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July 31, 2005
Highlights
- Lee Kerkhof served as a panel reviewer for the Dept. of Energy’s
Natural and Accelerated Bioremediation Research (NABIR) program.
- The Pinelands Field Station has been given a free two year lease
on a Subaru Forester by Subaru HQ in Cherry Hill. This is part
of Subaru's environmental policy and the Pinelands Field Station
will be reciprocating by offering their employees activities and
day research experiences at the field station. The official photo
shoot of the handing over of the van is scheduled for Thursday
the 28th at 1:30. In addition, the Field Station has been given
4 bunk beds for their new dormitory by IKEA of Philadelphia.
- On July 29 the fourteen 2005 RIOS students (Alison Astalos,
Chris Ballew, Adam Bohnert, James Bunkiewicz, Sarah Edwards, Anirban
Ghosh. Tucker Hirsch, Catharine Jedrzejczyk, Rachael Koehler,
Angelique Linares, Alicia Manoski, Katherine Piso, Paige Roberts,
and Rachel Sargent) presented their research in a poster session
in the lobby and Alampi Room of the Marine Sciences Building.
The judges of the poster session (Samuel Goldfarb, Diana Nemergut,
and Eric Vowinkel) named Sarah Edwards the winner of an opportunity
to present her research poster at the next meeting of the American
Society of Limnology and Oceanography in Hawaii in February, 2006.
The runner-up, who will take Sarah’s place if she cannot
attend the meeting for any reason, was Adam Bohnert.
Sarah Edward’s mentor was Liz Sikes, and the title of
her poster was “The paleoventilation of the South Pacific.”
Adam Bohnert’s mentor was Costa Vetriani and the title
of his poster was “The isolation and identification of
chemolithoautotrophic thiosulfate-oxidizers from 9°N, East
Pacific Rise.”
The organizing committee for RIOS is Jim Ammerman, John Quinlan,
Mike De Luca, and Judy Grassle. The committee thanks the many
staff members (notably Lillian Lee, Brian and Ken Eng, Marge
Piechota, Char Fuller, Piotr Nawrot, Bobbie Zlotnik, and the
IT support group), the teaching assistants (Sara Bender and
Clare Ng), the mentors, and the judges for their roles in providing
the RIOS students with a memorable summer of research.
- Bonnie McCay (Dept. of Human Ecology) is beginning a new term
on the Federal Advisory Committee on Marine Protected Areas, which
just completed its report to the Secretaries of Commerce and Interior
(www.mpa.gov). She also serves on the New Jersey Governor's Blue
Ribbon Panel on Offshore Wind Energy. Her research in Baja California,
Mexico, is in full swing; it's an NSF "Biocomplexity"
program project on modeling the fishery-based ecosystem of the
Pacific coast of Baja, led by Fio Micheli of Stanford University,
and involving scientists from Rutgers, Univ. of Texas, Univ. of
Maine, Univ. of Calif., Santa Barbara, and the Center for the
Investigation of Biology and Oceanography (CIBNOR) in La Paz,
MX.
- Alan Robock gave invited talks at the Laboratoire des Sciences
du Climat et de l'Environnement, Commissariat à L'énergie
Atomique, Saclay, France, June 28, 2005 on "Evaluation of
Reanalysis Soil Moisture Simulations Using Newly Updated Soil
Moisture Observations from the Ukraine and China" and "Volcanic
Eruptions and Climate."
- Alan Robock's proposal to the European Space Agency, "Evaluation
of Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity satellite retrievals of soil moisture
using in situ soil moisture observations from the Ukraine, Mongolia,
China, and the United States," has been accepted. As such,
he has been invited to join the SMOS Validation and Retrieval
Team, which will work to produce global soil moisture data sets
after the launch of the SMOS satellite in 2007.
- Lisa Totten continues to work on the Short Course Subcommittee
of the 2005 SETAC North America Annual Meeting Program Committee.
- Alan Robock has just produced a PowerPoint on Nuclear Winter
that is suitable for a 1-hour public lecture or university class
on the subject, and is making it available at no cost. You can
download it at:
http://climate.envsci.rutgers.edu/robock/NuclearWinterForDistribution.ppt
(30 Mb). You will also need the movie, pin AVI: http://climate.envsci.rutgers.edu/robock/pin.AVI
(6 Mb). Please read and print the notes for each slide in the
presentation, to use as your lecture material.
- Haskin Shellfish Research Lab hosted two bus loads of attendees
from the North American Agricultural Marketing Officials annual
meeting held in Atlantic City. With many of the senior personnel
conducting business away from the Lab, Sarah King, Younger Kim,
and Lisa Calvo stepped up to the plate. Along with Dave Bushek
they split the group up rotating them through the lobby, the laboratories,
the wet lab and the dock. Research staff working in each area
gave short chats about the work they are doing ranging from fishery
management to molecular genetics and it all went quite well. Al
Murray, Director of Marketing at NJ Ag attached a news article
from the Courier-Post that highlights the lab as part of the tour.
To view article, click here:
IMCS_Newsletter/HSRL_Courier.pdf
The lab also got a plug from Al Murray on the radio the week
before when he visited the Lab. He does a 10 or 15 minute agriculture
report just before noon every day and was at Haskin meeting
with Dave Bushek when he needed to call in, so he spent a few
minutes describing where he was reporting from.
Meetings Attended
- Members of Lily Young's lab attended and presented at the Annual
NEMPET (NorthEast Microbiology: Physiology, Ecology, Taxonomy)
Meeting, Blue Mountain Lake, NY, June 24-26, 2005.
- Garcia-Dominguez, E., "Arsenic, Bacteria and the Environment,"
presentation.
- Phelps, C.D., E.D. Rhine, E. Garcia-Dominguez, "Modeling
the Biogeochemical Cycle of Arsenic," presentation.
- Zannaroli, G., J. Perez-Jimenez, L.Y. Young, F. Fava, "Detection
and Characterization of Microbial PCB Dechlorination Processes
in Contaminated Marine Sediments of the Venice Lagoon,"
presentation.
- Rhine, E.D., E. Garcia-Dominguez, C.D. Phelps & L.Y.
Young, "The Cycling of Arsenic by Environmental Microbes,"
poster.
- Lisa Totten was one of 18 scientists invited to a workshop titled
"Toxic Substances in the Hudson River: State of knowledge,
research needs and future directions," sponsored by the Hudson
River Foundation, July 19-20, 2005.
- Costa Vetriani gave a presentation entitled "Alkane-oxidizing
bacteria from deep-sea hydrothermal vents" at the CEBIC (Center
for BioInorganic Chemistry) Summer Conference held in Princeton,
NJ, on June 12-15, 2005.
- Lee Kerkhof attended the 2nd Symposium of the Internation Cooperative
Biodiversity Group on Building New Pharmaceutical Capabilities
in Central Asia.
- Lee Kerkhof and member's of his lab gave the following presentations:
- "A brief history of phylogeography in marine bacteria,"
L.J. Kerkhof, TOS Gen. Meeting, Paris, France June 2005.
- "13C and 15N Stable Isotope Probing to Detect TNT-Utilizers
in Norfolk Harbor Sediments," Erin M. Gallagher, L.Y.
Young, and L.J. Kerkhof. ASM Gen. Meeting, Atlanta, Ga May
2005 (poster presentation).
- "Isolation and Characterization of a Dehalogenating
Bacterium from the Marine Sponge Aplysina aerophoba,"
Young-Beom Ahn, B. Saks, L.J. Kerkhof, and M.M. Häggblom.
ASM Gen. Meeting, Atlanta, Ga May 2005 (poster presentation).
- "Community composition of microorganisms catalyzing
N removal from a variety of coastal marine ecosystems,"
Heath J. Mills, E. Hunter, D. Westbrook, D. Swofford, L. Kerkhof,
and Joel E. Kostka. ASM Gen. Meeting, Atlanta, Ga May 2005
(poster presentation).
- Tony Broccoli was an invited participant in a workshop entitled
"North American Weather and Climate Extremes: Progress in
Monitoring and Research," which was held at the Aspen Global
Change Institute, Aspen, CO, from July 15-21, 2005. He gave a
talk, prepared in collaboration with atmospheric science graduate
student John Krasting, entitled "Global Warming, Snowfall
and Snowstorms in Eastern North America."
- Sybil Seitzinger attended the 7th Annual NOAA-IUCN-IOC Consultative
Committee Meeting on Large Marine Ecosystems in Paris, France
on July 5-7th.
- Sybil Seitzinger attended a Global Water Science Working Group
planning meeting at University of California at Berkeley July
27-29th.
New Grants
- Max Häggblom and Lee Kerkhof have been awarded a grant
from the National Science Foundation to investigate microbially
mediated cycling of organohalides in marine sponges. $610 K. 2005-2008.
- PI John R. Reinfelder, Co-PIs: Richard Hires (Stevens Institute
of Technology), Lisamarie Windham (Lehigh University), and Stephen
Peters (Lehigh University). "Mercury Emissions from Meadowlands
Sediments and Vegetation to the Atmosphere" NJDEP, $51,097
(1/15/04 - 1/14/05).
- Mike De Luca received $1,167,338 from the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration for the Mid-Atlantic Bight National
Undersea Research Center, (3/1/05 - 2/28/06).
Publications
- Corredor, J., B. Wawrik, J. Paul, H.Tran, L. Kerkhof, J. Lopez,
A. Dieppa, and O. Cardenas. 2004. Geochemical Rate-RNA integration
study: Ribulose 1,5 Bisphosphate Carboxylase/Oxygenase Gene Transcription
and Photosynthetic Capacity of Planktonic Photoautotrophs. Appl.
Environ. Microbiol. 70: 5459–5468.
- Gallagher, E., L. McGuinness, C. Phelps, L.Y. Young, and L.J.
Kerkhof. 2005. 13C-carrier DNA shortens the incubation time needed
to detect benzoate utilizing, denitrifying bacteria using stable
isotope probing (SIP). Appl. Environ. Microbiol. In Press. Sep.
Issue.
- Oman, L., A. Robock, G. Stenchikov, G.A. Schmidt, and R. Ruedy.
2005. Climatic response to high latitude volcanic eruptions. J.
Geophys. Res., 110 (D13), D13103, doi:10.1029/2004JD005487.
- Perez-Jimenez, J.R. and L.J. Kerkhof. 2005. Phylogeography of
sulfate-reducing bacteria among disturbed sediments disclosed
by analysis of the dissimilatory sulfite reductase genes (dsrAB).
Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 71: 1004-1011.
- Wawrik, B., L. Kerkhof, J. Kukor, and G. Zylstra. 2005. The
Effect of Carbon Sources on Community Composition of Bacterial
Enrichments from Soil. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. In Press. Nov.
Issue.
- Wawrik, B., L. Kerkhof, G. Zylstra, and J. Kukor. 2005. Identification
of unique type II polyketide synthase genes in soil. Appl. Environ.
Microbiol. 71: 2232–2238.
Student News
- Shannon Newby has accepted a tenure track faculty position in
the Biology Department at Oxnard College in California. She is
leaving August 8th but will be returning to IMCS in September
to defend her PhD and show off her California tan. You can reach
her at: Shannon Newby, Science Dept., Oxnard College, 4000 South
Rose Ave., Oxnard, CA 93033. (Email address after 8/12: snewby@vcccd.net).
- Lisa Totten's PhD student, Songyan Du, passed her PhD qualifying
exam on June 6, 2005.
Let's Welcome
- Marta Sebastián is a new postdoctoral associate in Jim
Ammerman's lab, working on the biochemistry and molecular biology
of marine bacterial alkaline phosphatases. She earned her PhD
at the University of Malaga in Spain, with Dr. F.X. Niell, and
has two years of postdoctoral support from the Spanish Government.
She is located in Room 303F, phone extension 336.
- Yana Zeltser joins IMCS as Ivy Friedman's replacement. She
graduated from Rutgers in 2004, spent a year as an Americorps
VISTA (Volunteer In Service To America) before returning to NJ
to work for EBME. "In my spare time, I return to my English
major roots by burrowing through literature and exploring contemporary
poetry; on occasion, I also cook, and test new recipes on my cat
before introducing my culinary creations to human subjects."
Yana is located in room 318, and her extension is 244.
- Tracy Quan joins Paul Falkowski's group as a postdoctoral associate.
She completed her undergrad work in chemistry/earth sciences at
UCSD, and her PhD in Marine Geochemistry at WHOI. Tracy's thesis
focused on the structure and cycling of high molecular weight
dissolved organic matter, and her advisor was Dan Repeta. Tracy
is currently working with Paul Falkowski on measuring the nitrogen
isotopic content of porphyrins to learn more about the role of
denitrification in the Proterozoic. Tracy is located in room 205E,
her phone extension is 243.
- Huiyan (Helen) Yang graduated from the Program of Atmospheric
and Oceanic Sciences at Princeton University in July 2005. Her
PhD thesis has focused on the modeling of tropospheric photochemistry
and black carbon aerosol. Helen examined the problem from the
radiation, transformation, and global distribution aspects. She
is going to work on dust aerosol modeling at IMCS, with special
attentions to the dust emission and iron deposition. Helen will
be working with Paul Falkowski and Yuan Gao. She is located in
room 214A, and her extension is 253.
Congratulations
Left to right: Cayleigh Elizabeth
Haag, Noga Shaked, Rivi Celeste Friedman, and Laura Young
- Scott and Colleen Haag welcomed the newest addition to their
family, Cayleigh Elizabeth, born on July 6, 2005. Cayleigh weighed
8 lbs 11 oz at birth, mother and daughter are doing well.
- Yonathan and Yaela Shaked became the proud parents of a healthy
baby girl, Noga, born on July 7, 2005, weighing 7lbs 3oz.
- On July 22 at 2:41pm, Ivy and Ori Friedman welcomed their baby
girl, Rivi Celeste. Rivi weighed 7 lbs 7 oz, and was 20 inches
long.
- An update...Gretchen Young and her daughter Laura at nine weeks
old.
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