Research Blog
Dr's Laura Robinson (WHOI) and Rhian Waller (UMaine) lead a group of scientists and students to examine corals in the Drake Passage between the 9th May - 15th June. The primary goal of the cruise is to locate fossil and live populations of cold-water corals in this area to further understand climate, biogeography and connectivity across the Drake Passage through time. Follow the blog!
Dive In 2011!
High school students considering a career in marine science will surely want to Dive In to this program. Participants will spend three days in residence at the DMC exploring the marine realm with UMaine faculty and staff. Seminars will explore career options and UMaine's academic program in marine science. Dive In will be held August 3-5 and is FREE to selected participants. More information and application material at Dive In.
Dive In is offered by the University of Maine's Darling Marine Center, School of Marine Sciences and College of Natural Sciences, Forestry & Agriculture.
2011 May-Term & Summer Course Offerings
This spring the University of Maine's Darling Marine Center and School of Marine Sciences are offering four courses in May and June:
- Life Histories & Functional Morphology of Commercially Important Marine Invertebrates of Maine, May 11-27
- Estuarine Oceanography, May 11-27
- MATLAB for Marine Sciences, May 31 - June 10 (available by Polycom to SMS adn GMRI)
- Natural Science Illustration, June 13-17 (registration deadline May 1)
May-term and summer courses incur regular UMaine tuition and fees. UMaine students can register directly through MaineStreet. Non-UMaine students, please register through the Office of Continuing and Distance Education, 1-877-947-4357.
Room and board are available at the Darling Marine Center for all courses.
For more information, contact the Course Coordinator.
Congratulations Dr. Susie Arnold!
Susie Arnold successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation in April. Her research focused on the resiliance of Caribbean coral reefs from Belize to Bonaire.
Dr. Mary Jane Perry Receives Special Creativity Award
University of Maine marine scientist Mary Jane Perry has been at the forefront of float and underwater glider-based ocean exploration for more than a decade. But her recent research, a collaboration with colleagues from the University of Washington, Dalhousie University and a number of other institutions in the U.S. and Europe, has the potential to change the face of oceanography. Perry recently received a nearly $620,000 special creativity award from the National Science Foundation–for a total of $1.6 million–to extend her autonomous study of carbon fluxes in the North Atlantic spring bloom through 2012. The carbon dioxide uptake in the North Atlantic accounts for about a quarter of the global total, and the spring bloom is an important part of that. Perry and her colleagues are exploring a way to monitor the bloom that is more effective and far less cost-prohibitive than current methods. Source: UMaine Today
SBS'09 on YouTube!
The 2009 Semester By the Sea class is featured in a three-minute video produced by UMaine Department of University Relations and posted on the UMaine Today website. The video was complied by Anya Rose, a graduate student in Ecology and Enviromental Science. Watch it here, now!
At the DMC's Conference Center Winter 2010
The Institute for Broadening Participation(IBP) held it's annual planning retreat at the DMC January 16-18, 2010. The IBP is a non-profit organization created to increase access to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education and careers for diverse underrepresented groups. Their website PathwaysToScience.org is a portal to the STEM fields and can be used to search for undergraduate summer research opportunities as well as graduate fellowships and post-doctoral positions in Maine and across the country.
COSEE-OS held their first ever Graduate Student/Faculty Collaborative Workshop at the DMC in early February. The workshop was designed to help graduate students work collaboratively, share their research with broader audiences, and gain valuable teaching skills. Five marine scientists from UMaine, the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, and the Gulf of Maine Research Institution paired with fifteen UMaine graduate students to create concept maps using Concept Map Builder, an online resource developed by COSEE-OS.
Wahle Lab Attends Lobster Conference in Chennai, India
Dr. Rick Wahle and graduate students Charlene Bergeron and Mahima Jaini represented the University of Maine School of Marine Sciences and the Darling Marine Center at the International Conference on Recent Advances in Lobster Biology and Management (RALBAM) in January 2010.They were the only US delegates in a field from India, Australia, Japan, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Spain, Norway, Israel, Mexico, and Canada. Time will tell, but the conference looks to have opened new doors for collaboration between oceanographers, ecologists and fisheries scientists interested in environmental drivers of fisheries in the Indian Ocean, especially the Arabian Sea, a region of particular interest with respect to climate change impacts.
Charlene received the Best Student Paper award for her presentation titled Modeling growth without age-markers in a variable environment:
integrating size-frequency and tag-based methods in the American
lobster. Understanding growth rates is key to modeling the dynamics and sustainable management of lobster populations, but because lobsters have no morphological age markers (e.g. growth rings), estimating size-at-age is challenging. Using existing growth data on lobsters of various sizes and data-bases on juvenile lobster size structure, Charlene has developed growth models of lobsters in 3 oceanographically distinct regions: southern New England, Midcoast, and Bay of Fundy.
Mahima presented a progress report on her research at the RALBAM meeting as well. Her talk was titled Environmental forcing of American lobster settlement: The role of sea surface temperature. Mahima is looking at the spatial correlation between sea surface temperature, gathered by satellites, and lobster settlement, from data collected over a 20-year time span. Correlation results will provide new insights for fishery scientists concerned with lobster larval transport and population connectivity.
Dr. Rick Wahle Joins UMaine
The Darling Marine Center (DMC) is pleased to welcome Dr. Rick Wahle, who joined the ranks of University of Maine School of Marine Sciences as a Research Associate Professor in December 2009. His expertise in Gulf of Maine fisheries science brings a multidisciplinary perspective to invertebrate biology research at the DMC.
From graduate student to visiting investigator to faculty, Rick’s career has been linked to the DMC almost every step of the way. He first set foot on the DMC campus in 1985 when he began his Ph.D. studies with Dr. Bob Steneck. After postdoctoral fellowships at Brown University and the University of Rhode Island, Rick became a research scientist at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, in West Boothbay Harbor, Maine. During his years at the Bigelow Lab, Rick maintained his connection with the DMC as a visiting investigator, taking advantage of the DMC’s scientific diving program and flowing seawater facilities every summer.
Rick’s research focuses primarily on the American lobster, Homarus americanus, though he has also worked on urchins, crabs and most recently scallops. His research integrates the fields of ecology, oceanography and fisheries science, and is highly collaborative in nature. Working with scientists, fishermen and industry representatives from across New England and maritime Canada, Rick’s research provides a comprehensive look at the early life history of the lobster and explores the biotic and biotic processes that affect the annual recruitment and ultimately the strength of the fishery.
NSF Award Provides New Oceanographic Gear
Dr. Mary Jane Perry received funding from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Field Stations and Marine Laboratories program for an integrated water sampling and electronic array includes a CTD for measuring conductivity, temperature, density, and optical sensors to measure the quality and quantity of light in sea water. It is also equipped with a small set of water sampling bottles.
The award also included funds for the installation of an 18’ jib crane on the DMC pier. Capable of lifting 2000 pounds, the crane makes loading heavy oceanographic equipment easier and safer. In addition to the CTD, the crane will be used for some of the GoMOOS buoy and mooring deployments, side scan sonar apparatus, and bottom sampling gear.
Bristol Science Teach Completes Course at DMC
Bristol Consolidated School (BCS) science teacher Kevin Crafts recently completed the Developmental Biology Teaching Workshop at the Darling Marine Center in Walpole. Geared toward undergraduate instructors, the workshop provides tips and tricks to college professors looking to improve their teaching laboratory. The workshop has been offered annually at the DMC for over 15 years, and is taught by two leading developmental biologists Dr. Leland Johnson, Professor Emeritus from Augustana College, SD; and Dr. Eric Cole of St. Olaf’s College, MN.
Crafts teaches 6th, 7th and 8th grade science at BCS. During the spring of 2008, he was asked to lead a microscopy training session for teachers in School Union 74. He approached DMC for some protocol in preparation for the workshop, and, long story short, met Dr. Johnson who assisted in the SU 74 training and encouraged him to take the Developmental Biology Teaching Workshop.
Course instructor, Dr. Leland Johnson, described Crafts as “highly motivated secondary school teacher” saying “it was a pleasure to have him in the class”. Johnson and Cole continue to be inspired by public school teacher like Crafts who take the initiative to learn more for their students and who share the knowledge with their colleagues.
Crafts is “very grateful that Jennifer Ribeiro, BCS principal, granted him permission to take the workshop” especially since it was held while school was still in session. He noted that most of the activities covered in the workshop can be scaled down to the secondary level. Crafts wasted no time incorporating the new skills, techniques and knowledge into his science curriculum. A week after the workshop his 7th grade students studied worm regeneration using an experiment from the workshop. He has also charged all of his students to be on the lookout this summer for a small marine anemone called Nematostella. If they find it, there will be even more exciting laboratory experiments during next school year!
MAIC Receives $219,000 to Improve Aquaculture Infrastructure at the Darling Marine Center
MAIC Executive Director Chris Davis received $213,900 from the Maine Technology Asset Fund (MTFA) to enhance the aquaculture facilities and promote innovative aquaculture business ventures at the University of Maine’s Darling Marine Center in Walpole. MAIC was one of 16 recipients sharing a total of $25 million dollars of bond funds approved by voters in 2007 and distributed earlier this month. Governor John Baldacci and Betsy Biemann of the Maine Technology Institute announced the award.
The Aquaculture Business Incubator and adjacent Marine Culture Laboratory (MCL) at the Darling Marine Center are in many ways the heart of shellfish aquaculture in Maine. The facilities include flowing seawater laboratories, a continuous algal culture facility, larval culture systems, a quarantine broodstock facility and juvenile grow-out systems. The MTAF grant will fund the construction and outfitting of approximately half of the second floor of the MCL with dry labs/offices for incubator tenants, hatchery staff, and the MAIC.
These improvements will provide a necessary resource to the Aquaculture Business Incubator and allow additional users (industry, resident and visiting researchers, and graduate/undergraduate students) to utilize quality laboratory space for their projects. Planned research includes the development of new genetic strains of European oysters resistant to a pathogenic and endemic shellfish disease will lead to a new crop for Maine shellfish farmers.
Additional information can be found at:
www.mainetechnology.org
www.maineaquaculture.org
Thanks Buddy, for 35 years!
Buddy Lane retired from the University of Maine Darling Marine Center on June 1, 2009. He began work at the DMC in 1973, less than ten years after Ira C. Darling donated his farm to the University of Maine for use as a marine laboratory. During his 35-year tenure, Buddy helped transform many of the farm building into laboratories, classrooms and offices.
He also kept seawater flowing through the labs and classrooms; a task that grew in size and complexity over the years. Upon retirement, he maintained a seawater system that pumped 500 gallons/minute through three buildings. That seawater kept countless plant and animal specimens alive and supported the research of hundreds of scientists and students.
Buddy, thanks again for your loyal service; your friends at the DMC wish you a long and happy retirement!
Graduate Students Win NASA Fellowships in 2008
Meg Estapa and Mike Sauer, doctoral students in Oceanography at the UMaine’s School of Marine Sciences based at the DMC, were recently awarded NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowships. Each received a $30,000 grant which is renewable for two more years contingent on academic performance.
Meg studies the effect of sunlight on particulate organic matter in the marine water column. It was commonly thought that organic matter (carbon) would settle out of the water column. It appears, however, that upon exposure to intense sunlight, some of this carbon forms carbon dioxide which can drift into the atmosphere to become a heat-trapping greenhouse gas. Focusing on carbon delivered from the Mississippi River to areas along the Gulf Coast, Meg uses light-measuring equipment and satellite data to determine how much carbon undergoes this process and how much becomes buried in seafloor sediments. Advising Meg on the project are School of Marine Sciences professors Larry Mayer and Emmanuel Boss.
Mike uses earth-viewing satellites to study phytoplankton biomass in the Gulf of Maine. The estimation and interpretation of satellite data is complicated by two factors (1) colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM). These components are
essentially indistinguishable from chlorophyll in the satellite data, and
(2) seasonally variable phytoplankton communities. Mike aims to quantify the
errors associated with SeaWiFS and/or MODIS satellite estimates of chlorophyll to get a better understanding of the dynamics of CDOM and phytoplankton biomass in the Gulf of Maine. Mike’s thesis advisor is professor Collin Roesler.
Graduate Student Receives ICRS-OC Fellowship in 2008
Susie Arnold received one of six Coral Reef Ecosystem Research Fellowships awarded by the International Coral Reef Society and the Ocean Conservancy.
Susie holds a M.S. degrees in Marine Biology and Marine Policy and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Marine Biology at the UMaine School of Marine Sciences. Her advisor is Dr. Bob Steneck. Working on reefs in Bonaire, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Palau and Palmyra, Susie is interested not only in reef ecology, but also in the various strategies these countries use for fisheries/resource management. She will use the $15,000 fellowship to conduct research on the role of herbivory and productivity potential on reef resilience. Specifically, the funds will support experiments on the leeward and windward reefs of Bonaire and Belize.
DMC Visiting Researcher and Workshop Instructor
The Society for Developmental Biology (SDB) awarded the 2008 Viktor Hamburger Award to Dr. Leland Johnson, Augustana College, SD. Leland received the award for exceptional contributions to developmental biology education. During his career, Leland taught developmental biology to countless undergraduates as well as authored laboratory manuals and textbooks. He also established the DMC's Developmental Biology Teaching Workshop (DBTW). Offered since 1992, DBTW has helped over one hundred college and university professors improve their teaching skills and their developmental biology curricula. Read more at www.sdbonline.org/Johnson-Hamburger08.pdf
New Course to be offered at the DMC this fall!
SMS 491: Introduction to Research Diving is a 3 credit course that will be taught at the DMC during the 2008 fall semester. Students will be instructed in advanced diving, dive rescue, oxygen administration, and underwater research techniques. Practical field diving activities will be a large focus of the course. The course will be taught by the UMAINE Diving Safety Officer, selected UMAINE faculty, and guest lecturers experienced in using scuba diving as a research tool. Following successful completion of course objectives, students will be eligible to participate in diving research projects as a scientific diver-in-training or scientific diver.
If you have a recreational certificate and hope to pursue scientific diving in your academic career, this is the class for you! Interested students should contact Chris at crigaud@maine.edu for further details.
DMC Scientist Receives Distinguished Service Award
The American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) awarded Dr. Pete Jumars it’s Distinguished Service Award at the society’s 2008 summer meeting in St. John, Newfoundland.
ASLO is the leading professional organization for researchers and educators in the field of aquatic science. The society currently has more than 3,800 members from 58 countries including the United States. Jumars has been a member of ASLO since 1969.
ASLO’s Distinguished Service Award is bestowed “to members who have displayed exceptional efforts that support the professional goals and enhance the stature of ASLO.” The award acknowledges Jumars’ many years of service on a variety of fronts including: Editor-in-Chief of the society’s scientific journal “Limnology & Oceanography” from 1986-1992, and as President Elect, President and Past President of the Board of Directors from 2000-2006.
Jumars’ contributions to ASLO paved the way to establishing “Open Access” of their scientific publications, inspired collaboration with other professional scientific organizations, and increased the society’s role in science education and public policy.
Jumars is a University of Maine Professor of Marine Science and Director of the School of Marine Sciences. He is based at the Darling Marine Center in Walpole where he studies benthic marine organisms and how they interact with their physical and chemical environments.
More information about Pete's award and his dedication to ASLO is available at http://www.aslo.org/meetings/stjohns2008/awards.html and scroll to bottom of page.