Barents Sea Cruise 5-1-13

Skidaway Institute scientists Marc Frischer and Jens Nejstgaard are participating in a research cruise in the Barents Sea, north of Norway. This is an account of the experience from Marc.

First day of the cruise.  Everyone is excited and anxious.  We were all on board the ship by 9:00am and busy scurrying around making final preparations, securing instruments & lab gear and setting up the various work stations.  The crew was exceedingly helpful and efficient.

The Marine Tech was delayed in Oslo (coming by plane) so we couldn’t leave until he arrived.  He made it around noon and we were underway at about 12:45pm.  We headed north through the fjords.  The scenery was fantastic.  Calm water, snow and fog covered mountains, sun and clouds.  Not too much wildlife present, some seabirds.  The captain (Tom Ole) predicted that we’d see a lot of life near the ice edge, perhaps even whales.  Next week they have a whale observing cruise scheduled in the same area that we are heading to now.

Heading out to sea

After discussions with Aud Larsen and Jens Nejstgaaard we decided that due to our late departure we would head to immediately to the polar front and ice edge to take full advantage of the night to steam.  Of course night doesn’t really feel like night since it only gets dim for a few hours this far north this time of year, but for some reason we still get tired.  We also decided to stop a various points along our course to characterize the water and plankton communities.  We are occupying a standard transect used by IMR (Norwegian Institute of Marine Research) called Fugløya – Bjørnøya and are lucky that the previous week (25 – 29 April 2013) this line had been run giving us a pretty good idea of what we’ll find this week.  The data from the previous week indicated that water conditions are not unusual and that we could expect to reach the polar front approximately 225 NM north of our first sea station after leaving the fjords.

Our goal is to locate water masses containing the algae Phaeocystis pouchetti in various stages of its bloom cycle so that we can study how it is eaten (or not) by other organisms and thereby contributes to the food web.  It’s a very interesting and mysterious algae because of its importance as a major blooming algae in high latitude waters and because whether it is eaten seems to be highly variable.  We suspect that at times it is readily eaten and at others it is not and that this is mainly due to its ability to dramatically alter its size, chemically defend itself from predation and its resistance to ubiquitous viruses.  Despite the fact that this algae is slimy and smelly, all of us who study it love it because it’s so interesting.  We call the  project “Phaeo Enigma” because there is so much we don’t understand about this organism.

We stopped around 3:30 pm (13:30 GMT) in the fjord to take a quick sample.  The water column profile was classic textbook fjord with a chla maximum at about 23 meters.  The water contained big colonies of the algae we are studying (Phaeocystis pouchetti), but we are sticking with our plan to head north.

Continuing north we finally made it to our first sea station at 70 30 N 20 00 E.  Again, it was a quick stop to look at the water.  As we expected we found classic Norwegian Coastal Current water.  Phaeocystis was present here too, though at lower concentrations that we found in the fjords.  After a quick 30 min stop we were back on our way.

Since there wasn’t much to do most for the remainder of the evening, most of us thought it was prudent to turn in early for the evening.  Soon enough we will all be very busy!

Barents Sea cruise

Skidaway Institute scientist Marc Frischer is beginning a research cruise in the Barents Sea. Here is the first of his reports.

The cruise starts! We’re on the hunt for the enigmatic but globally significant algae Phaeocystis. We head north to the ice shortly aboard the Norwegian Research Vessel Hakon Mosby. I’ll try to update as I can.

 

Skidaway Institute scientist presents coastal hazard program

Clark Alexander

The Skidaway Institute of Oceanography scientist Clark Alexander will present an informative and visual program on threats to the Georgia Coast in an “Evening @ Skidaway” reception and lecture on Tuesday, May 21, on the campus of Skidaway Institute.

The program will begin at 6:15 p.m. with a reception at the University of Georgia MAREX Aquarium to be followed by the science talk at 7:15 p.m. in the McGowan Library Auditorium.

The program is open to the public and admission is free.

Alexander’s talk is titled, “Coastal Crystal Ball: A Look at the Future of Georgia’s Changing Coastline.” Drawing on two decades of work in the area, Alexander will discuss coastal hazards relevant to Georgia, such as storms, beach erosion and sea level rise. He will introduce the Georgia Coastal Hazards Portal, a web-based tool that anyone can use to assess their specific exposure to coastal hazards, and present up-to-the-minute results of ongoing research to better quantify coastal Georgia’s hazard vulnerability.

The reception will include a demonstration of the Georgia Coastal Hazards Portal display located at the Aquarium.

Seating is limited. Please reserve seats by calling (912) 598-2325 or email to mike.sullivan@skio.usg.edu.

An “Evening @ Skidaway” is sponsored by the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography and the Skidaway Marine Science Foundation.

Study shows rivers a major transport of black carbon to the ocean

Black carbon, formed from the burning of biomass and fossil fuels, may account for as much as ten percent of the carbon transported by rivers into the ocean and play a significant role in controlling the balance of two of the most important carbon pools on earth – the soil and the ocean.

This is the finding of a group of scientists, including Aron Stubbins of the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography. This research will appear in the April 19, 2013 issue of the journal Science, published by the AAAS, the science society, the world’s largest general scientific organization. See http://www.sciencemag.org, and also http://www.aaas.org.

Black carbon is organic material that has been altered by heat or combustion, such as the remnants of forest fires or burning fossil fuels. The burning of biomass generates between 40 million and 250 million tons of black carbon every year. Part of that is preserved for thousands of years in soils and sediments where it makes up approximately ten percent of the total carbon there.

Another portion is picked up by drainage and carried by rivers to the ocean. According to Stubbins and his colleagues, as much as ten percent of the carbon dumped by rivers into the ocean may be this black carbon.

This movement of black carbon involves two of the Earth’s three main stores of reactive carbon — in the soil and in the dissolved phase in the ocean. Both are approximately the same size as the third store – the carbon in the atmosphere, in the form of carbon dioxide.

“The balance between those three carbon pools is very important,” said Stubbins. “It controls the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which in turn influences local and global climate.”

Black carbon is fairly stable in the marine environment, especially in the deep ocean. However, near the surface black carbon is very photo-sensitive. So when it is exposed to sunlight, it will degrade rapidly.

“In the deep ocean, the degradation is so slow that it would take up to 40 thousand years for the black carbon to be removed,” said Stubbins, “However, stick it in sunlight and 95 percent will disappear in two weeks.”

When exposed to sunlight, the relatively complex black carbon molecules break down into smaller molecules, including carbon dioxide. The CO₂ is dissolved in the ocean water where it can be utilized in photosynthesis by microscopic plants called phytoplankton. It can also be released into the atmosphere as part of the constant exchange of gasses between the atmosphere and the water at the ocean surface.

This degradation of black carbon in the surface ocean is apparently happening at a fairly rapid rate. The data in this project suggests that the Earth’s rivers are dumping much more black carbon into the ocean than can be found there.

“So where is it going?” asked Stubbins. “The rivers are dumping ten to 100 times more carbon into the ocean than we are finding there. That means we are losing ten to 99 percent of it.”

Stubbins continued, if that black carbon had remained in the soil, it would have remained stable for thousands of years.

“If you are losing it in the oceans, it is likely being converted into carbon dioxide. This freeing of black carbon from the soils, followed by its conversion to CO₂ is analogous to the production of CO₂ that occurs when we dig up and burn fossil fuels.”

The Science article is titled “Global Charcoal Mobilization from Soils via Dissolution and Riverine Transport to the Oceans.” The lead author is Rudolf Jaffé from Florida International University. In addition to Stubbins, the co-authors include Yan Ding, also from Florida International University; Jutta Niggemann and Thorsten Dittmar from the Max Planck Research Group for Marine Geochemistry; Anssi V. Vähätalo from the University of Helsinki; Robert G.M. Spencer from the Woods Hole Research Center; and John Campbell from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Northern Research Station.

The entire article can be viewed online at: www.sciencemag.org

Stubbins has a website detailing this and other work on black carbon at: http://www.skio.usg.edu/?p=research/chem/biogeochem/blkcarbon

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Congratulations…

… to Skidaway Institute tech Tina Waters! She won a student poster award at the ASLO meeting held in New Orleans last month. The title of her winning poster is:

MOLECULAR PROFILING OF ZOOPLANKTON GUT CONTENT USING PNA-PCR AND DENATURING HIGH PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY (PNA-PCR-DHPLC)

LaGina M. Frazier, Gustav-A. Paffenhöfer, and Marc E. Frischer all collaborated with Tina and were cited on the poster. In addition to being a valued member of the Skidaway Institute science team, Tina is a grad student at Savannah State.

Field stations and marine labs join forces to tackle national environmental challenges

A world threatened by extreme weather, invasive species, emerging disease and increasing uncertainty needs the scientific capacity to face those challenges. Natural laboratories around the country, which have been placing researchers on the front lines of understanding and managing environmental change for a century, form the building blocks of that capacity. The Organization of Biological Field Stations and The National Association of Marine Laboratories has released a report showing how scientists in communities across the continent respond to emerging questions in flexible and nimble ways, and are poised to work together to contribute to global solutions.

James Sanders

The report was supervised by a steering committee of seven scientists, including Skidaway Institute of Oceanography director James Sanders. Also, Skidaway Institute scientist Jens Nejstgaard participated in the workshop that contributed to the report.

Field stations and marine labs (FSMLs) are the primary places scientists go to study environmental processes in their natural context, and as such they harbor the knowledge of the past that we need to predict the future. They host thousands of individual researchers at hundreds of locations, and are the birthplace of many of the innovations and discoveries that drive environmental science today. Recent large-scale initiatives, such as the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) and the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), as well as the longer-running Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER)

network, depend on existing FSML infrastructure. The novel insights these new observatories generate

Jens Nejstgaard

will stimulate complementary research at many more field stations and marine labs.

However, only a small fraction of FSMLs participates in these broader-scale scientific initiatives. NEON and LTER represent ten per cent of the available long-term, place-based, multiple-investigator environmental research sites. The report, “Field Stations and Marine Laboratories of the Future: A Strategic Vision,” is based on a national workshop and survey and on input from the broader scientific community. The report recommends creating a Network Center to catalyze broader-scale science and to facilitate participation in coordinated environmental efforts. For example, a stronger network of FSMLs could contribute to evolving national and international programs such as the sustained National Climate Assessment or the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network.

Field stations and marine labs have the flexibility and the logistical and intellectual capacity to support novel experimental approaches across tremendous ecological diversity. Collectively, they represent billions of dollars of investment in research infrastructure, including and tools, and they have trained generations of environmental scientists.

This report is a first step in making sure the nation’s investment in field stations and marine labs continues to meet the dynamic and changing needs of scientists, students and the public they serve.

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The National Association of Marine Laboratories (NAML), organized in the late 1980′s, is a nonprofit organization of over 120 members employing more than 10,000 scientists, engineers, and professionals and representing marine and Great Lakes laboratories stretching from Guam to Bermuda and Alaska to Puerto Rico. The member institutions of the National Association of Marine Labs work together to improve the quality and effectiveness of ocean, coastal and Great Lakes research, education and outreach. Through these unique national and regional networks, NAML encourages ecosystem-based management, wise local land management and the understanding and protection of natural resources.

 

The Organization of Biological Field Stations (OBFS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that represents field stations throughout the world. The mission of OBFS is to help member stations increase their effectiveness in supporting critical research, education, and outreach programs. OBFS pursues this goal in a manner that maximizes diversity, inclusiveness, sustainability, and transparency.

 

Regents Align Skidaway Institute of Oceanography with UGA

Atlanta — January 8, 2013

The Board of Regents approved today aligning the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography (SkIO) with the University of Georgia (UGA).

“The new alignment between the institute and the university will streamline operations and enhance the research efforts of both SkIO and UGA’s excellent marine and coastal programs,” said Houston Davis, the University System’s chief academic officer and executive vice chancellor.

Davis said that the change is part of Chancellor Hank Huckaby’s efforts to streamline the University System of Georgia’s operations. He said that the change will become effective July 1, 2013.

The Institute has 65 employees who conduct cutting-edge oceanographic research on both a regional and global scale. The Institute also provides research-based educational opportunities to students from other University System institutions and from around the world.

The University of Georgia has a staff of about 20 who provide classes for as many as 18,000 students from elementary to high school each year at Skidaway. The university also has a site on Sapelo Island for site-based research and instruction of undergraduate and graduate college students in its marine program.

“In addition to enhancing research conducted by UGA, this change provides a synergistic environment that is sure to benefit both Georgia Tech and Savannah State University who also conduct important coastal research at Skidaway,” added Davis.

The Georgia General Assembly chartered Skidaway in 1967 after philanthropist Robert Roebling donated the land to the state. The Institute operated as a stand-alone institution for four years before coming under the responsibility of the University System.

Skidaway Institute scientists seek answers to salt marsh questions

Salt marshes are a vital part of the coastal ecosystem. They provide a nursery for many kinds of marine animal life. Sitting in the transition zone between the ocean and the land, salt marshes serve as a physical buffer against severe weather. They act as a chemical buffer by capturing, holding and releasing nutrients that are brought in on each tide. As a result, the marshes have a great influence on the type and amount of nutrients that enter the sounds and the ocean. That buffering capacity varies on tidal, daily and seasonal time scales, but how it functions is poorly documented.

A team of Skidaway Institute of Oceanography scientists have begun a project to get a clearer picture of how salt marshes function and interact with their surrounding environment.

The composition of the science team reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the project. Principal investigator Jay Brandes, Aron Stubbins and Bill Savidge are chemical oceanographers, and Catherine Edwards is a physical oceanographer. Geologist Clark Alexander and physical oceanographers Jack Blanton and Dana Savidge are also contributing to the effort. The three-year project is funded by a $699, 971 grant from the National Science Foundation.

The research team at Groves Creek (l-r) Clark Alexander, Jack Blanton, Catherine Edwards, Jay Brandes, Dana Savidge, Bill Savidge, Aron Stubbins

“Scientists have looked at salt marshes in the past and have gotten some good data,” Brandes said. “However, this will be the first detailed look at the combined functions of one of these marsh systems.”

The project will focus on Groves Creek, a portion of coastal salt marsh along the Wilmington River, adjacent to the Skidaway Institute campus. Groves Creek has been the site of other research projects.  Over the past three years, Blanton, Alexander, Dana Savidge and others have studied the topography and water-flow in the marsh as part of a Department of Energy-funded project.  Because of this, the physical layout of the marsh has been documented to a fine detail.

“We already know a lot about this area, especially how the water moves in and out of the marsh on the tides,” said Brandes. “We have a very good understanding of the topography of the top of the marsh and its tidal creeks, both above and below the surface.”

The scientists also believe the Groves Creek area is fairly representative of salt marshes along the Georgia and South Carolina coasts.

From a chemical standpoint, the research will focus on way the salt marsh uses carbon: is it a consumer or producer of carbon-based organic material and nutrients?

“Marshes take material in from the river on every high tide, and they deliver material back to the river on the falling tide — but it isn’t the same stuff,” Savidge said. “The marsh changes the river chemistry on every tidal cycle.”

There isn’t much consensus on what controls that exchange between river and marsh. “That is one of the big questions,” said Brandes, “Trying to understand whether the marsh is a producer or consumer, and how that changes over time, the seasons, the tides and so on.”

To get a detailed history of marsh-river exchange, the scientists will place sensors in the marsh that will measure various conditions every 15 minutes. Remote sensors cannot measure everything, so the research team will also be collecting samples on a daily basis and returning them to their labs for analysis.  Understanding the big picture will come from adding up all the little incremental changes over time and relating them to the actions of sun, tide and weather on the marsh surface.

Stubbins will focus his efforts on the role of dissolved organic carbon in the marsh. Savidge will work look at how the salt marsh uses dissolved oxygen. Edwards will be modeling how water flows in and out of the system and how that movement interacts with the chemical and biological activity.

When the project is complete in three years, the Skidaway scientists expect to have a much more extensive picture of the role salt marshes play in the larger coastal ecosystem.

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Skidaway Institute searching for two faculty positions

The Skidaway Institute of Oceanography is currently seeking applications for two faculty positions.

 Trace Element Geochemist – This is a faculty position at the Assistant Professor level in trace element geochemistry. Applications from more senior candidates will also be considered. The successful candidate must have a Ph.D. and is expected to develop an active, extramurally funded research program. We are particularly interested in a collaborative colleague who can demonstrate experience in conducting field-based, interdisciplinary research in estuarine, coastal and/or marine environments.

For additional details, see the full job description and application guidelines at: http://www.skio.usg.edu/aboutus/jobs/1348248214.pdf

Marine Environmental Chemist – This is a faculty position at the Assistant Professor level in environmental chemistry, with interest in organic contaminant chemistry in the marine environment. Applications from more senior candidates will also be considered. The successful candidate must have a Ph.D. and is expected to develop an active, extramurally funded research program. We are particularly interested in a collaborative colleague who can demonstrate experience in conducting field-based, interdisciplinary research in estuarine, coastal and/or marine environments.

For additional details, see the full job description and application guidelines at: http://www.skio.usg.edu/aboutus/jobs/1348248079.pdf

Skidaway Institute scientist presents public program on coastal hazards

Coastal residents are exposed to a number of unique hazards associated with living near the ocean. These hazards range from hurricane storm surge to rapid erosion.  They occur both from natural processes and human activities.

Skidaway Institute of Oceanography professor Clark Alexander and Georgia Southern University professor Chester Jackson will present a program entitled “Living on the Edge – Coastal Hazards in Georgia” on Monday, October 22, at 7 p.m. in the Library Auditorium on the campus of the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography at the north end of Skidaway Island.

The talk is open to the public and admission is free.

The program is sponsored by the University of Georgia Marine Extension Service, the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

If interested, please RSVP to (912) 598-2496.