SkIO Seminar Series
Circulation on the West Antarctic Peninsula from six years of shipboard ADCP data

When: Friday, November 16, 2007 @ 10:00 AM

Where: SkIO Library Auditorium

Summary: Over the past 30 years, shelf circulation on the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) has been derived from hydrographic data with a reasonable level of confidence. However, with the exception of a very few current-meter timeseries from moorings, direct velocity measurements have not been available previously. In this project, shelf and shelf-edge circulation was examined using a new velocity dataset, consisting of several years of Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) transects, routinely collected along the ship tracks of the R/V Gould and the R/V Palmer since fall of 1999. Initial data processing at the University of Hawaii and Scripps Institution results in processed 5 minute averaged transect data, available through the Joint Archive for Shipboard ADCP (JASADCP). In the region of the WAP between 54-78 deg W, 59-72 deg S, data from 52 R/V Gould cruises and 19 R/V Palmer cruises are available. Several important features have been defined in the upper 40-200 m in two regions, 1) the shelf and shelf edge over the northern WAP around the South Shetland Islands and Bransfield Strait, and 2) over the shelf and shelf-edge of the WAP southward of the South Shetland Islands to just south of Marguerite Bay. Many circulation features are consistent with present understanding of WAP circulation based on hydrography, though with a few unanticipated details emerging.

Posted: 2007/11/13 16:04:09

Thank you to everyone attending the 2007 Skidaway Marine Science Day Event!

Posted: 2007/10/16 15:04:51

October 13, 2007

Thanks to all who participated!

Race results:
8 K 12 K

Race Day Photos

Posted: 2007/10/16 14:11:33

A group of sushi/sashimi lovers gathered at Skidaway Institute of Oceanography on September 6 for a special taste-test. Professor Dick Lee has been developing an aquaculture system to raise black sea bass for the sushi/sashimi market. Two key elements to the system is that it is a closed-cycle (non-polluting), and the black sea bass are fed juvenile tilapia rather than food pellets. The ultimate question with the sushi/sashimi is "Does it taste good?" Lee worked with local chef A. K. Tran of the Sushi Time Towa Japanese restaurant to prepare delicacies from black sea bass raised on tilapia and food pellets, and in the wild. The panel of sushi/sashimi tasters in the blind taste test were unanimous in their opinion that the black sea bass made for good sushi/sashimi. Of the three categories, the wild black sea bass and those raised on tilapia were tied as the favorite, with the food-pellet fed sea bass coming in third.

Posted: 2007/09/10 11:51:02

When: Friday, September 14, 2007 @ 10:00 AM

Where: SkIO Library Auditorium

Summary: The recent installation of a light Stable Isotope Mass Spectrometer instrument at Skidaway brings new opportunities for research. But what are those opportunities? This talk will focus on the capabilities of the instrument and associated peripherals, and also give a description of the second phase of the facility to be added next year. When complete, the Skidaway Institute Scientific Stable Isotope Laboratory (SISSIL) will have capabilities for measuring carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen isotopes unequalled in the southeast.

Posted: 2007/09/07 16:01:42

Presented by: Dr. George R. Sedberry, Superintendent, Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary

When: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 @ 3:30 PM

Where: SkIO Library Auditorium

Summary: The Charleston Bump is a bottom feature on the continental slope and Blake Plateau (450-700 m depths) off Georgia and South Carolina, that plays a role in the life history of a number of fish species of economic and ecological importance. The rocky bottom is habitat for demersal fishes like wreckfish and red bream, and it provides substrate for deepwater corals (and associated fishes). The high-relief bottom topography is attractive to pelagic fishes like swordfish, sailfish and other billfishes. The ocean circulation pattern created by the Bump causes complex thermal fronts, upwelling of nutrient-rich bottom waters (with high plankton productivity) and transport of oceanic water across the shelf to shallow habitats that are fish nursery areas. The circulation pattern is important in the feeding and movements of young menhaden, grouper, and swordfish. The combination of bottom habitats and oceanography of the Charleston Bump plays an important role in the distribution and abundance of marine fishes of the region.

Posted: 2007/09/04 09:01:34

Gray's Reef
Ocean Film Festival
September 21-23, 2007
http://graysreef.noaa.gov

Posted: 2007/08/30 08:31:38

Scientists are limited by the tools available in their toolkits so what investigator isn't intrigued by increasing his or her research skills with a new tool?

SkIO scientists, who have research interests that span the range from terrestrial and marine ecosystems to the deep-earth biosphere, are extremely pleased with the announcement of approved funding from the University System of Georgia Chancellor's office and recently from the National Science Foundation for two advanced, light stable isotope-ratio monitoring mass spectrometer (IRMS) systems. The facility, called the Skidaway Institute Scientific Stable Isotope Laboratory (SISSIL) will open up significant new avenues for cutting-edge research unique to the southeastern US.

The new facility will include two IRMS instruments, together with a total of five sample processing interfaces. Such instruments are capable of measuring extremely small changes in the ratio of isotopes within a sample, for example the ratio of hydrogen (atomic mass = 1) to deuterium (mass = 2). These capabilities have long been used in the oceanographic, environmental and biological sciences to examine the sources and alteration of molecules within the environment. For example, most of the environmental records linking CO2 changes with temperature shifts are based upon stable isotope measurements of marine sediments and ice cores.

One IRMS instrument is configured to analyze solid samples such as soils, volatile samples with a gas chromatograph, and breath and other gases contained in small vials. These capabilities are in standard use by laboratories around the country, but this will be the first such instrument in the academic community along the Georgia Coast.

The second instrument will be unique to the southeast, containing an extremely flexible primary instrument capable of measuring, at very high precision, the ratios of gases dissolved in water and in the atmosphere, as well as their isotopic composition. Such instruments have been used to measure the "breathing cycle" of the Earth, the seasonal change in oxygen levels that records the balance between plant photosynthesis and respiration+combustion. Researchers at SkIO expect to examine the details of declining oxygen levels observed in Georgia estuaries as well as to examine biological productivity in the Atlantic and worldwide oceans. This instrument also will have a newly developed interface that can measure samples in water without extraction.

The ability to examine the isotopic composition of very small amounts of water-soluble compounds also synergistically meshes with another new instrument being installed at Skidaway, an advanced organic liquid-chromatograph-mass spectrometer. Although this instrument is also part of the family of instruments (mass spectrometers) as the IRMS described above, it has a different job -- that of identifying and precisely quantifying dissolved compounds in liquids. This type of instrument has found wide use in measuring industrially and pharmaceutically produced compounds in wastewaters, groundwaters and estuaries. The combination of these instruments will provide an exceptional facility for both identifying "what" is in Georgia's water as well as "where" it comes from!

The SISSIL facility's capabilities, taken in total, are unique in the southeast US. High precision IRMSs capable of cutting-edge gas analyses are present only in a few of the nation's premiere institutions such as Princeton and Caltech, while the interface for sampling organic molecules in water is present in only six US laboratories, including Harvard and the University of Tennessee.

The first IRMS and the LC-MS instruments are being installed now and will be operational by mid-fall, while the second IRMS is being designed for SkIO and will be installed early next year. While SkIO scientists are excited about these new "tools," they also are exited about the collaborative possibilities that these instruments bring to Georgia and the southeast. SkIO is surrounded by natural "laboratories" such as marshes, estuaries and the coastal ocean, and having the SISSIL facility located on the SkIO campus furnishes collaborating researchers and students "instant" feedback on experimental results during their field studies. It is anticipated that SISSIL will also facilitate many years of cutting edge research from the Georgia Coast!

For additional information about SkIO's SISSIL facility contact lead scientist Dr. Jay Brandes.

Posted: 2007/08/20 15:46:25

Presented by: Dr. Francisco Andrade, Institute of Marine Research, Marine Laboratory of Guia, Cascais, Portugal

When: Friday, August 24, 2007 @ 10:00 AM

Where: SkIO Library Auditorium

Summary: The topography of the intertidal area surrounding tidal creeks both controls and reflects the flood and ebb circulation patterns, i.e. current velocities and flow paths depend on the water volume stored and released during the tidal cycle that, in turn, is affected by the topographic relief of the flooded area, which results from the balance of sediment deposition, erosion and transport.

Through image analysis of a time-series of infrared aerial photographs, we have constructed a high-resolution elevation model for the Duplin river salt marshes. With this model we have computed hypsometric curves and the corresponding storage volumes of the entire drainage area and its sub-components.

Posted: 2007/08/17 15:41:18

Presented by: Adelaide Ferreira, Institute of Marine Research, Marine Laboratory of Guia, Cascais, Portugal

When: Friday, August 10, 2007 @ 10:00 AM

Where: SkIO Library Auditorium

Summary: Eelgrass meadows are extremely diverse and productive habitats, yet sensitive, and threatened. Since March 2005 we have been monitoring a medium sized intertidal eelgrass meadow in Tróia (Sado estuary, Portugal) monthly, using oblique large-scale digital photography to quantify its distribution and condition. Results show that the meadow is fairly stable while responding to the annual variation of irradiance, as is typical for these habitats in temperate areas.

Posted: 2007/08/06 13:38:38

Skidaway Institute scientists help identify source of Vernon River contamination

For years, health and environmental officials have known bacteria levels in the Vernon River in southern Chatham County are much too high. However, no one has been able to agree on the source of the problem, which could be storm water runoff or leaking sewage pipes from Savannah; faulty septic systems in Vernonburg; or a combination of sources. Now scientists at the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography are teaming up with the City of Savannah and Chatham County to use a cutting edge microbiological tool called bacteria source tracking to identify the source of the contamination. The Skidaway team also wants to use this project to develop new sensitive techniques for determining the integrity of septic systems.

The problem is harmful microbes that originate in fecal material. They can contaminate waterways, like the Vernon River, through improperly treated sewage or from natural sources, such as farms, pets, wildlife or even an overabundance of birds.

"Where is all this stuff coming from and how do we best manage it," said Marc Frischer, a Skidaway Institute microbiologist. "If we know where it is coming from, we will have a much better idea of how to fix it."

One type of bacteria, Escherichia coli (E. coli), is not always harmful, and scientists can use E. coli as an indicator of the presence of other, more harmful microbes. Various types of E. coli differ from one another according to which animal species is the source. Each can be identified through a sophisticated DNA analysis and the way they respond to antibiotics. Frischer and his team will create a library of E. coli DNA from humans and the various animals in the area and compare those profiles to the E. coli collected from contaminated water. The data will tell the researchers whether the original sources of the contamination are human or animal.

City of Savannah environmental worker Asbury Linder uses a thermometer to test the freshness of a fecal sample near Vernonburg.

"The first step in this process isn't very romantic," said Frischer. "We have to go out and collect a bunch of animal droppings."

The first round of actual collection was handled by environmental workers from the City of Savannah. They canvassed four separate areas that were potential sources for the bacterial contamination and collected the droppings of domestic and wild animals. The collection ranged from horses and dogs to deer and raccoons. The DNA deteriorates if the feces are too old, so the collection teams use thermometers to measure the droppings' freshness. They also used GPS mapping equipment to pinpoint the exact location of each sample.

The researchers will collect samples four times under different weather and tidal conditions.

"From each one of those collections, we'll characterize the frequency of E. coli that we think come from different sources," said Frischer. "That should give us a good idea about what are the contributing sources to the contamination in the Vernon River."

The project is expected to be completed by spring 2009. It will cost approximately $600,000 and is funded by a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency along with the City of Savannah and Chatham County.

"Dr. Frischer's involvement with the grant will provide the City of Savannah and the citizens of Vernonburg a solid, comprehensive picture of the sources impacting the quality of the Vernon River," said Laura Walker, an environmental planner with the City of Savannah.

Skidaway Institute microbiologist Marc Frischer
displays a dish of bacteria cultures while research assistant Victoria Baylor looks on.

Frischer and his team will also use this project to develop a new tool for tracing contamination from septic systems. The technique, called viral tagging, could be used when investigating leaking or failing septic systems.

"Currently what you typically do is put a fluorescent dye into the tank and look for it out in the ecosystem," said Frischer. "The problem is that by the time the dye does get out, unless the septic system is in catastrophic failure, it is often too dilute for us to detect."

As an alternative, scientists will inject a specialized virus into suspect septic systems. Viruses can only live and reproduce by attaching themselves to living cells or bacteria. In this case, the virus will attach itself to the E. coli bacteria and use the bacteria to reproduce. According to Frischer, the virus will be exclusively specific to the kind of bacteria that are in septic systems. They should never otherwise get into the ecosystem except through sewage.

"If we find this virus in the estuary, we will know the septic system is failing and we can quantify how much it is failing," said Frischer. "We will do this in conjunction with a dye study so we can determine how sensitive this new method may be."

Frischer emphasized the virus poses absolutely no risk to humans or the environment.

The virus tagging technique has been used in a few instances in the Florida Keys, but it is still an unproven testing method.

"Ten to fifteen years ago, the bacteria source tracking we are using was still a research project," he said. "Now it is a tool we use to solve problems."

"Maybe in ten more years, if this viral tagging technique works, it will move from being research-oriented to becoming a useful field tool."

Posted: 2007/07/13 14:47:17

When: Friday, June 29, 2007 @ 10:00 AM

Where: SkIO Library Auditorium

Summary: Dr. Windom and colleagues at SkIO, along with other institutions, have been conducting collaborative research on the Southern Coast of Brazil over the past decade and a half and have recently focused on the role of groundwater transport through a permeable coastal sand barrier impacts coastal sea water chemistry. Results of a paper in press on nutrient delivery to shelf waters from submarine groundwater discharge from this system will be summarized but most of the talk will be devoted to trace metal results.

Posted: 2007/06/26 09:05:02

When: Friday, July 20, 2007 @ 10:00 AM

Where: SkIO Library Auditorium

Summary: Dr. Hope Lee is a technical lead for the Remediation Technology Division of North Wind Inc., in Idaho Falls, ID. During the past 10 years, she has performed and lead research studying microbial ecology and activity in oceanographic, thermal hot spring, wetland, and groundwater ecosystems. Dr. Lee has expertise in the development of innovative molecular techniques including the development and application of (a) probes targeting functional enzymes responsible for the aerobic degradation of contaminants, (b) methods to assess physiological activity in situ, and most recently (c) methods to evaluate the rate of biodegradation of contaminants such as BTEX and TCE.

Dr. Lee earned a bachelor's degree in Biology from Hood College in Frederick, MD and a Ph.D. from Georgia Institute of Technology, in Atlanta in 2002. Her graduate work focused on developing a method for determining the physiological status of bacteria in aquatic environments, under the direction of Peter Verity and Marc Frischer at Skidaway Institute of Oceanography.

Posted: 2007/06/20 08:29:33

Armstrong Atlantic and Skidaway Institute team up to improve math and science teaching

St. Catherines Island guide Jennifer Hilburn discusses beach erosion with teachers and course instructors. (l-r) Ron Phillips, Richard Riley, Hilburn, Mary Jo Fina, Katy McCurdy, Charles Belin, Rose Laughter, Carol Ebel, Amy Owenby and Karyn Chester Teachers and instructors observe and photograph egrets and wood storks at a rookery on St. Catherines Island. (l-r) Becci Curry, Charles Belin, Laurie Anderson, Karyn Chester and Ben Wells

Science class may never be the same for Amy Gorham's students at Coastal Middle School in Savannah. Gorham is one of ten teachers who are participating in an intensive, two-week summer course designed to improve the teaching of science and mathematics. The course is aimed at teachers at public schools in coastal Georgia and is a joint effort between Armstrong Atlantic State University and the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography.

"This class will not only improve the way I teach but change it," said Gorham. "The class is giving me so much to share. It makes me want to know and share more."

The course is titled "Georgia Barrier Islands: Natural Laboratories for Inquiry-Based Learning and Teaching of Science." It is sponsored by Armstrong Atlantic's "Partnership for Reform in Science and Mathematics" (PRISM) program. PRISM is a National Science Foundation funded program whose ultimate goal is to raise expectations and student achievement in science and mathematics through highly collaborative partnerships between K-12 teachers and university faculty.

"This class has provided so many ideas to take back to the classroom," Gorham said. "I have some great hands-on ideas to show my students about man's impact on the environment."

The course curriculum is a mixture of classroom learning with field experiences. By the end of the course, Gorham and her fellow teacher-classmates will have taken a day-trip to St. Catherine's Island, an overnight excursion to Ossabaw Island and a kayaking trip to Little Tybee Island. Along the way, they will have learned about a wide range of subjects.

"In this truly interdisciplinary course, the teachers are immersed into the history and science of coastal Georgia's barrier islands," Sabrina Hessinger, PRISM coordinator at Armstrong Atlantic. "They are investigating integrated science and mathematics topics related to the natural history of these islands."

On a trip to St. Catherine's Island, the teachers covered a variety of subjects from history to natural sciences. They stood in the footprint of a 16th century church where Franciscan missionaries and Guale Indian worshipped more than a century before the founding of Savannah and learned about the earliest European settlements on Georgia's coast. The group visited a fresh water pond that serves as a rookery for hundreds of egrets, wood storks and other birds. They also learned about the island's captive-wildlife program, including an up-close encounter with the island's lemur colony. A trip to the beach demonstrated a vivid example of the erosion and accretion that are major forces on the barrier islands.

"The first step to exciting students about science is to inspire their teachers," said Peter Verity, education coordinator at Skidaway Institute, who led the team that designed the course curriculum. "The work we are doing this summer will produce results in these teachers' classrooms in the fall."

In addition to field experiences, the course also includes classroom work and study on subjects such as the geology of barrier islands; estuarine ecosystems; edible plants; archaeology and carbon dating; whelk and oyster colonies; coastal Georgia past, present and future; and global climate change. Each day the instructors and student-teachers develop grade-specific activities that the teachers will take directly back to their own classrooms.

Mary Jo Fina will be teaching at Richmond Hill Middle School this fall. She said she takes several courses every summer. "This class ranks among the best--with instructors presenting best practice methods, modeling inquiry based learning and making a personal connection and commitment to each participant," she said. "The settings chosen, St. Catherine's Island, Ossabaw Island and Tybee Island, help heighten interest as the content connects not only to the real world, but the real world in our own back yard."

The course also includes participation from the Ossabaw Island Foundation and the University of Georgia Marine Extension Service.

Posted: 2007/06/13 11:02:04

Skidaway Institute scientist receives DNR award

Skidaway Institute of Oceanography professor Clark Alexander was honored with a Preservation Achievement Award by the Historic Preservation Division (HPD) of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. The eleventh annual awards were issued in Atlanta on May 11, 2007. Alexander was recognized for his "steadfast support of the Georgia underwater archaeology program," according to the award citation. The HPD cited Alexander for his efforts to find additional grant funding for the underwater archaeology program. The award also acknowledged Alexander's efforts to locate non-monetary support, such a ship-time, fabrication services and other types of support not available from the Department of Natural Resources.

The HPD issued a total of five awards to individuals and organizations in Georgia.

Posted: 2007/06/07 08:04:38

RECOMMENDED READING LIST (Titles with an asterisk * are owned by the Live Oak Public Library)

CLIMATE CHANGE:

*GOUDIE, A (2006) The human impact on the natural environment. Blackwell, 6th ed.
DOW, K & TE Downing (2006) The atlas of climate change. Univ CA Press.
HENSON, R (2006) The rough guide to climate change. Rough Guides Limited.
FAGAN, B (2000) The Little Ice Age: how climate made history. NY Basic Books.

HISTORICAL GEOLOGY:

*LAMB, Simon & David Sington (1998) Earth story: the shaping of our world
*MACDOUGALL, JD (1996) A short history of planet earth: mountains, mammals, fire, and ice
*OSBORNE, Roger and Donald Tarling (1996) The historical atlas of the earth: a visual exploration of the earth's physical past.

Posted: 2007/05/25 15:53:54

Posted: 2007/05/23 08:46:20

Skidaway Institute scientists study dock impact

On a warm morning this spring, researchers from Skidaway Institute of Oceanography were in a McIntosh County salt marsh, counting stems of marsh grass and collecting samples of sediment. Their purpose was to gain baseline data to measure the impact of a new type of dock on plant growth in a salt marsh.

Developer Darrie Randall is building a 1,600 foot dock for his new community, and it's the first of its kind for a community dock on the Georgia coast. Rather than having a standard six-foot wide series of planks for the walking platform, Randall's dock will consist of an open wooden frame with parallel wooden rails on top. An electric-driven passenger cart will run passengers along the rails from the upland to the end of the dock. The idea is to mitigate the detrimental impact of the dock on the salt marsh by reducing the size of the dock's shadow. The dock's designers claim it will reduce shading by 80 percent.

"It sounds like a great idea, but no one has documented the shading reduction or the impact on vegetation in the field," said Clark Alexander, a Skidaway Institute of Oceanography researcher.

Skidaway Institute researcher Mike Robinson examines
a sample of marsh sediment while fellow researcher Claudia Venherm records the data.

Alexander and his team are studying the salt marsh before the dock is constructed, and then will continue to do so after it is completed. Earlier research by scientists from Skidaway Institute and Georgia Southern University demonstrated that shadows cast by docks inhibit the growth of the marsh grass, Spartina.

"We have seen a 50 percent decrease in the number of grass stems below docks," said Alexander.

The number of grass stems per square meter, or stem density, is only one measurement. The stems could compensate by growing taller and thicker, said Alexander. However, the researchers also examined the above-ground biomass and found a reduction of about 30 percent in the amount of carbon being produced under the dock. Carbon is an essential element for the growth of all life in the salt marsh, from bacteria to the juvenile fish and shellfish that spend a portion of their life-cycle in the marsh.

"There are still a lot of missing data for a complete analysis, but we may be losing significant quantities of unrealized shellfish production every year due to dock shading," Alexander said.

An additional problem, he said, is no one knows the cumulative impact of multiple docks on a marsh ecosystem.

"Taken by itself, your dock may be fine, but at what point does the impact of your dock and all your neighbors' add up?" he asked. "And is there a tipping point where you overwhelm the marsh's ability to compensate and the system starts degrading?"

"No one has been able to figure that out yet. We are interested in the whole cumulative impact issue."

Alexander's research will be in two parts. The first part is to measure the salt marsh growth under the new dock and to the side -- before construction and seasonally for several years afterward. In addition to measuring and counting plants, researchers are collecting chlorophyll samples as a measure of algae production and carbon samples to gauge the level of food in the system. They will also measure the size of the surface sediment which can be important to salt marsh health.

"This is to see whether you get a change in the texture because of the density of the stems," Alexander said. "They may trap a different size particle over time."

The second part will be to construct a similar dock-section on dry land on the Skidaway Institute campus and measure the light and the dock's shadow. The researchers will take measurements seasonally and rotate the sections periodically to measure the effect of the dock's orientation.

There are other low-shade dock designs being considered in Georgia. One style uses a metal or fiberglass grate rather than wooden boards for the walking platform. Alexander and his team hope to include additional designs into future research.

Posted: 2007/05/16 08:34:33

Graduate student wins research award

University of Georgia (UGA) graduate student Whitney Palefsky has been awarded the Robert A. Sheldon Award from the UGA Institute of Ecology to support her research at the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography.

The $500 prize is given annually to two students to support their research away from campus. Palefsky is conducting estuarine research at Skidaway Institute focusing on the concentrations and effects of certain antiseptics found in personal care products.

Palefsky is a doctoral student at UGA. She received her bachelor's degree in biology from Armstrong Atlantic State University and her master's degree in marine sciences from Savannah State University.

Posted: 2007/05/10 12:00:56

Most of the cruise sampling was centered on two sites -- Effingham Inlet in Barkley Sound and Tofino Inlet in Clayoquot Sound. Clayoquot Sound is a UNESCO Biosphere reserve, and contains many small, glacially-carved inlets.

"These are intriguing regions because the inlets contain waters with a range of dissolved oxygen concentrations, from fully oxic to completely anoxic and containing hydrogen sulfide," said Brandes. "The anoxic waters are isolated from atmospheric oxygen by a combination of shallow underwater sills and relatively low-salinity surface water layers."

"The modern ocean has very few locations where oxygen is completely absent, and these Vancouver Island sites are particularly unique in having a wide range of oxygen concentrations within very closely located fjords."

Posted: 2007/05/09 16:04:00

According to Alexander, one great advantage to an interferometric sidescan system over a traditional multibeam system is that the data swath width for the sidescan system is 10x water depth whereas that of the multibeam is typically only 3x water depth. This wider swath coverage reduces significantly the man hours and ship time needed for surveys of seafloor morphology on our shallow, gently sloping shelf.

Posted: 2007/05/09 15:36:13

Posted: 2007/05/01 09:40:52

Presented by: Dr. Stephen A. Carini, Department of Marine Sciences, University of Georgia
When: Monday, April 30, 2007 @ 10:00 AM

Where: SkIO Library Auditorium

Summary: Methane and ammonia oxidation play central roles in the biogeochemical cycles of carbon and nitrogen. We employed traditional biogeochemical methods and molecular techniques to document in situ patterns of methane- and ammonia-oxidation and associated microbial population dynamics in Mono Lake, a closed basin, alkaline salt lake located just east of the Sierra Nevada range in northern California. The combination of geochemical profiles, rate measurements, and microbial community analysis enabled us to elucidate environmental and microbiological controls on these processes and link specific activity with distinct microbial populations. Manipulation of substrate availability in laboratory enrichment cultures provided even further insight into the interactions between these significant, ecologically mingled processes and populations.

Posted: 2007/04/24 15:04:41

The Skidaway Institute of Oceanography and the Skidaway Community Institute have joined forces to sponsor a public science lectures series during April and May. Under the umbrella theme, "How the World Works: Oceanography in the 21st Century," the lecture series will be presented on four consecutive Mondays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the library auditorium on the Skidaway Institute campus.

*

Monday, April 30 -- "A look at the past, present and future on Skidaway Island." This program will include the history of Skidaway Island, the founding of Skidaway Institute of Oceanography and what the future holds for the Skidaway Marine Campus.
* Monday, May 7 -- "What is happening in our own back yard?" This lecture will focus on the coastal island system, marine microbiology and ecosystem health.
*

Monday, May 14 -- "Rivers to the sea and rivers in the sea." This program will address the Gulf Stream and research in the Andes and Amazon.
*

Monday, May 21 -- "What's in store for the future?" Climate change, both globally and locally will be the primary focus of this program.

All programs will be open to the general public. Admission will be $10 per lecture or $4 for Skidaway Marine Science Foundation members.

Pre-registration is requested. For additional information, contact Mary Canavan at 598-7447 or visit www.skidawayci.org or Mike Sullivan at 598-2325 www.skio.usg.edu.

The Skidaway Institute is an autonomous research unit of the University System of Georgia dedicated to leading edge oceanographic research and education. The Skidaway Community Institute is a public, non-profit organization established to provide educational and cultural activities to the residents of Skidaway Island and the Savannah area as a whole.

Posted: 2007/04/09 15:08:38

Skidaway Institute awarded Governor's Cup

For the second year in a row, the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography has been awarded the Governor's Cup for its participation in the 2006-2007 State Charitable Contributions Campaign. The Governor's Cup award is given to five state agencies, colleges/universities or community service boards each year.

Governor's Cup awards are based on a performance formula, which calculates the highest contribution per employee adjusted for each organization's average salary. Skidaway Institute of Oceanography's employees contributed more than any organization in the entire state with employees numbering 1-100.

The Charitable Campaign is part of the State Charitable Contributions Program, authorized by the 1982 Georgia General Assembly to provide state employees a convenient way to make financial contributions to charity. Statewide, employees selected from more than 1,200 local charitable organizations to contribute by payroll deductions or one-time lump-sum payments.

Prior to 2006, Skidaway Institute employees won the Governor's Cup for five consecutive years, from 1997 to 2001, and were runners-up from 2002 to 2005.

Posted: 2007/03/26 11:57:21

Dr. Alexander is also Director of the Applied Coastal Research Laboratory of the Georgia Southern University. His research interests include rates and processes of sediment accumulation and strata formation in estuarine, coastal , shelf, and slope environments using radiochemical techniques and tracers; sediment dynamics and coastal erosion; and historical records of anthropogenic impacts on the coastal zone.

On hand for the presentation in Richmond Hill were (L-R) Coastal Resources Division Director Susan Shipman, Georgia department of Natural Resources Commissioner Noel Holcomb, Dr. Clark Alexander, Coastal Marshlands Protection and Shore Protection Committee Members Leslie Mattingly, Richard Eckburg and Henry Williams, Jr.

Georgia Sound Winter 2007 newsletter

Alexander research projects

Posted: 2007/03/22 09:47:01

The title stands for Benthic Observatory and Technology Testbed on the Mid-Shelf -- Understanding Processes. The project will monitor biological, physical and chemical activity in the bottom one-meter of the water column and the top 10-30 centimeters of the sandy sediment. It will also test novel techniques and equipment for measuring activity on the sea bed.

The Skidaway Institute team includes lead scientist Bill Savidge, Rick Jahnke, Dana Savidge and Jim Nelson.

The ocean bottom on Georgia's shelf is the site for significant physical, chemical and biological activity as the currents and tides carry organic and inorganic material through the porous sand. BOTTOMS-UP will take three years to study how water motion interacts with the biological and chemical processes on the sea floor.

According to Savidge, the sea floor is a very active and important area of the ocean, where approximately one-third of the primary production of algae on the Georgia continental shelf takes place.

"As a practical matter, the sand is very good at capturing phytoplankton cells (marine algae) and small particles, degrading them and exporting them as nutrients," said Savidge. "Those nutrients feed the water column growth and allow the plankton to grow, and that is the basis of the food web."

"The fact that everything cycles through the bottom means that what happens in those sands has a strong influence on the entire system."

The team will place sensors on the ocean floor to measure seasonal conditions over two years.

"We want to see what differences exist from the summer, when the seas are calm and a lot light reaches the bottom, to the fall and winter, when sea and light conditions are different," Savidge said.

Some of the sensors will simply record the data, and the research team will recover them after several weeks or months for analysis. Others will communicate directly to shore, allowing the researchers to monitor the data on an on-going basis.

In addition to collecting data, the researchers will also be trying to determine what kind of equipment and techniques will work best in that environment for future projects.

"A large problem is the fact that salt water is extremely corrosive," said Savidge. "You can't put anything in the ocean forever; it will fall apart, especially if it is metal."

An additional problem, according to Savidge, is that any solid surface placed in the ocean is almost immediately covered with living organisms, sediments and detritus. That is a particular problem for small sensors.

"If you have an optical sensor, for instance, and a barnacle attaches itself to the lens, you lose the picture," Savidge said.

Boat anchors or hurricanes can also play havoc with the equipment.

"If we find that our instrumentation is functioning only ten percent of the time, then that particular design would not be acceptable," Savidge said. "While we don't have any funding to do any engineering to find a better solution, this information would serve as a 'Don't let this happen to you' to the next generation."

The BOTTOMS-UP project will also include researchers from Old Dominion University in Virginia, the University of South Carolina and the University of South Florida, bringing the total grant award to all researchers to $1.6 million.

Posted: 2007/03/16 12:12:26

By: Jim Nelson
Skidaway Institute of Oceanography

Researchers around the world are working to improve their ability to forecast the paths and intensity of hurricanes and to predict what will happen when they strike land.

An important component of this effort is the development of the Integrated Ocean Observing System which is envisioned as a network of observation stations, including towers such as Skidaway Institute's Southeast Atlantic Bight Synoptic Ocean Observation Network, along with buoys, and numerical modeling systems linked through an integrated data management and communications network.

For hurricane forecasters, accurate estimates of the heat content of the upper ocean and the locations of warm pools of water along forecast tracks are needed to predict the intensity of the system. Real-time observations of ocean and offshore meteorological conditions provide important feedback to forecasters, allowing them to evaluate and update predictions of storm tracks and intensity.

As a hurricane approaches land, storm surge and coastal inundation are critical concerns for coastal emergency managers. A national coastal water level monitoring network operated by a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration provides up-to-date observations various locations in the Southeast.

Improving storm surge/inundation forecast models is challenging, since these forecasts are needed on local scales and must be frequently updated as conditions change. This requires rapid assembly of information from meteorological, oceanographic and coastal water level data sets, and consideration of a range of physical processes, including the interaction of tides, wind-generated waves and currents, wave breaking and how these change over varying water column depths.

Such a coastal storm surge/inundation forecasting system needs a robust framework for real-time data collection and quality control, operational numerical modeling and communications to distribute observations and forecasts to emergency management personnel. Along with national programs, a number of coastal ocean observing programs are building such a framework in the Southeast, contributing to the development of various elements required for the integrated, operational system.

Posted: 2007/03/16 08:16:26

Venetia Butler processes a core sample
with a crewmate.

It was a long journey -- both geographically and professionally -- from a classroom in the United States to a research vessel rocking in high seas in the South Pacific for teachers Kelly Sears and Venetia Butler. The two teachers joined Skidaway Institute Professor Clark Alexander and his team on a research cruise to gather information from the sea floor off the coast of New Zealand in October.

When she heard about the opportunity to join the expedition, Butler jumped at the chance. "I said, I'm free and I have lots of curriculum writing experience," she said. "What do you want me to do?"

A marine geologist, Alexander was on his second cruise as part of a National Science Foundation funded project, "MARGINS Source to Sink."

Alexander's goal is to better understand how major events on land, such as landslides, earthquakes and volcanoes, can be read in the sediment record on the continental margin -- the area immediately off a coast, including the continental shelf. Two teachers were included as part of the grant with the goal of adding an educational component to the research mission.

Kelly Sears and Venetia Butler take time
to review the notes of their cruise.

"We wanted to provide classroom teachers and other educators with the opportunity to experience first-hand the life of scientists at sea and in the lab," said Alexander. "The hope is the excitement and intellectual thrill they experience will be passed on to young scientists in their formative years."

Butler is a former elementary school teacher and science coordinator for the Savannah-Chatham County (Georgia) School System. She was very excited when she discovered the teachers would be more than just observers; they would be totally immersed in the science process.

"One of my pet peeves with science education is that I don't believe that teachers and students have a good enough handle on what the real process of what science is all about," Butler said.

After the long flight to New Zealand, Butler and Sears joined the rest of the research team for the six-day cruise.

"The science crew was very excited about their research and they were willing to take time to explain what they were doing and why it was important to the study," said Sears, a science teacher from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Butler and Sears stood 12 hour watches and assisted the other researchers collect and process core samples from the ocean bottom.

The cruise wasn't all smooth sailing.

Kelly Sears on deck during rough seas.

"We had a storm out there, and it got so bad they called off all the work," said Butler. "I've been around water all my life and have been in rough water before, but never like this. A 200-foot vessel was pounding as it came off one of those waves."

The cruise changed the way Sears looked at science. With an undergraduate degree in biology, she had never given that much thought to the non-living components of an ecosystem.

"In New Zealand, I had the opportunity to observe marine environments with geological emphasis," Sears said. "As a result, the way I illustrate the marine environment to my students will be different. I will integrate the geological factors with the biological factors in order to better depict the marine environment."

Butler said she wishes more teachers would take advantage of opportunities for experiences like the cruise. "When the window of opportunity opens up, try it," she said. "The more you step out of your box and develop your area of interest, the more opportunities will come your way.

"You just have to do it!"

Posted: 2007/03/15 14:04:43

College of Science and Mathematics Highlights:
• Fastest growing college at KSU
• 2,500 enrolled in degree programs
• Nearly 400 graduates per year
• Highest percentage of under-represented students at KSU (26%)
• Largest chemistry degree program in Georgia with almost 500 majors
• Georgia's first B.S. degree program in biotechnology
• More than $2 million in grant funding from National Science Foundation

Posted: 2007/03/14 16:38:00

Unlike other Skidaway Institute housing units, which are built apartment-style, this is the first building with a single, large living area and four bedrooms. It is anticipated this design will be better for groups of students who may benefit from having a common area for meals, meetings and discussions.

The $450,000 price tag was paid in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

The building was designed by Dawson Wissmach Architects of Savannah. The general contractor is WBM Construction Inc. of Metter.

Posted: 2007/03/12 09:17:10

Skidaway Institute's R/V Savannah selected for Caribbean energy project

The Skidaway Institute of Oceanography's Research Vessel Savannah has been contracted to conduct an ocean survey in the Dutch Antilles for a project to use cold seawater to cool ocean-front hotels.

The R/V Savannah and her crew of seven will leave Savannah for Curacao on February 6 for the month-long cruise. Once there, a science crew from Oceanic Imaging Consultants Inc. (OIC) will come on board and use the R/V Savannah to survey the ocean floor and water conditions near the southern Caribbean island.

The survey is part of a larger venture among Aquaelectra (the electric company of Curacao), the Curacao World Trade Center, and SeaCon International for the construction of a Sea Water Air Conditioning (SWAC) system at Piscadera in Curacao. Within 18 months, five large buildings will be cooled by this innovative air conditioning system.

SWAC is a renewable energy system that uses cold water from the ocean depths as a coolant for air conditioning in buildings. Water from as deep as 700 meters, where the temperature is 43 degrees Fahrenheit, will be pumped to a special water station. The low temperature water will be used to cool the installation water that runs through hotels located along the seashore and to the World Trade Center.

The R/V Savannah is a 92-foot ocean going research vessel built in 2001 for the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography. Since then, it has spent hundreds of days at sea, conducting biological, chemical, physical and geological oceanographic studies in estuarine and continental shelf waters throughout the southeastern U.S. Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. The R/V Savannah is a member of the University National Oceanographic Laboratory System fleet. It has been used by scientists from Skidaway Institute as well as researchers from many other research organizations.

OIC researchers are no strangers to the R/V Savannah. OIC used the R/V Savannah on a survey project in the St. Mary's River in November and December 2006.

"This project is a testament to the capabilities of both the vessel and the crew," said Braxton Tesh, Skidaway Institute's superintendent of marine operations. "Their team was happy with us, and when they needed a research vessel for the Curacao project, they came back."

The Curacao project will be the R/V Savannah's longest cruise to date. The next longest cruise was a 21-day trip in 2005 to study ocean currents near Cape Hatteras, N.C.

Posted: 2007/03/12 08:16:02

When: Monday, March 5, 2007 @ 10:00 AM

Where: SkIO Library Auditorium

Summary: Ecosystem health assessment faces the new challenge of becoming more comprehensive and representative of the "real world," in reference to globalization and confluence of factors affecting environments. This implies the increasing need for multi-dimensional research that describes processes driving ecosystems, which is necessary to develop better risk assessment. By its nature, such research needs to be cross-disciplinary and developed over an extended period of time, in contrast to the more rapid and target-specific assessment criteria currently in use. In this presentation I will expose my research strategy to address ecosystem health, which includes the evaluation of bioavailability of contaminants, and the measure of sub-lethal stress at various levels of biological organization, using light production of some marine invertebrates as bioreporter of stress level. This ecotoxicological approach combined with physico-chemical characteristics of the environment provides a realistic understanding, from the ecological standpoint, of the ecosystem health status. My research expertise addresses fundamental processes, yet it can also be used by city planners and managers to support decision making processes for optimal management of coastal areas, working for both socio-economical development and environmental sustainability.

Posted: 2007/03/01 08:04:55

The interdisciplinary course is designed to introduce students from a broad cross-section of academic interests to the acquisition and analysis of environmental field data. SkIO provides access to pristine sampling sites for the two planned field trips to collect data in a salt marsh environment, an estuary, and on the continental shelf onboard the R/V Savannah. The student group put in long hours during their three-day weekend visit, collecting marsh sediment, porewater and water column samples at the SERF boardwalk; measuring the distribution of dissolved chemical species in the water column and sediments; establishing meteorological instruments; and employing ground-penetrating radar, among other exercises. The student group headed home with their vans full of samples to analyze, and will return for an expedition aboard the R/V Savannah as their second field trip for the semester course.

Posted: 2007/02/27 08:58:44

When: Monday, February 26, 2007 @ 10:00 AM

Where: SkIO Library Auditorium

Summary: Our ability to forecast the future state of marine ecosystems is rather poor. For example, models developed to predict blooms of harmful algae can capture the major factors that stimulate phytoplankton blooms, but none to date are capable of accurately predicting when and where these blooms will occur, which phytoplankton species will dominate the resulting bloom, or why. As another example, fisheries and ecological diversity continue to decline, which seems to be driving a crisis-mode management of nearshore fish resources. I hypothesize that these inabilities are due to inadequacies in current modeling frameworks used to represent biological processes in turbulent flow environments at the level of individual organisms. Population dynamics, widely used for modeling spatial and temporal changes of various ecological processes, neglects the structure and dynamics of participants at the scales of individuals. This presentation will demonstrate that understanding biological processes in oceanic turbulence at the level of individual organisms is an important issue and can greatly improve the accuracy of marine population dynamics and the predictability of marine ecosystems. Understanding biological and chemical processes in turbulent flow environments will require expertise in various areas including biology, ecology, fishery sciences, oceanography, fluid dynamics, in-situ and laboratory observation and computational modeling. I would stress that interdisciplinary collaborations will be key in predicting the marine ecosystems of the future.

Posted: 2007/02/21 16:00:12

When: Friday, February 23, 2007 @ 10:00 AM

Where: SkIO Library Auditorium

Summary: By combining the cryolander sampling technique with microsensor-based and microscopic methods, the small-scale distribution of microbial communities was investigated in the oxic zone of coastal sediments of the Southern Baltic Sea. Enzymatic degradation activity, photosynthetic and aerobic respiration activity as well as microbial numbers and biomass were analysed and related to microenvironmental conditions (O2, sulfide, pH, bulk density, carbon, nitrogen). Microscale depth profiles of microbial numbers, biomass, and activity were strongly influenced by sediment properties. In muddy sandy sediments increased numbers of photoautotrophic and heterotrophic cells as well as maxima of enzymatic activity were localized in the lower oxic zone, suggesting a tight coupling between photoautotrophic and heterotrophic processes. In sandy mud sediments, microgradients of microbial numbers and activity were less pronounced. In a dark/light experiment, light-induced changes in microbial aerobic respiration and photoautotrophic activity co-ocurred with shifts in the microdistribution of heterotrophic and photoautotrophic microorganisms. Spatio-temporal variations in the microdistribution of microorganisms were mainly triggered by the availability of oxygen and photosynthetically produced organic carbon.

Posted: 2007/02/20 08:59:05

Presented by: Dr. Stephen Fries, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Institute of Marine Sciences

When: Monday, February 19, 2007 @ 10:00 AM

Where: SkIO Library Auditorium

Summary: In order to protect both ecosystem and human health, policymakers demand environmental models based on data that cover a range of spatial and temporal scales. This need is critical when predicting ecological perturbations due to events (hurricanes, floods) or less abrupt forces (development, climate change). Recent technological developments have provided new opportunities to design and deploy instrument platforms for collecting in-situ data and samples. Current estuarine and continental shelf research demonstrate the potential insights to be gained with deployment of observation platforms and integration of results into model frameworks. Recent successes include bloom detection strategies, discrimination of microbial inputs from runoff and resuspension, and sediment-water flux measurement using an autonomous benthic sampler. In addition to new methods for sample collection, novel molecular methods for environmental samples have provided detailed insights into the dynamics of phytoplankton and microbial populations, including the presence or absence of individual species or strains. As a community, we must recognize that oceanographic research requires sampling strategies and environmental models that address the needs and input of diverse groups, including social scientists, the medical community, and the general public. Without this multidisciplinary approach, the utility of our observations and models will be limited.

Posted: 2007/02/15 16:08:48

Posted: 2007/02/09 16:26:40

Posted: 2007/02/05 13:54:25

Arsenic Toxicity and Phytoplankton Dynamics in the Sargasso Sea

The predominant form of arsenic in oxygenated water is arsenate (AsO42-) or As(V). Arsenate is an analog of phosphate and competitive substitution of As(V) for PO4 can have deleterious consequences. The potential for As toxicity is high in the Sargasso Sea, where low P concentrations can drive As:P ratios up as high as 4 to 40. Net growth rates of cyanobacteria were not affected by the addition of As, but the abundance of a specific subset of picoeukaryotes within the thermocline declined significantly.

Nanoscale Distribution and Speciation of Phosphorus within Cariaco Basin Sinking Particulates

Sinking particulate matter represents an important transport pathway removing nutrients from the surface ocean. Recent studies of this material collected from sediment traps within the Cariaco basin have shown that phosphorus transported via this pathway is present in a variety of organic and inorganic forms. Here we present a study of the internal composition and distribution of P within Cariaco Basin sediment trap samples using combined multi-elemental X-ray micro fluorescence mapping and P-specific X-ray fluorescence near edge fine structure spectroscopy.

Risk Assessment in Daphnia Pulicaria : Vibrio Cholerae Versus Fish Predation

Daphnia species, inhabiting freshwaters of different sizes and depths, contend with predation risks of various predators. Besides predations, Daphnia must face other threats such as infestation by fungi, bacteria, and even waterborne human pathogens. Our question is whether Daphnia have one remedy for all or weigh the risks and react specifically to each case. In order to answer the question, we observed the swimming behavior of Daphnia pulicaria when exposed to (a) fish kairomones, (b) infestation by V. cholerae, and (c) change in visibility. We found that D. pulicaria display significantly more complex and abrupt swimming behaviors when infested by V. cholerae. However, once kairomones were introduced into the water, both Daphnia with and without infestation by V. cholerae.

Posted: 2007/01/30 09:11:05

The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia announces its 75th anniversary celebration!

In 1932, twenty-seven separate boards of trustees were consolidated under a single governing Board of Regents.

Read about the birth of the USG, its historical background, and discover how large the University System of Georgia has become over the past 75 years. The list of selected USG Alumni photos may surprise you!
www.usg.edu

USG 75 Years of Transforming Lives
USG Press Release

Skidaway Institute of Oceanography is proud to be a research unit of the University System of Georgia and especially proud to be highlighted in the University System's publication, "The University System of Georgia 75 Years of Transforming Lives."

Posted: 2007/01/26 15:48:44

Dr. Nihongi is originally from Kanagawa, Japan, and came to the USA in 2000 after receiving her bachelor's degree in Aquatic Biosciences from Tokyo University of Fisheries (now Tokyo University of Marine Sciences and Technology) with Dr. Hidekatsu Yamazaki.

Posted: 2007/01/26 08:59:49

SkIO hosts the Southeastern Center for ACT, a NOAA-supported program whose mandate includes the groundtruthing and inter-laboratory calibration and verification of a diverse suite of physical, chemical and biological sensor technologies. As oceanographic research advances the development of in situ observatories, reliance on robust, accurate sensors will increase dramatically. Even the best sensors require calibration and verification. For example, oxygen sensors must be standardized routinely using verified chemical determinations. A standardized application of sensors and analytical techniques is mandatory for the accurate interpretation of observatory data streams.

Posted: 2007/01/23 10:07:20

Posted: 2007/01/04 13:35:21

Posted: 2007/01/03 10:39:26