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October 31, 2006

Highlights

 Mike DeLuca was awarded the first NERRS/NERRA Award for Outstanding Contributions to the National Estuarine Research Reserve System at their Annual Meeting at Old Woman Creek NERR, October 19, 2006. Congratulations Mike! Click on link to read the NOAA announcement http://www8.nos.noaa.gov/publicnerrs/news.aspx?id=194

 

  • The COOL group received the Rutgers President's Bridge Award which recognizes excellence by small teams consisting of no more than 10-12 eligible staff members, rather than whole departments or large groups. It recognizes an extraordinary accomplishment demonstrated by the completion of a special work project or activity during the last year, and/or a superior, sustained effort that contributed significantly to the mission of one or more units or of the university as a whole. The cool group deserves the award on both fronts!

Congratulations to team members: (top left to right) David Aragon, Charles Lichtenwalner, Courtney Kohut, (bottom left to right) Jennifer Bosch, and Hugh Roarty. (Not pictured: Louis Bowers, Corinne Dalelio, Clinton Haldeman, Elias Hunter, John Kerfoot, Joshua Kohut, and Janice McDonnell.

To read more about their project click on link: http://uhr.rutgers.edu/presrecog/bridgewinners-2006.html#rucool

 

  • The Star Ledger printed an article on Oct. 5th, 2006 "From beneath the sea, Rutgers trio raises a warning for the planet" by Kitta MacPherson, highlighting the collaborative research that led to publication of the Aug. 31 Nature article (reprint), on which Rob Sherrell is an author. Mike Behrenfeld, the lead author, was a postdoc with Paul Falkowski some years ago, when this collaboration began.
  • Peter Rona gave an invited keynote talk, "Ocean Exploration Frontiers Near and Far," at the New Jersey Science Teachers Association Annual Convention on October 11 at the NJ Convention Center in Somerset.
  • Ken Able participated in a four day Sea Grant Program Assessment Team review of the Delaware Sea Grant program from 1-4 October 2006.
  • Oscar Schofield presented an invited lecture at the National Kaohsiung Marine University in Taiwan.
  • Oscar Schofield asked to serve on the Advisory Committee for the Mississippi Undersea Vehicle Technology Center.
  • Peter Rona addressed some 3,000 students from 4th grade through high school as featured explorer in a program on exploration of the oceans organized by the Imagination Celebration education and outreach organization in Fort Worth, Texas on 23-24 October.
  • Oscar Schofield taught a one day short course at the 2006 International Ocean Optics meeting in Montreal. The course was on “An oceanographic life beyond chlorophyll a: measuring primary productivity from space.”
  • Alan Robock was honored by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research for advocacy on behalf of the scientific community above and beyond the call of duty, October 11, 2006.
  • Alan Robock gave the following two invited talks at the University of Colorado, Boulder, September 27, 2006. (On "Climatic consequences of regional nuclear conflict" and "Comparing Climatic Response to Low and High Latitude Volcanic Eruptions")
  • Alan Robock gave an invited talk at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, October 18, 2006 (On "Climatic consequences of regional nuclear conflict")
  • Tony Broccoli and Jennifer Francis co-chaired a one-day symposium "The Climate Ahead: Global Change, Local Impacts" on Sept. 20, 2006 at Trayes Hall, Douglass Student Center. The symposium was hosted by the Center for Environmental Predication, and the Planning Committee included Dale Haidvogel, Ken Miller, Jim Miller, Ying Fan Reinfelder, Dave Robinson, Alan Robock, Yair Rosenthal, Tom Rudel, and Oscar Schofield. Prior to the symposium an article entitled "Warm globally, think locally" written by Kitta MacPherson appeared in the Star Ledger on Sept. 11, 2006. Click here to read the article. The symposium was well attended and a portion was aired on WNET 13 and NJN.
  • Alan Robock gave a lecture on Global Warming at the Bedminster Public Library, Sept. 21, 2006, as part of the Rutgers Speakers Bureau.

Meetings Attended

  • Scott Glenn and Josh Kohut presented three presentations at the Mid-Atlantic Bight Regional Association (MaCOORA).
  • Fred Grassle attended Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) meetings in Tokyo prior to the Scientific Steering Committee meeting for the Census of Marine Life (CoML) in Nara, Japan. His trip concluded with the NaGISA World Conference 2006 in Kobe. (October 11-16, 2006)
  • Sybil Seitzinger presented results of Global Nutrient Modeling work for the Indian Ocean Region to the Sustained Indian Ocean Biogeochemical and Ecological Research (SIBER) Workshop held in Goa, India October 2-5, 2006.
  • Sybil Seitzinger and post-doc Rosalynn Lee organized and ran the second in a series of GEF LME Workshops at UNESCO/IOC, September 18-20, 2006. The purpose was to train researchers from around the world how to
    utilize Global NEWS modeling in their Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen research.
  • Fred Grassle attended the 2nd Annual Ocean Future Symposium held at Monmouth University, Oct. 5, 2006. Dr. Robert Gagosian was honored at the awards luncheon. To read more on the symposium, click here for the article "Ocean researchers: More funds needed for storm planning, Experts gather at Monmouth U." by Kirk Moore of the Asbury Park Press.
  • Peter Rona participated in the NSF Joint Oceanographic Institutions (JOI) workshop, Exploring the Deep Biosphere with the Integrated Drilling Program (IODP), held 2-5 October in Vancouver, BC. He discussed his interest in drilling seafloor hydrothermal systems in his role as lead proponent of the highly ranked TAG II proposal for a second leg of drilling to determine the evolution of the TAG hydrothermal system on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
  • Costa Vetriani attended the "Extremophiles 2006" meeting in Brest, France, on September 17-21, 2006. He presented a talk entitled: " Detection of the periplasmic nitrate reductase (NapA) in thermophilic, chemolithoautotrophic Epsilonproteobacteria and in deep-sea hydrothermal vent microbial communities," co-authored by graduate students James Voordeckers and Melitza Crespo-Medina.
  • Kyle Kingman and Peter Rona presented their poster paper, "Cenozoic sedimentation rates and distribution on the NE U.S. Atlantic continental margin," at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting on October 23 in Philadelphia.
  • Josh Kohut represented the COOL group in Spain in a governmental meeting to plan on building Spain’s Ocean Observatory. The COOL group will assist in that effort.
  • Scott Glenn and Josh Kohut provided two talks in Liverpool England at the national round table for designing the English Ocean Observing System. The meeting was hosted by the Proudman Laboratories.
  • Oscar Schofield presented a lecture at the 2006 International Ocean Optics meeting in Montreal about the impact of hurricanes on the ocean color dynamics.
  • In September, Bridget Wade attended the International Symposium on Foraminifera, Natal, Brazil. Here she was co-convener with Brian Huber (Smithsonian) for the Oligocene Planktonic Foraminifera Working Group Meeting and gave one paper and was co-author on two others. She was also invited to give a talk at Texas A&M, "Climate dynamics of the Oligocene icehouse." ConocoPhillips lecture series.
  • Bridget Wade participated in the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, Oct. 22-25, 2006. She co-convened a session with Richard Twitchett (Plymouth University, UK) on Extinction, Dwarfing and the Lilliput Effect, which consisted of 13 oral presentations including, Wade, B.S., "Dwarfing and extinction in Eocene and Oligocene planktonic foraminifera."
  • Alan Robock represented Rutgers at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research meeting in Boulder, Colorado, Oct. 10-11, 2006.
  • Alan Robock attended a meeting of the University Relations Committee (URC) of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, Oct. 11, 2006. The URC is an advisory committee to the President of UCAR.
  • Alan Robock represented the Department of Environmental Sciences at the Heads and Chairs (of geoscience departments) Meeting in Boulder, Colorado, Oct. 12-13, 2006.
  • On Sept. 25, 2006, Norbert Psuty attended a meeting “Summit Confronting Climate Change in New Jersey” at Thomas Edison State College. Here he made a presentation to DEP and Gov. Corzine as part of a program on climate change and coastal impacts.

New Grants

  • DeLuca, M., PI. National Estuarine Research Reserve System, “Integration of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System into the Integrated Ocean Observing System.” 9/1/05-8/31/07, ($140,765)
  • Glenn, S., PI. University of Delaware, “Development of a Regional-Scale Surface Current Mapping Product for Coast Guard Search and Rescue in the Mid-Atlantic Bight.”
    6/01/06-8/31/06, ($60,000)
  • Glenn, S., PI. Office of Naval Research, “The New York Bight Shelf – Harbor Dynamics Study.” 9/01/06-8/31/07, ($479,000)
  • Haidvogel, D., PI., Powell, E., Bushek, D., Wilkin, J., Guo, X., Co-PIs. National Science Foundation, “Collaborative Research: Field and Modeling Studies in Support of Understanding Disease.” 9/01/06-8/31/09, ($1,180,514)
  • Schofield, O., PI. Office of Naval Research, “Rapid Environmental Assessment Using an Integrated Coastal Ocean Observation and Modeling System.” 8/01/06-4/30/09, ($499,201)
  • Seitzinger, S., PI. University of Maryland, “SFP2006 Measuring and Modeling Nutrient Update in Florida Bay.” 6/01/06-5/31/07 ($59,000)
  • Totten, L., PI., was awarded an additional $118,000 from the Delaware River Basin Commission to continue air monitoring for PCBs.

Publications

  • Finkel, Z.V., A.S. Quigg, J.A. Raven, J.R. Reinfelder, O.E. Schofield, and P.G. Falkowski (2006) Irradiance-induced changes in the elemental stoichiometry of marine phytoplankton. Limnol. Oceanogr. 51:2690-2701.
  • Gao, C., A. Robock, S. Self, J. Witter, J.P. Steffenson, H. Brink Clausen, M.-L. Siggaard-Andersen, S. Johnsen, P.A. Mayewski, and C. Ammann, 2006: The 1452 or 1453 A.D. Kuwae eruption signal derived from multiple ice core records: Greatest volcanic sulfate event of the past 700 years. J. Geophys. Res., 111, D12107, doi:10.1029/2005JD006710. This paper was featured as a Research Highlight in Nature, July 6, 2006: http://climate.envsci.rutgers.edu/pdf/NatureResearchHighlight442004a.pdf
  • Oman, L., A. Robock, G.L. Stenchikov, and T. Thordarson, 2006: High-latitude eruptions cast shadow over the African monsoon and the flow of the Nile. Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L18711, doi:10.1029/2006GL027665.
  • Rona, Peter A., Journey to the Abyss, Cosmos, issue 11, October/November 2006, 64-71.
  • Rona, P. A., K. G. Bemis, C. D. Jones, D. R Jackson, K. Mitsuzawa, and D. Silver (2006), Entrainment and bending in a major hydrothermal plume, Main Endeavour Field, Juan de Fuca Ridge, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L19313, doi:10.1029/2006GL027211.
  • Totten, L.A., Stenchikov, G.L., Gigliotti, C.L., Lahoti, N., Eisenreich, S.J. Measurement and Modeling of Urban Atmospheric PCB Concentrations On A Small (8 Km) Spatial Scale. Atmospheric Environment. In Press.
  • Wolfe-Simon, F., Trey, A., Starovoytov, V., Reinfelder, J. R., Schofield, O., Falkowski, P. G. (2006). The localization and role of MnSOD in diatoms. Plant Physiology DOI:10.1104/pp.106.088963
  • Yi, S-M; Totten, L.A.; Thota, S.; Yan, S.; Offenberg, J. H.; Eisenreich, S.J.; Graney, J; Holsen, T.M. Atmospheric Dry Deposition of Trace Elements Measured Around the Urban and Industrially Impacted NY-NJ Harbor. Atmospheric Environment. 2006, 40, 6626­6637.

Student News

  • Amy Rowe (PhD 2006) will begin a post-doctoral fellowship at the EPA labs in Edison, NJ on 9/25/06.
  • Andy Sandy passed his PhD qualifying exam on 9/14/06.

Let's Welcome

William Stafford has joined IMCS as a WEB Developer for The Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) International Secretariat at Rutgers University. Bill brings with him a lot of experience from the private sector, "For the past 12 years I have worked as a consultant in the IT industry. My most recent consulting assignment was at Merck. During my consulting career I have worked at Rutgers University, United Health Group, AT&T, Lucent Technologies, GE Solid State, RCA Semiconductor and Bendix Aerospace. I am an avid gardener and plant breeder. I have been breeding Rhododendrons and Primulas for 15 years. During the summer months I enjoy windsurfing and catamaran sailing." (Room 108, ext. 525)