| Highlights | Meetings Attended | New Grants | Publications | Let's Welcome | Archives |
 

December 23, 2006

Highlights

 An article by Clayton Sandell of ABC News, 'Flying' Underwater at the Bottom of the Planet, features the COOL Lab glider team and their mission to deploy an underwater robot glider off the coast of Antartica. The glider will gather data and transmit the information back to their lab in New Brunswick. To read the article, click here.
Fred Grassle, the chair of the Scientific Steering Committee for the Census of Marine Life, was interviewed by Kitta MacPherson of The Star-Ledger. The article "Riches of A Deep Blue World" appeared on the front page of the December 11, 2006 issue of The Star-Ledger. Click here to read.
Fred Grassle was also quoted by the Washington Post in the article “Technologies Changing Insight Into Seas" by Juliet Eilperin (December 18, 2006). This article further explains the work being done by the many marine scientists using new technology to obtain vast amounts of information about the ocean and the various marine species within. To read the article, click here.
  • Rutgers own IMAX film, "Volcanoes of the Deep Sea", is the winner of Best Film in the category of Scientific Exploration at the 5th Anniversary Explorers Club Documentary Film Festival. A reception will take place at the Explorers Club in New York City (46 East 70th Street) on Friday evening 19 January and the film will be shown on Saturday evening 20 January. Please see the website for ticket information and schedule http://explorers.org/spec_events/filmfest/filmfest.php or www.explorers.org
  • Jim Ammerman presented an invited talk entitled, "Nutrient Dynamics, Gulf Productivity, and Hypoxia: Does Phosphorus Really Matter?", to a meeting of the Hypoxia Advisory Panel of the U.S. EPA Science Advisory Board, December 7, 2006, in Washington, DC.
  • Paul Falkowski and Michael Behrenfeld were interviewed by Richard Harris of NPR's Morning Edition on December 7, 2006. You can listen to the interview "Warming Oceans Less Hospitable for Plant Life" by going to http://www.npr.org/ and selecting Morning Edition from the drop down menu for Programs and Schedules, then proceed from there to search for the December 7, 2006 show. This interview corresponds to the December 7th publication of the study by Behrenfeld et al. in Nature, "Climate-driven trends in contemporary ocean productivity." http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v444/n7120/full/nature05317.html
  • Tony Broccoli made two presentations about global warming to the Annual Recycling Symposium and Awards Luncheon, Association of New Jersey Recyclers (Eatontown, NJ), and the Nassau Presbyterian Church (Princeton,
    NJ), both in October 2006.
  • Tony Broccoli was quoted by The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ) in a news article ("The N.J. Lab That Gave A Global Warning: Now cutting-edge climatologists weather the political head winds") about the NOAA Geophysical Fluid
    Dynamics Laboratory, December 2006.
  • Alan Robock appeared on NJN News on Dec. 20, 2006, where he discussed his latest research on the climatic effects of regional nuclear conflicts. To view the video of his interview with Patrick Regan, "Nuclear Winter Revisited," click on the link: http://njn.njit.edu/newspublicaffairs/science/
  • Alan Robock gave a talk on "Global Warming" to the Air and Waste Management Association, Environmental Sciences Club and Meteorology Club at Cook College on Dec. 6, 2006. He also gave a talk on "Global Warming" to the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Air and Waste Management Association, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on November 29, 2006.
  • On Nov. 14, 2006 Alan Robock appeared on Earthbeat radio show, discussing geoengineering, on Pacifica Radio, broadcast live in Washington, DC on WPFW and on tape on Pacifica stations nationally. The web page describing the show is at http://www.earthbeatradio.org/2006/11/global_haze_1.html and you can listen to the podcast at http://www.earthbeatradio.org/media/111406C.mp3
  • A paper published in Geophysical Research Letters by Luke Oman (a recent Ph.D. student, now a postdoc at Johns Hopkins), Alan Robock, Georgiy Stenchikov, and Thor Thordarson has found that high latitude volcanic eruptions produce a weakening of the summer monsoon over India and Africa. It was found that after the 1783 Laki eruption in Iceland that there was reduction in the flow of the Nile and famine in Egypt. There was also famine in India and Japan as a result of the drought. NASA has produced a web page featuring their recent results: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2006/volcano_nile.html

Meetings Attended

  • Peter Rona participated in the Fall AGU Meeting 3-6 December 2006 in San Francisco where he co-authored two papers (with Karen Bemis: Are hydrothermal plumes lazy?: implications for the entrainment of diffuse flow; and with Leonid Germanovich, Gence Genc, and Robert Lowell, Deformation associated with serpentinization at mid-ocean ridges with reference to the TAG hydrothermal field).
  • Fred Grassle attended the Second Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) Summit of International Marine Research Projects held in London, UK, December 7-9, 2006.
  • 2006. Sikes, E. L., K.R. Rose, T. P. Guilderson and P.A. Shane. "Deep Water Ages in the Southwest Pacific and Southern Ocean Since the Last Glacial Maximum," EOS, Trans. AGU, 87(52) Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract PP44A-06 INVITED.
  • Tony Broccoli's research group made three presentations at the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco, CA: "Influence of Temperature and Precipitation Changes on Model-Simulated Monthly Snowfall Trends," J. Krasting and A. J.
    Broccoli; "Some Aspects of Climate Model Response to Black Carbon in Quasi-Equilibrium Experiments with the GFDL GCM," M. Yoshimori and A. J. Broccoli; and "Mechanisms of Tropical Response to Idealized Extratropical
    Cooling Simulated with the GFDL Model," A. J. Broccoli and M. Yoshimori.
  • Alan Robock and Georgiy Stenchikov, along with Brian Toon (Colorado) and Richard Turco (UCLA) convened a Union session, "Environmental Consequences of Regional Nuclear Conflicts," at the AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, December 11-15, 2006.

    Additional talks presented by Alan Robock and his group at the AGU meeting are:

    • Groundwater control on soil moisture at continental scales (with Gonzalo Miguez-Macho, Ying Fan Reinfelder, Christopher Weaver, and Robert Walko; presented by Gonzalo Miguez-Macho; AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, December 11-15, 2006)
    • Groundwater control on land surface fluxes, boundary layer structure, and precipitation (with Richard Anyah, Christopher Weaver, Gonzalo Miguez-Macho, and Ying Fan Reinfelder; presented by Richard Anyah; AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, December 11-15, 2006)
    • Volcanic Forcing of Climate over the Past 1500 Years: An Improved Ice-Core-Based Index for Climate Models (with Chaochao Gao and Caspar Ammann; presented by Chaochao Gao; AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, December 11-15, 2006)
    • Can Volcanic Eruptions Produce Ice Ages or Mass Extinctions? (Invited presentation; with Caspar Amman, Luke Oman, Drew Shindell, and Georgiy Stenchikov; AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, December 11-15, 2006)
    • Modeling the Climate Response of the Laki Eruption - Benjamin Franklin was Right (Invited presentation; with Luke Oman, Georgiy Stenchikov, and Thorvaldur Thordarson; presented by Luke Oman; AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, December 11-15, 2006)
    • Consequences of Regional Scale Nuclear Conflicts and Acts of Individual Nuclear Terrorism (with Owen B. Toon, Richard Turco, Charles Bardeen, Luke Oman, and Georgiy Stenchikov; presented by Owen B. Toon; AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, December 11-15, 2006)
    • Potential Fuel Loadings, Fire Ignitions, and Smoke Emissions from Nuclear Bursts in Megacities (with Richard Turco, Owen B. Toon, Charles Bardeen, Luke Oman, and Georgiy Stenchikov; presented by Richard Turco; AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, December 11-15, 2006)
    • Regional Simulations of Stratospheric Lofting of Smoke Plumes (Invited presentation; with Georgiy Stenchikov and Michael Fromm; presented by Georgiy Stenchikov; AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, December 11-15, 2006)
    • Climatic Consequences of Regional Nuclear Conflicts (with Luke Oman, Georgiy Stenchikov, Owen B. Toon, Charles Bardeen, and Richard Turco; presented by Luke Oman; AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, December 11-15, 2006)
    • Nuclear Winter Revisited: Still the Most Dangerous Potential Environmental Consequence of Human Actions (with Luke Oman and Georgiy Stenchikov; AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, December 11-15, 2006)
  • Alan Robock gave the following invited presentations:
    • Geoengineering with volcanic eruptions (Invited presentation; with Luke Oman and Georgiy Stenchikov, Managing Solar Radiation Workshop, Moffett Field, California, November 18-19, 2006)
    • Global warming (Invited presentation; CDC NCEH/ATSDR 7th National Environmental Health Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, December 5, 2006)

New Grants

  • Arango, H., PI. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, "Community Sediment Transport Model." 6/6/06-2/15/07, ($61,190)
  • Auermuller, L., PI. Ocean County College-Barnegat Bay NEP, "Barnegat Bay Watershed Adopt-A-Storm Drain Municipal Assistance Program." 10/1/06-12/31/07, ($14,300)
  • McDonnell, J., PI. University of California-Berkeley, "Communicating Ocean Science to Informal Audiences." 3/1/06-2/28/07, ($25,000)

Publications

  • Broccoli, A. J., K. A. Dahl, and R. J. Stouffer, 2006: The Response of the ITCZ to Northern Hemisphere cooling. Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L01702, doi:10.1029/2005GL024546.
  • Delworth, T. L., A. J. Broccoli, A. Rosati, R. J. Stouffer, V. Balaji, J. T. Beesley, W. F. Cooke, K. W. Dixon, J. Dunne, K. A. Dunne, J. W. Durachta, K. L. Findell, P. Ginoux, A. Gnanadesikan, C. T. Gordon, S. M. Griffies, R. Gudgel, M. J. Harrison, I. M. Held, R. S. Hemler, L. W. Horowitz, S. A. Klein, T. R. Knutson, P. J. Kushner, A. L. Langenhorst, H.-C. Lee, S. J. Lin, J. Lu, S. L. Malyshev, P.C. Milly, V. Ramaswamy, J. Russell, M. D. Schwarzkopf, E. Shevliakova, J. Sirutis, M. Spelman, W. F. Stern, M. Winton, A. T. Wittenberg, B. Wyman, F. Zeng, and R. Zhang, 2005: GFDL’s CM2 global coupled climate models ­ Part 1: Formulation and simulation characteristics. J. Climate, 19, 643-674.
  • Gao, C., L. Oman, A. Robock, and G. L. Stenchikov, 2006: Atmospheric volcanic loading derived from bipolar ice cores accounting for the spatial distribution of volcanic deposition. J. Geophys. Res., doi:10.1029/ 2006JD007461, in press.
  • Hewitt, C. D., A. J. Broccoli, M. Crucifix, J. M. Gregory, J. F. B. Mitchell, R. J. Stouffer, 2006: The effect of a large freshwater perturbation on the glacial North Atlantic Ocean using a coupled general circulation model. J. Climate, 19, 4436-4447.
  • Hügler, M., H. Huber, S. J. Molyneaux, C. Vetriani, and S. M. Sievert, (2007). Autotrophic CO2 fixation via the reductive tricarboxylic acid cycle in different lineages within the phylum Aquificae: Evidence for two ways of citrate cleavage. Environmental Microbiology 9:81-92.
  • Robock, A., L. Oman, G. L. Stenchikov, O. B. Toon, C. Bardeen, and R. P. Turco, 2006: Climatic consequences of regional nuclear conflicts. Atm. Chem. Phys. Disc., 6, 11,817-11,843.
  • Stouffer, R. J., A. J. Broccoli, T. L. Delworth, K. W. Dixon, R. Gudgel, I. Held, R. Hemler, T. R. Knutson, H.-C. Lee, M. D. Schwarzkopf, B. Soden, M. J. Spelman, M. Winton, and F. Zeng, 2006: GFDL's CM2 Global Coupled Climate Models. Part IV: Idealized Climate Response. J. Climate, 19, 723-740.
  • Toon, O. B., R. P. Turco, A. Robock, C. Bardeen, L. Oman, and G. L. Stenchikov, 2006: Atmospheric effects and societal consequences of regional scale nuclear conflicts and acts of individual nuclear terrorism. Atm. Chem. Phys. Disc., 6, 11,745-11,816.

Let's Welcome

  • Sara Borin joined Costa Vetriani's lab for a six-month stay as a Fulbright Scholar. Sara is an assistant professor of microbiology at the University of Milan, Italy. During the past few years, Sara has been investigating the microbiology of the deep anoxic basins in the Mediterranean Sea. She will start her scholarship at Rutgers by participating with Costa's group in a four-week long oceanographic expedition on the East Pacific Rise aboard the R/V Atlantis/Alvin.
  • Kim Thamatrakoln: "I received my Ph.D. from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography where my dissertation focused on the molecular and functional characterization of diatom silicon transporters. I recently joined Kay Bidle's lab where I will be studying programmed cell death in phytoplankton, specifically my interests are in understanding the molecular pathways of cell death in unicellular organisms." (Room 305E, ext. 306)
  • Adam Kustka: "I'm excited to join the Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology (EBME) group, and am working primarily on C-4 metabolism in diatoms, with support from Kay Bidle and John Reinfelder (Environmental Sciences). The C-4 pathway may confer a competitive advantage to diatoms in thick blooms where there can be bioenergetic cost to taking up carbon. My dissertation and post-doc work has focused on understanding the various aspects of trace element limitation and mechanisms used to acquire trace elements from seawater, with an emphasis on Fe (although recent projects include other essential and non-essential elements such as Cu, V and Al). In my spare time (whatever that might be) I enjoy playing with my kids, fishing, kayaking and hiking." (Room 305, x236)