NEWS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
JULY 2017 
Help scientists track dolphins in the Chesapeake Bay

The  University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science  invites everyone who spends time on or near the Chesapeake Bay to report dolphin sightings with a new online tracking system. Chesapeake DolphinWatch allows users to mark the location of their dolphin sightings on a map of the Chesapeake and its tributaries so scientists can better understand where the dolphins are and where they go. The online tracker is accessible at  www.chesapeakedolphinwatch.org.  
 
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Larger dead zone predicted for Chesapeake Bay

Scientists expect this year's summer Chesapeake Bay hypoxic or "dead zone"-an area of low to no oxygen that can kill fish and aquatic life-will be larger than average, approximately 1.89 cubic miles. This is due to spring rainfall amounts in New York and Pennsylvania that led to an above average Susquehanna River nitrogen load to the Chesapeake Bay this spring.

"Although the higher forecasts for this summer seem to buck a recent trend toward lower anoxic volumes in Chesapeake Bay, they are consistent with known links between high river flows and oxygen depletion," said Jeremy Testa, assistant professor at UMCES' Chesapeake Biological Laboratory.

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UMCES welcomes first France-Merrick Foundation Professor

Dr.  Kenneth A. Rose has joined UMCES'  Horn Point Laboratory faculty as its first France-Merrick Foundation Professor in Sustainable Ecosystem Restoration.
The endowed professorship was established to maintain Maryland's leadership in restoring our ecosystems in the face of growth and a changing climate. Dr. Rose will apply his expertise toward the restoration and sustainability of Maryland's environment, including the nation's largest and most important estuary, the Chesapeake Bay.

Chasing the mystery behind bioluminescence in Puerto Rico

A group of undergraduates from two Puerto Rican universities, with help from two University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science researchers, spent a week investigating the plankton behind the consistent bioluminescence in a Puerto Rican bay as part of a new research and education center that Maryland Sea Grant College established with funding from the National Science Foundation.

 
Next Generation: Graduate student Sam Major on biofuels
 
" I remember when I was little, there was an oil spill in the Block Island Sound, and my parents drove us out to a point on the beach to see the boat.
I later majored in microbiology at the University of New Hampshire, where I became infatuated with potential uses for biotechnologies. Then I found the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology and Dr. Russell Hill when I was looking for a graduate program, and it has been a perfect fit. "

More conversations with UMCES scientists this month
Discover the Bay through the eyes of our scientists with our summer 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
Science in the First Person: Raleigh Hood on jellyfish abundance

"The jellyfish are actually declining in the Chesapeake Bay...We do have problems with nutrient pollution and overfishing, but there's another factor that appears to be playing a larger role and that's decline in hard substrate, the burial of oyster shells. They're disappearing. That hard substrate is critical to the life cycle of the sea nettle."

   
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