December 15, 2011

Highlights

  • "Delaware Bay oystermen wrap unusual season," an article by Phillip Tomlinson of The News of Cumberland County was published on December 7, 2011. The Delaware Bay oystering season has come to an end and researchers and scientists from Rutgers and the Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory (Dave Bushek, Director) will be making a final assessment of the 2011 season. Results will be presented during a three day workshop (February 13 - 15, 2012) to be held at the Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory. To read the article by Tomlinson please click here.
  • Paul Falkowski was quoted in the article "Hot on Trail of 'Just Right' Far-Off Planet" by Dennis Overbye, December 2, 2011 issue of The New York Times. To read the article please click here.
  • Peter Rona was appointed to the nine member Science Planning Committee for the NEPTUNE Canada Cabled Seafloor Observatory in the northeast Pacific Ocean, the first such observatory extending across a continental margin to an ocean ridge.
  • Ximing Guo received a "Chaire d'excellence" award from University of Caen in France. As part of the award, he will lead a team of scientists from France, China and USA to study the oyster genome and its adaptation to environmental changes. Ximing and Dr. Susan Ford visited University of Caen in October for the initiation of the joint-research program. He gave two lectures on "Molluscan aquaculture, genetics, genomics and breeding" during the visit.
  • On October 18, Judith Weis gave a "book talk" about the fish book ("Do Fish Sleep?") at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA.
  • Peter Rona presented an invited workshop, Hudson Canyon and Beyond, on new discoveries in the deep ocean at the 2011 New Jersey Science Teachers Convention on October 12th, at the Garden State Convention Center in Somerset.

Meeting Attended

  • Peter Rona, Karen Bemis and graduate student Guangyu Xu made three presentations at the Fall American Geophysical Union Meeting (December 5th in San Francisco) of initial scientific results of their acoustic measurements of seafloor hydrothermal flow using their National Science Foundation-sponsored Cabled Observatory Vent Imaging Sonar (COVIS). COVIS is connected to the NEPTUNE Canada cabled observatory at a seafloor hydrothermal field on an ocean ridge in the northeast Pacific. Their results showed for the first time that seafloor hydrothermal flow varies on all time scales.
  • Mike Kennish served as session chair (“Drivers of Change in Shallow Coastal Photic Systems”) at the CERF 2011 (Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation) Biennial Conference in Daytona Beach, Florida, November 6-10. A presentation was given on November 7, 2011: Kennish, M., B. Fertig, and G. Sakowicz. 2011. Eutrophication as a driver of ecosystem change in the coastal bays of New Jersey.
  • Mike Kennish attended the annual meeting of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System and National Estuarine Research Reserve Association Meeting in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, October 24-28. A presentation was given on October 26: Kennish, M. J., B. M. Fertig, G. Petruzzelli, and G. P. Sakowicz. 2011. The JCNERR Tuckerton Peninsula salt marsh system: A sentinel site assessing climate change impacts.
  • V. Monica Bricelj was an invited member of the Steering Committee and gave an oral presentation at the Sixth Symposium on Harmful Algae, held in Austin, TX, Nov. 13 to 17, 2011: Bricelj, V.M., Connell, L. B., Hamilton, S.A., MacQuarrie, S.P., J. Martin “Genotype selection of softshell clams in response to natural and simulated toxic Alexandrium blooms”.
  • Jennifer Francis and Debjani Ghatak attended the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) Open Science Meeting in Denver from Oct. 24th-28th. Jennifer presented "Links Between Arctic Amplification and Extreme Weather in Mid-Latitudes." Debjani presented a poster and was also one of the recipients of the certificate & award for “outstanding poster presentation”.
  • Tony Broccoli gave a presentation entitled "The Climate Ahead: An Overview of the Science" at the conference "Greening New Jersey Communities from the Ground Up: A day-long conference to mark 40 Years of Environmental Protection," Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, October 2011.
  • Alan Robock, papers presented at conferences:
    • Smoke and Mirrors: Is Geoengineering a Solution to Global Warming? (Invited plenary talk; International Scientific Conference on Problems of Adaptation to Climate Change, Moscow, Russia, November 7-9, 2011)
    • Potential threats and future challenges of geoengineering (Invited presentation; “Geoengineering the Climate, An Issue for Peace and Security Studies?” International Workshop, University of Hamburg, Germany, November 10-11, 2011)
    • Toba Eruption Simulations with 74 ka B.P. Forcing (AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, December 5-9, 2011)
    • Inferring Impacts of Volcanic Eruptions on Baffin Island Climate Using a Regional Climate Model (with Mira Losic; presented by Mira Losic; AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, December 5-9, 2011)
    • Impacts of Geoengineering and Nuclear War on Chinese Agriculture (with Lili Xia; presented by Lili Xia; AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, December 5-9, 2011)
    • Climatic Consequences of Nuclear Conflict (Invited presentation; AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, December 5-9, 2011)
    • Monitoring of Geoengineering Effects and their Natural and Anthropogenic Analogues (with Riley M. Duren, Graeme L. Stephens, and Douglas G. MacMynowski; presented by Riley M. Duren; AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, December 5-9, 2011)
    • The Sublime Pleasures of Reviewing Manuscripts (Invited presentation; AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, December 5-9, 2011)

New Grants

  • Auermuller, L. and M. DeLuca. Ocean County Soil Conservation District, "SHIP - Soil Health Improvement Program at Jakes Branch County Park." 01/01/11 - 06/30/13 ($5,000, SubAward #2)
  • Arango, Hernan, Department of the Interior - BOEMRE, "Shelf-Slope Sediment Exchange in the Northern Gulf of Mexico: Applications of Numerical Models for Extreme Events." 09/22/11 - 08/31/14 ($900,000)
  • Chant, R. New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium, "Meteorological Modulation of the Exchange between Raritan Bay and the Coastal Ocean." 06/15/11 - 09/30/13 ($90,711)
  • DeLuca, M. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, "Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve Operations". 10/01/11 - 09/30/12 ($587,190)
  • Glenn, S. Consortium for Ocean Leadership, "OOI Education and Public Engagement Implementing Organization/OOI EPE - Oper. & Maintenance Est." 03/01/11 - 02/28/15 ($738,264 CONT)
  • Glenn, S. Virginia Center for Innovative Technology, "Virginia CIT FS-10-016 PRIMEN00178-10-C-3023." 10/20/10 - 03/26/12 ($12,803 CONT)
  • Gorbunov, M. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, "The Application of Lifetime Analyses in the Upper Ocean to the Interpretation of Satellite-Based, Solar Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence Signals." 11/14/07 - 11/14/11 ($100,00 CONT)
  • Gorbunov, M. (IMCS) and William Wild (SPAWARSYSCEN) have been awarded $1.490 mil grant from the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) for their proposal “Assessing and Monitoring of DoD Coral Reef Communities Using Advanced Fluorescence Techniques” to demonstrate at DoD and NOAA coral reef sites, the advanced bio-optical techniques and methodology for non-destructive assessment of the viability of coral reef communities and to validate the potential of these techniques for identification and quantification of environmental stresses.
  • Jansen, O. New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium, "Reducing Uncertainty in Stock Recruitment Relationships and Fishery Reference Points using Bayesian Meta analysis." 06/15/11 - 09/30/13 ($59,776)
  • Kennish, M. (PI) and Ben Fertig (Co-PI). New Jersey Sea Grant, " Evaluating Ecological and Social Impacts of New Jersey Legislation Regulating Fertilizer Nitrogen Loads to Barnegat Bay – Little Egg Harbor Estuary by Using Isotopic Signatures, Seagrass Demographics, Social Response, and Communications." ($164,998)
  • Kerkhof, L.. National Science Foundation, "BIOME-Bio-Robotic Infrastructure for Oceanic Microbial Ecology." 10/01/11 - 09/30/14 ($826,509)
  • Kohut, J. University of Delaware, "Satellite Driven Studies of Climate Mediated Changes in Antarctic Food Webs." 05/11/09 - 05/10/12 ($37,794 CONT)
  • Taghon, G. National Science Foundation, "REU Site: Research Internships in Ocean Sciences (RIOS)." 05/15/11 - 04/30/12 ($13,626 CONT)

Publications

  • Arango, H.G., J.C. Levin, E.N. Curchitser, B. Zhang, A.M. Moore, W. Han, A.L. Gordon, C.M. Lee, and J.B. Girton. 2011. Development of a Hindcast/Forecast Model for the Philippine Archipelago. Oceanography, 20(1), 58-69, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2011.04.
  • Callaghan, A.V., B.E.L. Morris, I.A.C. Pereira, M.J. Mcinerney, J.J. Kukor, J.M. Suflita, G.J. Zylstra, R.N. Austin, J.J. Groves, L.Y. Young & B. Wawrik. 2011. The genome sequence of Desulfatibacillum alkenivorans AK-01: a blueprint for anaerobic alkane oxidation. Environ Microbiol. DOI:10.1111/j.1462-2920.2011.02516.x
  • DiNezio, P.N., A.C. Clement, G.A. Vecchi, B. Soden, A.J. Broccoli, B. Otto-Bliesner, and P. Braconnot. 2011: The response of the Walker circulation to LGM forcing: Implications for detection in proxies, Paleoceanography, 26:PA3217, doi:10.1029/2010PA002083.
  • Falkowski, P.G., T. Algeo, L. Codispoti, C. Deutsch, S. Emerson, B. Hales, R.B. Huey, W.J. Jenkins, L.R. Kump, L.A. Levin, T.W. Lyons, N.B. Nelson, O. Schofield, R. Summons, L.D. Talley, E. Thomas, F. Whitney, C.B. Pilcherm. 2011. Ocean Deoxygenation: Past, Present, and Future. EOS, Transactions American Geophysical Union. 92(46): 409-411. supplemental material
  • Fiechter, J., G. Broquet, A.M. Moore, and H.G. Arango. 2011. A data assimilative, coupled physical-biological model for the Coastal Gulf of Alaska. Dynamics of Atmosphere and Oceans. 52: 95-118.
  • Koblizek, M., J. Janouskovec, J.M. Obomik, J.H. Johnson, S. Ferriera, P.G. Falkowski. 2011. Genome sequence of the marine photoheterotrophic bacterium Erythrobacter sp. Strain NAP1. Journal of Bacteriology 193(20): 5881-5882 doi:10.1128/JB.05845-11
  • LI, Y, A.W. PORTER, A. MUMFORD, X. ZHAO & L.Y. YOUNG. 2012. Bacterial community structure and bamA gene diversity in anaerobic degradation of toluene and benzoate under denitrifying conditions. J Appl Microbiol. In press.
  • Manderson, J., L. Palamara, J. Kohut, M.J. Oliver. 2011. Featured article: Ocean observatory data are useful for regional habitat modeling of species with different vertical habitat preferences. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 438: 1-17. doi: 10.3354/meps09308
  • McCay, B.J. and P.J.S. Jones. 2011. Marine protected areas and the governance of marine ecosystems and fisheries. Conservation Biology 25: 1130-1133.
  • McGhee, G.R. 2011. Convergent Evolution: Limited Forms Most Beautiful. Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology; Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, Cambridge (MA), 322 pp. (Click here for the MIT Press website describing the book.)
  • Moore, A.M., H.G. Arango, G. Broquet, B.S. Powell, A.T. Weaver, and J. Zavala-Garay, 2011a: The Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) 4-dimensional variational data assimilation systems, Part I: System overview and formulation, Progress in Oceanography, 91, 34-49, doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2011.05.004.
  • Moore, A.M., H.G. Arango, G. Broquet, C. Edwards, M. Veneziani, B.S. Powell, D. Foley, J. Doyle, D. Costa, and P. Robinson. 2011b. The Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) 4-dimensional variational data assimilation systems, Part II: Performance and Applications to the California Current System. Progress in Oceanography, 91, 50-73, doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2011.05.003.
  • Moore, A.M., H.G. Arango, G. Broquet, C. Edwards, M. Veneziani, B.S. Powell, D. Foley, J. Doyle, D. Costa, and P. Robinson, 2011c. The Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) 4-dimensional variational data assimilation systems, Part III: Observation impact and observation sensitivity in the California Current System, Progress in Oceanography, 91, 74-94, doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2011.05.005.
  • Ramirez Sanchez, S., B.J. McCay, T. Johnson, and W. Weisman 2011. Surgimiento, formación, y persistencia de organizaciones sociales para la pesca ribereña de la península de Baja California: un enfoque antropológico. Region y Sociedad 23 (51): 71-99
  • Wiedenmann, J., K. Cresswell, J. Goldbogen, J. Potvin, and M. Mangel. 2011. Exploring the effects of reductions in krill biomass in the Southern Ocean on blue whales using a state-dependent foraging model. Ecological Modelling 222: 3366-3379
  • Zhu, W., and J.R. Reinfelder. 2012. The microbial community of a black shale pyrite biofilm and its implications for pyrite weathering. Geomicrobiology Journal, 29:186 193.

 

Student News

  • Congratulations to Jeana Drake (Advisor, Paul Falkowski) and Aboozar Tabatabai (Advisor, John Wilkin) on passing their Qualifying Exams!

Let's Welcome

  • Kristin Hunter-Thomson: I recently joined the Education & Outreach team to assist with marine education for local students and teachers. I completed my Masters of Science in Marine Science for Moss Landing Marine Labs in Moss Landing, CA last spring and my Masters of Arts in Teaching in 2006. I worked for the past two years as a Fisheries Education Specialist for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and a science educator for the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I am interested in working at the intersection of marine science and education. (Room 103, ext. 23281)
  • Wenge Jiang: I am a postdoctoral associate in the group of Paul Falkowski after finishing my Ph.D. degree in Zhejiang University of China. My research interests focus on Biomineralization and now I am studying the effects of ocean acidification on coral calcification. When I am free, I enjoy playing basketball, travelling and swimming.I am very happy to join IMCS and to make friends with everyone. (Room 211 ext 2-3397)
  • Imtiaz Rangwala: I am currently a research associate at IMCS. My research focuses on understanding mechanisms causing climate change at regional scales both in recently observed period and those projected for the mid-to-late 21st century. There is a greater emphasis on high mountain regions in my research; these regions being very relevant to water resource issues in several parts of the globe. I have studied and communicated uncertainty related to regional climate change projections to land and water managers, particularly in the western US. I have actually spent several years at Rutgers getting my masters and PhD (with Jim Miller), where I also found my wife and many close friends. I was out in Boulder, CO, for more than two years now on the UCAR PACE postdoctoral fellowship. So it is welcome back for me. (Blake Room 207, 848-932-7120)
  • John Wiedenmann: I'm a new Research Associate in IMCS, having previously been a postdoc at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory. Prior to that, I did my Ph.D. in Ocean Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz. My research involves applying a variety of modeling approaches to answer questions on the population dynamics of marine organisms. My work primarily focuses on fisheries biology (stock assessment, management strategy evaluation), but I I am also interested in the foraging and reproductive dynamics of marine mammals. My current focus is modeling different regulations in the summer flounder recreational fishery and their effects on flounder population dynamics and on angler satisfaction. When not staring at a computer screen I like to spend time outside with my 4 yr old daughter. You can find me in Old Blake, room 206 (ext. 23495), but it's best to reach me via email: john.wiedenmann@gmail.com
  • Stella Woodard: I grew up on the southern shore of Lake Ontario in the small town of Sodus, NY. I received my BA in English and Writing from SUNY Oswego in 2001, and recently completed my PhD in Oceanography at Texas A&M University. As a scientist my interests include global climate variation over short and long geologic timescales, changes in the ocean/atmosphere in response to climate and anthropogenic environmental impacts. I also enjoy traveling, being outdoors, skateboarding (although I'm too old to do tricks), cooking, writing and the fine arts in general. (Room 205a, ext. 23421)

Congratulations

  • Congratulations to Eilat and Arik Harel on the birth of their son, Zohar, born October 31, 2011 at 3:27am. He's a healthy baby boy weighing 6.12 pounds.
  • Congratulations to Tali and Yaniv Mass on the birth of their son Roy, brother of Shahar and Inbar, born on October 27, 2011 weighing 7.3 pounds.

Upcoming Events

 

 

 
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