Julia Diaz visits China

Julia Diaz recently returned from a visit to Nankai University in Tianjin, China, where she gave a guest lecture and an invited talk.

Julia was invited by a Nankai University faculty member who had been a colleague when they were both post-docs at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

“It was my first time in China,” Julia said. “I didn’t know what to expect.”

She visited Beijing and the Great Wall of China.

“I was surprised how few people speak English there,” she said. “My friend set me up with a tour guide, so I had my baby sitter. She told me what to eat, where to go, how to dress, everything.”

Julia said that teaching the class was a challenge because of the language differences. She presented in English, and, while most of the students knew some conversational English, specialized technical terms presented a difficulty. Julia delivered a guest lecture on “The global phosphorus cycle” and an invited talk on “Marine polyphosphate: linking the global phosphorus cycle over modern and geologic timescales.”

“It was a challenge, but a very interesting experience,” she said. “I learned a lot and will probably go back again.”

Lowe’s volunteers upgrade Roebling House

The Roebling/Party House received a much-needed facelift in early December, courtesy of the Lowe’s community service program called “Lowe’s Heros.”

The project was directed by Molly and Owen Riggs from the Abercorn Street store. The couple said they have done annual projects around town including the Ronald McDonald house but this year wanted to look around for a new recipient.
The work was completed over two days by 15-20 volunteers from the store. Materials were all donated by Lowe’s, the project was free for Skidaway Institute.

The team replaced the kitchen cabinets, counters, sink and installed new vinyl flooring. Upstairs they installed lauan plywood to the railing to screen from below.

They also replaced the flooring in the bathrooms as well as new toilets and vanities. The volunteers also added a fresh coat of bright white paint on the downstairs walls that brightened up the room.

Jay Brandes delivers keynote presentation at regional meeting

Jay Brandes gave the keynote presentation at the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Southeastern Region’s 15th Annual Meeting in Brunswick, Ga., in late September. His topic was “Microplastics in Georgia’s estuaries: a preliminary assessment.”

Jay’s presentation focused on how marine debris and associated plastic contamination of the marine environment has become an ever-increasing source of concern for scientists and the public. Over the last decade, focus has been placed on the issue of microplastics and their impacts upon the environment. Jay and his colleagues, including Dodie Sanders from Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant, and UGA grad student Jacob Mabrey, have begun a preliminary assessment of the distribution and types of microplastic contamination in Georgia’s estuaries, biota and sediments during the last 2 years. While microplastics are ubiquitous in the environment, their distribution is very patchy,, providing some clues regarding both sources and loss mechanisms.

Skidaway Institute faculty and students visit Paris for Goldschmidt Conference

Skidaway Institute was well represented at the Goldschmidt Conference in Paris in August. Jay Brandes, Julia Diaz, Cliff Buck and Sydney Plummer participated in the annual, international conference on geochemistry and related subjects, organized by the European Association of Geochemistry and the Geochemical Society.

Julia Diaz and Sydney Plummer pose by the Eiffel Tower.

Jay was a co-convener of the session: “Tracking carbon from source to sink in modern and ancient environments: the carbon cycle in coastal environments, stable carbon isotope systematics, and the role of photochemical reactions.” His fellow conveners were Jaime Toney, Christian Schröder, Anke Neumann, Songhu Yuan, Leanne Powers (former SkIO post doc), Ying Cui and Xiahong Feng.

Jay was the lead author on one poster presentation and co-author on another with Leanne Powers, Kevin Ryan, Aron Stubbins and Bill Miller.

“What Can Carbon Isotopes Tell Us About the Nature of Photo-Labile Dissolved Organic Carbon?” Jay Brandes, Kevin Ryan, Aron Stubbins & Leanne Powers

Moderate Dissolved Inorganic Carbon (DI13C) Isotope Enrichment (MoDIE) for Improved Evaluation of DIC Photochemical Production in Seawater
Leanne Powers, Kevin Ryan, Jay Brandes, Aron Stubbins & William Miller

Julia had four presentations and was a keynote speaker.

Keynote: Marine Polyphosphate: Linking the Global Phosphorus Cycle over Modern and Geologic Timescales
Julia Diaz, Y. Tang, R. Huang, B. Wan, James Sanders, Karrie Bulski & Doug Mollett

Dynamics and Regulation of Extracellular Superoxide Production by Marine Microbes
C. Hansel, Julia Diaz, R. Gast & J. Bowman

Species-Specific Control of External Superoxide Levels by the Coral Holobiont during a Natural Bleaching Event
Julia Diaz, C.M. Hansel, A. Apprill, C.  Brighi, T. Zhang, L. Weber, S. McNally & L. Xun

Unraveling the Eco-Physiological Roles of Phytoplankton-Derived Reactive Oxygen Species
Sydney Plummer, C.M.Hansel, Elizabeth Harvey, Karrie Bulski & Julia Diaz

Cliff gave an invited talk and he was a co-author on another.

Invited: Aerosol Deposition and Fractional Solubility of Trace Elements in the Remote Ocean
Clifton Buck, W. Landing, A. Aguilar-Islas, Christopher Marsay & D. Kadko

Evaluation of Labile Iron Processing in Atmospheric Models
A. Ito, S. Myriokefalitakis, M. Kanakidou, N. Mahowald, A. Baker, T. Jickells, M. Sarin, S. Bikkina, Y. Gao Y, R. Shelley, Clifton Buck, W. Landing,  A. Bowie, M. Perron, N. Meskhidze, M. Johnson, Y,  Feng & R. Duce

Research papers accepted for publication

Two Skidaway Institute faculty had papers accepted for publication recently.

Dana Savidge:

“CASPER: Coupled Air-Sea Processes and Electromagnetic (EM) ducting Research”
Bulletin of Atmospheric Sciences Journal Article accepted (peer-reviewed) Nov. 3, 2017 (BAMS-D-16-0046)

Author List: Qing Wang; Denny P. Alappattu; Stephanie Billingsley; Byron Blomquist; Robert J. Burkholder; Adam J. Christman; Edward D. Creegan; Tony de Paolo; Daniel P. Eleuterio; Harindra Joseph S. Fernando; Kyle B. Franklin; Andrey A. Grachev; Tracy Haack; Thomas R. Hanley; Christopher M. Hocut; Teddy R. Holt; Katherine Horgan; Haflidi H. Jonsson; Robert A. Hale; John A. Kalogiros; Djamal Khelif; Laura S. Leo; Richard J. Lind; Iossif Lozovatsky; Jesus Panella-Morato; Swagato Mukherjee; Wendell A. Nuss; Jonathan Pozderac; L. Ted Rogers; Ivan Savelyev; Dana K. Savidge; R. Kipp Shearman; Lian Shen; Eric Terrill; A. Marcela Ulate; Qi Wang; R. Travis Wendt; Russell Wiss; Roy K. Woods; Luyao Xu; Ryan T. Yamaguchi; Caglar Yardim

Catherine Edwards:

“Detecting Abnormal Speed of Marine Robots Using Controlled Lagrangian Particle Tracking Methods”
IEEE Proc. Workshop on Underwater Networks (WUWNet) 2017, accepted Oct. 12, 2017.

Author List: S. Cho.*, F. Zhang, and Catherine Edwards

New grants to fund Skidaway Institute research

A series of new research grants will support UGA Skidaway Institute research projects for the coming years.

Julia Diaz is the lead scientist on a $852,906 three-year grant from the National Science Foundation titled “Collaborative Research: Assessing the role of compound specific phosphorus hydrolase transformations in the marine phosphorus cycle.” Julia and her colleague, Solange Duhamel from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, will study how phytoplankton cope with shortages of phosphorus in the ocean, and if phytoplankton in phosphorus-rich environments also exhibit some of the same strategies. Skidaway Institute’s share of the grant is $296,831. The grant began on Sept. 1, 2017.

Cliff Buck has been approved for two new grants.

The first is a four-year, $350,412 award, beginning on January 1, 2018, from the NSF Arctic System Science Program. Cliff will work as part of an international team on the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) program in the central Arctic Ocean. The team plans to lock an icebreaker into the Arctic ice cap for a year and use it as a base of operations to study a wide range of Arctic processes. Cliff’s specialty will be studying the atmospheric deposition of trace elements.

The second is a three-year grant, for $466,135 from the NSF Ocean Section – Chemical Oceanography. It is titled “US GEOTRACES PMT: Quantification of Atmospheric Deposition and Trace Element Fractional Solubility” and will focus on atmospheric deposition to the Pacific Ocean. The grant will fund participation in the planned U.S. GEOTRACES Pacific Meridional Transect (PMT) from Alaska to Tahiti scheduled for September – November 2018 which is the dusty period in the Gulf of Alaska.

Sasha Wagner, Aron Stubbins and Jay Brandes have received an NSF grant totaling $577,082 to study oceanic dissolved black carbon. The project is titled “Constraining the source of oceanic dissolved black carbon using compound-specific stable carbon isotopes.” The grant will begin on February 1, 2018 and run for three years.

Frischer black gill paper published

Marc Frischer recently had a new paper on black gill published in the Journal of Shellfish Research. Dick Lee, Tina Walters, Karri Bulski and Ashley Price were among his co-authors.

Frischer M.E., Lee R.F., Price A.R., Walters T.L., Bassette M.A., Verdiyev R., Torris M.C., Bulski K., Geer P.J., Powell S.A., Walker A.N. and Landers S.C. (2017). Causes, diagnostics and distribution of an ongoing penaeid shrimp black gill epidemic in the South Atlantic Bight, USA. Journal of Shellfish Research. 36: 487-500. doi: 10.2983/035.036.0220

Glider partners come to the rescue during Hurricane Irma

Hurricane Irma presented an interesting problem to Catherine Edwards and other glider operators in the Southeast. They had several gliders deployed off the east coast as the hurricane approached, including Skidaway Institute’s glider, “Modena.” Catherine and the others were confident the gliders themselves would be safe in the water, but the computer servers that control them would not.

Catherine working on “Modena”

The gliders are equipped with satellite phones. Periodically, they call their home server, download data and receive instructions for their next operation. It was expected that Skidaway Institute would lose power for at least several days (as did happen.) However, Skidaway’s back-up partner at the University of South Florida’s marine science facility in St. Petersburg, Fla. was also directly in the storm’s projected path.

“In the week before she hit, Irma sort of blew up our hurricane emergency plans,” Catherine said.

Several other options, including Teledyne Webb’s back-up servers and Rutgers University were not feasible for technical reasons. Glider operators at Texas A&M University came to the rescue. Catherine was able to instruct Modena to switch its calls over the Texas A&M server. No data was lost and Modena continued its mission.

According to Catherine, two big lessons emerged from the experience.

“First, most of us rely on nearby or regional partners for emergency andback-up support, but disasters are regional by nature, and the same Nor’easter or hurricane can take down you along with your backup,” she said. “Second, there aren’t a lot of glider centers that can absorb several gliders on a day’s notice, and there are some compatibility and operations issues involved, so it is best to identify our potential partners and build out these steps into our emergency plans well in advance.”

Frischer lab attends international conference

arc Frischer, Tina Walters and Lauren Lamboley attended the 3rd Symposium on Molecular Analysis of Trophic Interactions in Upsalla, Sweden in mid-September. They made several presentations.

Lauren, Marc and Tina shoot a selfie at the cathedral in Upsalla.

Frischer, M.E., Walters, T.L. and Price, A.R. (2017). Distribution, Ecology and Role of a Parasitic Ciliate on Commercial Penaeid Shrimp in the US Southeast Atlantic: Insights Gained Using Molecular Interaction Tools. 3rd Symposium on Molecular Analysis of Trophic Interactions. 13-15 September 2017. Upsalla, Sweden.

Lamboley, L.M., Walters, T.L. and Frischer, M.E. (2017). Quantitative Significance of Different Prey Types in the In Situ Diet of Dolioletta gegenbauri. (2017). 3rd Symposium on Molecular Analysis of Trophic Interactions. 13-15 September 2017. Upsalla, Sweden.

Walters, T.L. and Frischer, M.E. (2017). Molecular Gut Profiling of Dolioletta gegenbauri in the South Atlantic Bight Shelf: What Are They Eating? 3rd Symposium on Molecular Analysis of Trophic Interactions. 13-15 September 2017. Upsalla, Sweden.

Following the symposium the three spent two weeks at the University of Bergen (Norway) testing a new technology called digital drop PCR.

“It worked great and was a great learning experience, especially for Tina and Lauren,” Marc said.

New faces at Skidaway Institute, NOAA

LuLu Lacy is a new intern in Marc Frischer’s lab. She is a UGA ecology major with a minor in studio art. She has a wide range of experience outside of the classroom, including an independent research project at UGA’s Costa Rica campus; working as a landscape arboretum fellow for Trees Atlanta; and tending crops on an organic farm. She is a founder of the Athens Free School – an initiative to create a monthly calendar of free classes taught by volunteers in the Athens community on various subjects from bread making to bike maintenance.

Katherine “Kat” Scheuering is a communications intern at Gray’s Reef. Kat is a senior English/ Professional Communications major at Armstrong State University and is due to graduate in December. Kat is originally from Goshen, New York; a small town about an hour and a half outside New York City. “Close enough to commute but far enough that there were horse farms down the street,” she said. Kat chose to intern at Gray’s Reef because, she said, she is passionate about the environment and conservation. “I’m actually the president of the ‘Go Green’ club at Armstrong and we usually do a beach clean-up once a semester,” she said. “I’m looking forward to exploring my options once I graduate but I think ideally I’d like to find something where I can use writing and creative skills to campaign and raise awareness for environmental causes.”