NEWS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
JUNE 2017 
Chesapeake Bay report card shows steady recovery

The overall health of Chesapeake Bay improved in 2016, a positive sign that recovery efforts are working. The largest estuary in the nation scored a C grade (54%) in the 2016 report card, one of the highest scores calculated by UMCES scientists. 

"We are happy to see that our beloved Chesapeake Bay continues its recovery. These scientifically rigorous report card results are telling us that we are indeed heading in the right direction," said Dr. Bill Dennison, UMCES Vice President for Science Application. "We still have a long way to go to fully restoring the Bay, so we need to have our diverse partnerships of people and organizations continue to work together to reduce the runoff of sediments and nutrients into the Bay."

 
Friends and colleagues gather to celebrate Don Boesch's 27 years of environmental leadership
 
Former and current colleagues, local and state dignitaries, family and friends packed the Institute of Marine & Environmental Technology on Thursday, June 1 to celebrate outgoing University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science President Don Boesch.  He announced in the fall he would step down as president after 27 years, though he plans to continue at UMCES as faculty.

Discover the Chesapeake and its watershed with UMCES scientists on new monthly YouTube series this summer
Starting Monday, June 5, discover the Bay through the eyes of our scientists with a new YouTube series called "Discovering the Chesapeake." Our scientists will talk about research studies they're proud of and the impact they made, popular and oft-overlooked creatures that live in the Bay, and even the marvels of the Bay that have impacted them after years of research in the Chesapeake Bay's waters and watershed.  WATCH

Cat Stylinski wins President's Award

Cat  Stylinski is driven to building two-way dialogues between scientists and non-scientists. A faculty researcher and educator at the UMCES' Appalachian Laboratory, she was recently given the President's Award for Excellence in Application of Science  for her exceptional work in science communication and education .

Scientist begin to unlock secrets of deep ocean color
About half of atmospheric carbon dioxide is fixed by ocean's phytoplankton through a process called photosynthesis. A large portion of biologically fixed carbon is formed by picocyanobacteria at the sea surface and then transported to the deep ocean. But what remains a mystery is how colored dissolved organic matter which originates from plant detritus (either on land or at sea) makes it into the deep ocean. A team of scientists has potentially found a viable marine source of this colored material. change the world. 

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Three UMCES graduates earn Knauss Fellowships through Maryland Sea Grant 
 
Aimee Hoover and Stephen Gray Redding, and Yinni Shangguan were part of a group of five graduate students selected as 2017 Knauss Marine Policy Fellows through Maryland Sea Grant. An honor awarded to only to the most outstanding applicants nationwide, these students get to spend a year working with government leaders to see from the inside how science can help make sound policy decisions.

Graduate students take lessons to Bay for plankton research cruise

On a recent Friday morning, class was in session on the Choptank River, a major tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. Biological and physical oceanography students embarked on the research vessel Rachel Carson to get a new perspective. The research cruise was an opportunity for the professors to breathe life into a semester of lectures.

"We need to get students out in the field to actually see what we're talking about," said Professor Judy O'Neil said. "This is a lecture class, and there's a lot of great videos and things like that, but nothing beats coming out here, taking a sample of water, and seeing what's in a drop of water out here in the environment."

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