke on Problems and Challenges in
Coastal Development and Mary Altalo, former Associate Director
at Scripps Inst. of Oceanography and now a Vice President at SAIC
spoke on Observing System Partnerships. Evan Richert of the Maine
State Planning Office and GoMOOS, spoke on the Regional Approach
to Coastal Ocean Observing System. Fred Grassle went on to Boston
and gave testimony to the full Commission meeting at Faneuil Hall
in Boston on The Use of Observing Systems to Monitor Life in the
Ocean.
- Dr. James A. Yoder, Division Director of the National Science
Foundation Division of Ocean Sciences, informs us that two research
and education projects by two Rutgers-IMCS scientists were among
those chosen by Ocean Science Division Program Managers to highlight
in the NSF's Directorate for Geosciences FY2002 Performance (GPRA)
Report:
- Dale Haidvogel's collaborative research project with five
other investigators will develop a modular system of computer
software for the analysis and forecasting of the state of
the ocean and for the design and assessment of observing systems.
This is accomplished by combining several of the most widely
used "community" computer models of the ocean with
the full spectrum of data types gathered by moored sensors,
drifting sensors, and remote sensors on satellites.
- Richard Lutz's project provides diving time on the Deep
Submergence Vehicle ALVIN in support of the large-format,
scientific documentary depicting the evolving scientific investigation
of deep-sea hydrothermal vents: "Volcanoes of the Abyss."
- At the end of July, Lee Kerkhof hosted members from 10 different
universities for a Geochemical and RNA Integration Study (GRIST)
at Tuckerton, NJ. The objective was simultaneous measurements
of biogeochemical rates and mRNA abundances for a variety of important
processes and target genes in the ocean. Areas of interest and
participating universities were: phytoplankton ecologists from
UW and SFSU; biogeochemists from VIMS, FAMU, and the Univ. of
Puerto Rico; and molecular ecologists from USF, SKIO, Princeton,
UCSC, and RU. The week-long experiment focused on diel studies
at the LEO node. Processes that were measured included primary
production, DIN/DON uptake, nitrogen fixation, denitrification,
photorespiration, hydrolytic enzyme activity, bacterial production,
and single cell microbial activity. Target genes that will be
simultaneously measured included: RUBISCO, assimilatory nitrate
reductases (nar/nas), nitrogenase (nif), nitrous oxide reductase
(nos), and glycine decarboxylase (gdc). It is hoped this research
will improve our ability to assay bacterial systems and lead to
a better understanding of microbial community structure/biogeochemical
function in oceanic systems.
Meetings Attended
- Grad student Jason Sylvan presented the poster "Mapping
seasonal phosphorus limitation in the Mississippi River plume"
at the ASLO summer meeting, June 10-14, 2002, in Victoria, British
Columbia. (Co-author was J. Ammerman.)
- John Reinfelder and his graduate student Yan Zhuang attended
the Summer ASLO meeting in Victoria where John presented a talk
on the atmospheric deposition of mercury in New Jersey and Yan
presented a poster on the bioavailability of Cu in rain to coastal
phytoplankton.
- Antonietta Quigg presented the following poster at the inaugural
Gordon Research Conference on Environmental Bioinorganic Chemistry
at Proctor Academy in New Hampshire, June 16-21, 2002. Extending
Redfield Ratios for Marine Phytoplankton: Trace Metals. A.S. Quigg1,
Z.V. Finkel1, T.-Y. Ho2, J. Reinfelder3, O. Schofield1, F.M. M.
Morel2 and P. G. Falkowski4.
- Jennifer Francis attended a NASA Workshop on Data Assimilation
into Sea Ice Models, 23-24 July in Annapolis, MD. She gave an
invited presentation entitled, "Satellite Observations for
Assimilation by and Validation of Arctic Models: New Data Sets,
New Problems, and New Solutions."
- Peter Rona will brief the Legal and Technical Commission of
the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the United Nations agency
charged with regulating seabed mining, on seafloor hydrothermal
processes and mineral deposits at their meeting on August 7th
at ISA headquarters in Kingston, Jamaica.
New Grants
- Jim Ammerman, Bob Chant, and Gary Klinkhammer (Oregon State
University) will be awarded a five-year Biocomplexity grant ($1.3M)
from NSF for "Development of an instrument for in situ measurement
of microbial enzyme activities in aquatic environments."
This project will be focused on LEO-15 and also includes an educational
component headed by Eric Simms.
- NASA Exobiology Program 2002-2004 "The Chloroplast Conundrum:
The Biology and Ecology of a Chloroplast-Sequestering Foraminfer
Inhabiting an Aphotic Sulfide-Enriched Deep-Sea Environment."
This was awarded to Joan Barnhard (U. South Carolina), Oscar Schofield,
and Joe Grzymski (Rockefeller University).
- EcoHab 2003-2004 "The Field testing of an Autonomous Phytoplankton
Monitoring Technology," this was awarded to Oscar Schofield
and Scott Glenn.
Publications
- Peter A. Rona, Seafloor hydrothermal mineralization research
advances in China, Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union,
83(30):321, July 23, 2002.
- Recent publications for the COOL group include:
- Moline, M., Schofield, O., Gryzmski, J. 2002. Impact of
dynamic light and nutrient environments on phytoplankton communities
in the coastal ocean. In: Modeling Dynamic Systems: Dynamic
Modeling for Marine Conservation Ecological Understanding.
Lindholm, J. and Ruth, M. (eds) Springer Verlag 144-163.
- Schofield, O., Bergmann, T., Bissett, W. P., Grassle, F.,
Haidvogel, D., Kohut, J., Moline, M., Glenn, S. 2002. Linking
regional coastal observatories to provide the foundation for
a national ocean observation network. Journal of Oceanic Engineering.
27(2): 146-154.
- Also several publications from current and past students were
accepted based on their efforts here at IMCS, so great job!!!.
These include:
- Komada, T., Schofield, O., Reimers, C. Fluorescence characteristics
of organic matter released from coastal sediments during resuspension.
Marine Chemistry. (In Press)
- Bergmann, T., Paerl, H., Pinckney, J., Richardson, T., Schofield,
O. Impact of light and nitrogen on the maximum quantum yield
of photosystem II for natural phytoplankton populations from
the Neuse River, NC. Journal of Plankton Research. (In Press).
- Grzymski, J., Schofield, O., Falkowski, P. G., Bernhard,
J. M. Nonionella stella, a modern analog to the endosymbiotic
origin of diatoms: plastid description and function. Limnology
and Oceanography (In Press)
Congratulations
- Mr. Josh Kohut became Dr. Josh Kohut, as he completed his Ph.D.
dissertation on the analysis of CODAR HF-RADAR with a superb talk.
Josh isn't going anywhere, however, as he has joined the staff
of the IMCS COOL group, heading up the CODAR research team. As
a reward for his 4 years of great work, he took off for two entire
days of vacation. Congrats Josh, you earned it!
- Adam and Maria Porter welcomed their new addition, Nikolas Albert
Porter, on April 23. NIkolas weighed 6 lbs. 10 ounces.
- Kay and Kelly Bidle are the proud parents of twin boys, Luke
Nelson and Jude Grayson. They were born on July 26, and both weigh
5 lbs. 2 oz.
Let's Welcome
- We are pleased to introduce Gretchen Young as the Administrative
Assistant to Gary Taghon, Chair of the Department. Gretchen will
also be the Secretary for the Undergraduate and Graduate Programs.
She comes to IMCS from the University of Pennsylvania where she
was a Coordinator for the School of Nursing. Gretchen's office
is located in Room 103 and her telephone extension is 500.
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