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.

Glider-robots!

We had a real nice story on the front page of this morning’s Savannah Morning News. A big thanks to Mary Landers and her editors!

Skidaway Institute, Georgia Tech-Savannah partner on phytoplankton research

Sometimes scientific advances provide answers, and sometimes, they simply present more questions. That is what happened when scientists began using satellite imagery to study the ocean.

When Skidaway Institute of Oceanography scientists Jim Nelson and Catherine Edwards looked at satellite imagery of the ocean off the Carolinas, they noticed persistent blooms of phytoplankton, an important part of the marine food web. These mysterious blooms occurred during the winter along edge of the continental shelf off Long Bay — located between Cape Romain, South Carolina and Cape Fear, North Carolina. Phytoplankton blooms like those observed off Long Bay can provide a considerable boost to the bottom of the food chain, with significant implications for fisheries.

“The immediate cause of the blooms is an input of nutrients, like nitrogen and phosphorous, associated with transport and mixing of deep, cold onto the continental shelf,” said Edwards. “The Long Bay blooms persist for weeks or even months during the winter, suggesting multiple modes of nutrient input.”

Two of the guiding questions are why this feature is so persistent over the winter, and what are the dynamics that sustain this bloom?

Edwards and Nelson are teaming with Harvey Seim from the University of North Carolina and Fumin Zhang from Georgia Tech-Savannah on a project to answer those questions. The project is funded by a $1.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation supporting a team of scientists from all three institutions. With the help of Skidaway Institute research coordinators Trent Moore, Julie Amft and Charles Robertson, the project team will deploy moored and mobile instrument packages and conduct shipboard surveys to test hypotheses of how the winter blooms are formed and sustained.

The team will use some cutting-edge technology that will enhance its ability develop a clear picture of what is happening. This includes instrument packages mounted on moorings; mobile, autonomous “gliders”; underway ship surveys; standard ship-based station sampling; and satellite measurements of sea surface temperature and ocean color.

Skidaway Institute researchers (l-r) Catherine Edwards, Trent Moore, Julie Amft and Jim Nelson examine a glider.

Three moored packages will be deployed to provide continuous measurements of water properties and currents through the winter months. One mooring will be placed at 35 meters of depth, the approximate position of the shoreward edge of the winter bloom.

Two more packages will be placed in approximately 75 and 150 meters of water, with the 75 meter mooring equipped with an instrument package called a SeaHorse. Powered by wave motion, the Seahorse moves up and down its mooring wire, taking measurements throughout the water column. A telemetry system in the surface mooring periodically reports its observations.

The research team will also use another high-tech tool, autonomous underwater vehicles, also called gliders.

Skidaway Institute researchers lower a glider into a tank of water to adjust buoyancy and trim. (l-r) Trent Moore, Dongsik Chang, Charles Robertson and Julie Amft

Two of these torpedo-shaped vehicles, equipped with sensors and recorders, will provide the ability to collect observations under all conditions, including during winter storms when ship operations are not possible. The gliders will survey across the study area, taking and recording measurements as they go. From time to time over the four to five week missions, they will surface, report their data by satellite phone and receive instructions as needed.

The gliders will be controlled from shore with an autonomous glider control system co-developed by Fumin Zhang at Georgia Tech Savannah. Two Georgia Tech-Savannah graduate students, Klimka Szwaykowska and Dongsik Chang, are developing algorithms to optimize the glider sampling given real-time data collected by satellite, the SeaHorse profiler and the gliders themselves.

Catherine Edwards (r) and Dongsik Chang work on the tail of a glider while Klimka Szwaykowska looks on.

Members of the research team will spend much of the winter of 2012 aboard the Skidaway Institute research vessel R/V Savannah, conducting experiments and collecting data.

Armed with a better understanding of the physical processes that “fertilize” the outer shelf and how phytoplankton take advantage of the nutrient input, the research team will be able to answer larger questions about how biology and physics interact in Long Bay.

The project will run for three years.

Skidaway scientist Dana Savidge promoted

Skidaway Institute of Oceanography researcher Dana Savidge has been promoted to associate professor.

Dr. Dana Savidge

A physical oceanographer, Savidge joined Skidaway Institute in 2003 as an assistant professor. Savidge studies Gulf Stream variability and ocean circulation, with projects on the continental shelves of Cape Hatteras, Georgia, and Antarctica. One key component of Savidge’s research is a shore-based radar system that measures surface ocean currents as far as 125 miles off the Georgia coast.

Savidge earned her bachelor’s degree in physics from Hanover College (Indiana) and her master’s degree in geophysics from Georgia Tech. Her doctorate in marine sciences is from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Skidaway Institute mourns loss of Professor Peter Verity

Skidaway Institute Professor Peter G. Verity died unexpectedly at his home on Thursday, December 31.

Verity was a Professor of Biological Oceanography at Skidaway Institute.  He received his B.A. in 1975 from Dartmouth College, and his M.S. in 1979 and Ph.D. in 1984, both from the University of Rhode Island. He joined the faculty of Skidaway Institute in 1986.

Verity was the author or co-author of more than 100 scientific articles and papers. He was a frequent speaker at professional conferences. His research interests include microzooplankton ecology, feeding interactions among plankton; gelatinous plankton, invasive jellyfish, the role of life cycles in ecosystem function; and the status and future of ocean ecosystems as they respond to increasing climate variability and human perturbations.

Verity was well known in the environmental community for his work on the impact of coastal land use and development upon the environmental quality and ecosystem health of Georgia estuaries. He was a frequent speaker to local civic and environmental groups. He was recently awarded the prestigious Nick Williams Award for Coastal Sustainability by the Center for a Sustainable Coast.

Verity was also a dedicated and passionate teacher who believed that perhaps the most important contribution of his professional career would be the legacy of his teaching and outreach efforts. Verity served on the graduate faculties of Armstrong Atlantic State University, Savannah State University, University of Georgia, and Georgia Institute of Technology, where he taught, advised and mentored graduate and undergraduate students. Verity also served on numerous advisory groups and committees responsible for the development and implementation of science curriculum in the public school system and for the preparation of future teachers. Among his many responsibilities at the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, Verity was the Institute’s Education Coordinator.

As a person, Peter was uniquely gifted in his ability to inspire and motivate those around him to examine their priorities and to reach valuable realizations about what matters most. He was fun and funny, serious and superfluous, comforting and irritating. He was someone worth knowing and who impacted his family, friends, students, teachers, and colleagues profoundly.

Peter Verity is survived by his loving wife of 21 years, Melanie Elizabeth Mirande, his step-mother, Martha Verity; one sister, Diane Verity, and four half-brothers, Mark Verity, Todd Verity, Bruce Verity and Craig Verity. He will also be missed by many cousins, nieces, nephews, friends, and colleagues.

He was 56 years old.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, January 9, at 11 a.m.

Asbury Memorial United Methodist Church

1008 East Henry Street

Savannah, GA 31401-7128

(912) 233-4351

A reception will follow.

To make a tax deductible donation in memory of Peter, send gifts to the Peter G. Verity Memorial Fund for Ocean and Environmental Research, Education and Scholarship.

Make checks out to “Skidaway Marine Science Foundation” and indicate “Verity Fund” on the memo line.

Mail to:

Skidaway Marine Science Foundation—Verity Fund

10 Ocean Science Circle

Savannah, GA 31411

To view or leave comments for the family, visit this site.

Skidaway Institute awarded NSF grants

The Skidaway Institute of Oceanography has received two research grants from the National Science Foundation totaling more than $761,000. The awards are being funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Dr. Marc Frischer

The first grant for $356,139 was awarded to Skidaway Institute scientist Marc Frischer to investigate how a warming climate will affect the food web dynamics in the Arctic Ocean.

“We are most appreciative to the National Science Foundation for funding this significant research,” said Skidaway Institute Director James Sanders. “A warming climate is causing significant changes in the Arctic marine environment, including reduced sea ice and increased terrestrial discharge from rivers of nutrients such as carbon and nitrogen. It is very important that we understand the way these changes will affect food web dynamics and, ultimately, the entire Arctic marine ecosystem.”

Frischer will work with collaborators Deborah Bronk from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and Patricia Yager from the University of Georgia Research Foundation on the project.

Dr. Elizabeth Mann

The second grant for $404,833 was awarded to Elizabeth Mann of Skidaway Institute, along with collaborators Eric Stabb of the University of Georgia and Hongwei Wu of Georgia Tech. They will investigate the way some marine bacteria obtain and utilize the key nutrient iron in environments where this metal is scarce.

According to Mann, it is important to understand how organisms produce the compounds that help keep iron in solution in the surface ocean. Iron is a key nutrient for the growth of microscopic algae, known as phytoplankton, which absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

“In many areas of the world’s ocean, iron concentrations are so low that phytoplankton growth is reduced,” Mann said. “An increase in iron availability will lead to the removal of more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis.”

Cruisin’ with new grad students

The class of new graduate students in the joint Skidaway Institute-Georgia Tech program went on their first, two-day, research cruise this week. The weather was a little windy so we didn’t stay off-shore very long. On Monday, we took water samples in the Savannah River and cruised offshore to the sea bouy, about 3 miles. Then we headed south, along the coast to the entrance channel to Wassaw Sound. Since we were so close to home, we came on back to the Skidaway dock and tied up to spend the night. I took as many pictures as I needed on Monday, so I bade them farewell and stayed on dry land on Tuesday, while they gathered more samples in the Wilmington River and Wassaw Sound. Here is a small photo album.

The "Gumby" survival suit.

Going under a draw bridge on the ICW.

Taking sample water from the CDT array.

Working in the wet lab.

Watching the CDT data.

Recovering a CDT array.

We were not alone.

Collecting more samples.