I’m pleased to report that we’ve set the date for our fall meeting. We’re still working out all the details and the full agenda, but please mark your calendars now to join us in person from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 28. As always, GCOOS members and nonmembers are welcome to join us to learn about the latest observing news from the Gulf of Mexico. Personally, I’m looking forward to be able to meet everyone in person for the first time since I joined GCOOS in 2021.
In other news, we’re growing our Red Tide Respiratory Forecast volunteer team and spent a day last week on Cedar Key, Florida, training folks at the UF IFAS Nature Coast Biological Station. If you recall, these volunteers gather water samples and use the GCOOS-developed HABscope to detect Karenia brevis, the organism that causes red tides in the Gulf. HABscope is also having a national impact and is now being used beyond Gulf borders on other species.
We’ve also moved into hurricane season and are expecting the first two hurricane glider deployments to take place soon. Kevin Martin, University of Southern Mississippi Ocean Observing Manager, will be launching two gliders, including Navy Glider 599 (NG599). The partnership with the Navy is really helping to supplement ocean observations from the Gulf and provide crucial information needed to inform tropical storm and hurricane models and we're pleased that we’re able to continue it this year.
Watch for updates on GANDALF, where we’re also tracking several types of autonomous ocean observing platforms in the Gulf and beyond. Read on for further details about these and other interesting developments!
Until next month,
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Save the Date: Fall Meeting |
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The GCOOS fall meeting is scheduled to take place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 28 in Gulfport, Mississippi. Members and nonmembers are welcome to attend. While we’re still planning the day’s program, please let us know whether you’re interested in attending so that we can keep you updated with all the details as they become available!
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Register here to attend in person (Please note: There is no registration fee to attend the meeting and lunch is included. For those traveling from out of town, we will have a hotel room block with special rates near the meeting location.)
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Data Spotlight: Partner Prediction |
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Louisiana State University’s Department of Oceanography and Coastal Services has released their annual “dead zone” prediction: It is expected to be the 20th largest since systematic measurements began in 1985.
This annual forecast — produced by Drs. R. Eugene Turner and Nancy N. Rabalais, former GCOOS Board Member — predicts the size of the hypoxic, or low oxygen, zone that forms in the bottom waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico continental shelf each spring/summer near the outflow of the Mississippi River.
Nutrients from the Mississippi River watershed, particularly nitrogen, fertilize the Gulf’s surface waters to create excessive amounts of algal biomass that sink to the bottom where decomposition leads to oxygen depletion. The low oxygen conditions in the Gulf's most productive waters stresses organisms and may even cause their deaths, threatening living resources. Various models use Mississippi’s May nitrogen load as the main driving force to predict how large the zone will be in late July.
- The predicted size this year? 15,233 square km (5,881 square miles) of the bottom of the continental shelf off Louisiana and Texas. That’s about the size of Connecticut (14,357 square km) and 111% of the 1985-2021 average of 13,791 square km.
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Read the full forecast
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It’s important to predict the size of the dead zone, but what is being done about it? The EPA’s Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force describes the progress made toward attaining the goals set by the Gulf Hypoxia Action Plan 2008 in their most recent report to Congress.
According to the new report “the HTF, its partners, and the scientific community have made tremendous strides in characterizing the hypoxic zone and many of the upstream, land-based factors that contribute to its annual formation. Among these factors, the effects of climate change are expected to result in more severe and prolonged periods of hypoxia and acidification. The HTF remains committed to its 2035 goal of reducing the five- year average areal extent of the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico, to less than 5,000 square kilometers by 2035.”
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Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia |
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The Gulf’s Coastal Acidification Network (GCAN) is watching the Gulf dead zone predictions closely, says Coordinator Jennifer Vreeland-Dawson, as recent research is showing that hypoxia can influence OA. The combined stressors of OA and hypoxia can also make organisms more vulnerable to other toxins, diseases, and parasites.
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New Partners: GCOOS Glider Dashboard Updates |
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The GCOOS glider dashboard, GANDALF, created by Developer Bob Currier is getting busy! Thanks to hurricane season, the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) will be launching a new round of gliders in the Gulf, where the University of South Florida (USF) is already tracking “Jaialai” as it monitors Florida’s west coast looking for toxic algae blooms.
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GANDALF has also been busy ingesting glider data and supporting autonomous underwater vehicles through new partnerships.
In addition to tracking gliders from long-time partners at USF, USM, Texas A&M University, University of Georgia/Skidaway Institute of Oceanography and Mote Marine Laboratory, we’re also now working with the University of Maine, the University of Rhode Island and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, where Principal Investigator Dr. Seth Danielson is leading a project. “We are targeting a large anti-cyclonic eddy that is just offshore of Yakutat right now and the (dashboard) is going to take a lot of guesswork out of the piloting,” he said.
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In addition to tracking ARGO floats and Slocum gliders, GANDALF is now also ingesting data from Seagliders — and is currently tracking URI’s Seaglider 658, which is collecting data on water temperature, salinity, density, dissolved oxygen, sound velocity and depth currents. |
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Hurricanes, Gliders and the Loop Current |
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Each year, underwater glider pilots in the Gulf of Mexico work together to deploy gliders to gather information needed to inform meteorological models and storm predictions. Operators are focused on collecting in-situ data within ocean features ahead of storms so that information can be assimilated into National Weather Service models. Of particular importance is gathering temperature and salinity data.
Gliders can also provide key information about the movements of the Loop Current (LC), which is getting a lot of attention right now because conditions this year seem similar to 2005, when Hurricane Katrina devastated Louisiana.
GCOOS Board Member Dr. Nan Walker, Director of the Earth Scan Laboratory at Louisiana State University, says that although the LC is not the warmest water in the Gulf, it is the largest source of heat and can intensify tropical storm systems that track over it, as its warm water extends more than 300 feet deep (provided that atmospheric conditions are also conducive).
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Learn more about the LC’s current location based on satellite imagery here.
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Walker recently talked with WWNO New Orleans Public Radio about the LC and the role it plays in hurricane intensity. Read the story.
GCOOS Board Member Dr. Nick Shay, from the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, has also been discussing the LC and was featured in the Houston Chronicle and The Conversation.
Says Shay: “I have been monitoring ocean heat content for more than 30 years as a marine scientist. The conditions I see in the Gulf in May 2022 are cause for concern. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is forecasting an above-average Atlantic hurricane season, with 14-21 named storms, six to 10 of them hurricanes. The Loop Current has the potential to supercharge some of those storms.”
A paper published in the peer review magazine Oceanography shows that gliders and other robotic ocean observing platforms can improve intensity forecasts for hurricanes and tropical storms and should be supported as a crucial component of the ocean infrastructure designed to protect the lives of coastal residents and mitigate the economic impact from storms.
In the paper, “Uncrewed Ocean Gliders and Saildrones Support Hurricane Forecasting and Research,” authors from more than a dozen governmental, nongovernmental and academic institutions involved in deploying these platforms during the 2021 hurricane season, including GCOOS, detailed how gliders improved intensity forecasting and further, how adding Saildrones operating in close proximity improved intensity forecasting even more.
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Read more
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Read the full paper
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Watch a story on AccuWeather
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Keep up with the latest hurricane news on the GCOOS data portal here
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UG2: Abstract Submission Deadline
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The deadline to submit abstracts for the fall glider workshop is just around the corner: June 30.
The Underwater Glider User Group (UG2) is hosting the workshop Sept. 20-22 at the University of Washington Botanical Gardens, Seattle. It will bring together the global underwater glider community to strengthen international collaboration through community dialogue, information and experience exchanges and development of best practices to support the glider community.
Abstract thematic areas may include, but are not limited to: sensor integrations, mission operations, glider applications, data management, technology, and scientific data use and derived decision products.
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The next UG2 webinar is scheduled for 2-3 p.m. ET this Thursday. The webinar will include UG2 updates from Bill Lingsch, GCOOS Board member and NOAA glider coordinator, and Nick Rome, Consortium for Ocean Leadership. Featured speakers are:
- Marguerite A. Xenopoulos, Canada Research Chair in Global Change of Freshwater Ecosystems, Trent University, will present “Consortium of Great Lakes Gliders: hypoxia, turnover and primary production”
- Nicolai von Oppeln-Bronikowski, OceanGNS Inc., St. John's, Canada, will present “OceanGNS: platform for glider mission planning + coordination.”
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HABscope — in the Gulf and Beyond! |
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Last week we trained new volunteers for our Red Tide Respiratory Forecast team — a team from the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Nature Coast Biological Station (NCBS) located on Cedar Key, Florida. The team, led by Director Dr. Mike Allen, will be using their new HABscope 2.0 to monitor area waters.
GCOOS HABscope Volunteer Coordinator Grant Craig, right, trains NCBS educator Emily Colson on uploading water samples.
HABscope is a low cost, classroom-grade, portable microscope that has been outfitted with a special adaptor designed by the research team’s engineer and printed on a 3D printer. In the first HABscope, the adapter was used to mount an Apple iPOD touch to the eyepiece of the microscope. HABscope 2.0 now utilizes a Raspberry Pi computer, which has increased its programmability and made it even easier for volunteers to use. (GCOOS currently has a patent pending on the system.)
In addition to collecting K. brevis cell counts for the Respiratory Forecast, the Biological Station team might one day be able to use HABscope to monitor for toxic algae near the Island’s extensive shellfish beds and clam leases.
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Special thanks goes to Dr. Jian Tao, Associate Director of the Scientific Machine Learning Laboratory at TAMU’s Institute of Data Science, who recently donated 30 Raspberry Pi units to be used for the Forecast. The donation is allowing GCOOS to get around supply chain shortages to upgrade all of the HABscopes in our volunteer network.
We’re also expanding the use of HABscope nationally: We’ve recently sent HABscopes to Seward, Alaska, where the Alutiiq Pride Marine Institute will be using HABscope to monitor for Alexandrium spp., and to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, which will also use their ‘scope to monitor for Alexandrium. HABscope has also been trained to detect Pyrodinium.
“It’s very gratifying to see that HABscope is beginning to have a national impact,” says GCOOS Developer Bob Currier.
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HABscope training at Old Dominion University and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. |
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HABscope team — Maile Branson, Emily Mailman and Annette Jarosz with their new 'scope — at Alutiiq Pride Marine Institute. |
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Red Tide Poster Now Available |
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Florida Sea Grant and GCOOS, with funding from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI), recently collaborated on the development of a model to provide Florida’s agencies with a statewide strategic infrastructure to communicate information about red tide.
The team — Florida Sea Grant’s Dr. Lisa Krimsky and Betty Staugler, and GCOOS Outreach and Education Manager Dr. Chris Simoniello — produced a series of public reports and also worked with artist Sara Franklin to create a poster addressing some of the most frequently asked questions and misconceptions that came to light during the study.
A high-resolution version of the poster is now available for free download on the GCOOS website.
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National HAB Observing Network Webinar |
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The next National HAB Observing Network webinar will take place from 3-4 p.m. EDT this Wednesday, June 22. “Monitoring HABs for Aquaculture” will feature shellfish growers from the east and west coasts discussing the risks to their operations from harmful algal blooms, as well as the monitoring techniques that allow them to detect, respond and manage their operations to minimize impact.
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Healthy Ecosystems & Living Resources |
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Using Science to Bridge Diplomatic Divides |
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Marine species don’t recognize international borders or exclusive economic zones, and a new article in the journal Science & Diplomacy, says science focused on conserving oceanic species and habitats should also transcend these human boundaries.
The article, by Dr. Jorge Brenner, GCOOS Executive Director, and Dr. William Kiene, former science coordinator of NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, uses the interconnectivity of coral reefs in the Caribbean as an example of how scientists working together can enhance conservation benefits for their countries, protect Earth’s critical ecosystems and combat climate change while encouraging diplomacy among governments.
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The world’s coastlines are rapidly urbanizing, but how this increased human presence may impact ocean species isn't fully understood.
A team led by Dr. Neil Hammerschlag, University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, tracked the movements of bull, nurse and great hammerhead sharks in relation to the city of Miami. (In this picture by Robbie Roemer, researchers release an acoustically tagged nurse shark into waters off Miami, Florida, to investigate shark residency patterns in relation to coastal urbanization.)
Given the chemical, light, and noise pollution emanating from the coastal metropolis, the team expected sharks to avoid areas close to the city. But that’s not what they reported in the article "Urban Sharks: Residency Patterns of Marine Top Predators in Relation to a Coastal Metropolis."
The results have implications for the health and safety of both sharks and humans. The work was conducted by GCOOS partners working on the South Florida MBON project.
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Unified Forecasting System Workshop |
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The Earth Prediction Innovation Center (EPIC), the Unified Forecast System (UFS), and the UFS Research to Operations community are coming together this summer to deliver a five-day workshop titled “Unifying Innovations in Forecasting Capabilities.” Attendees will have the opportunity to explore avenues for their own research development, learn about updates to the UFS, share successes within the scope of contributing the most reliable and accurate forecast modeling system in the world, and voice their thoughts on where the future will go.
The workshop is designed to engage the greater weather enterprise and academia in the ongoing effort to accelerate contributions to the Unified Forecast System and is a first-of-its-kind event offering opportunities to dive into innovations in forecasting.
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Ocean Decade Co-Design Workshop |
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The Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) hosted the Ocean Decade Co-Design Workshop, held virtually June 7-9 to coincide with World Oceans Day.
The event kickstarted development a roadmap for advancing ocean best practices. Participants, including GCOOS and South Florida Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) partners, joined conversations aimed at employing user-focused co-design to transform the GOOS design process, including using the Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS), a project of the
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO since 2019.
Participants shared lessons learned from co-design across GOOS and other sectors and teams worked to develop co-design ‘exemplar’ projects. For exemplars, teams had to identify not just projects but key stakeholders, needs in underlying infrastructure, and integration needs across observing, modeling and user interfaces.
Among the projects discussed were providing carbon budget information to governing bodies; improving tropical storm forecasting; and better marine heat wave forecasting and communications.
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In 2010, the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon resulted in the largest man-made disaster in U.S. history. Today, each Gulf state administers restoration funds and programs. Additionally, other agencies and organizations are also tasked with administering programs designed to restore Gulf habitats and better understand Gulf ecosystems.
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GCOOS maintains a jobs listing for positions and fellowships in the ocean observing community. Want to advertise a position? Email Laura Caldwell
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View Position Details/Bookmark This Page
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Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) Association: Executive Director
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Mote Marine Laboratory: Ocean Technology Program Manager
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Ocean Visions UN Center for Ocean-Climate Solutions and Innovation: Director
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State of Florida, Department of Environmental Protection: Environmental Specialist
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Mississippi State University, Gulf Research Institute: Research Engineer
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State of Louisiana: Coastal Resources Scientist Senior DCL B
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Mote Marine Laboratory: Postdoctoral Fellow, Marine Microbiology, Postdoctoral Fellowship, Seagrass Ecosystem Research, Philanthropy Officer, Senior Aquarium Biologist – Mammals and Reptiles
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GOOS Biology: Data Manager
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Restore America's Estuaries: Grant Administrator
Postdoctoral Positions:
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National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration: National Centers for Coastal Ocean Sciences, NRC Research Programs
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National Research Council: Research Associateship Programs Postdoctoral and Senior Research Awards
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The University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute: Algal Biological and Chemical Diversity
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Loyola Marymount University: Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Bioinformatics and Machine Learning
Fellowships:
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National Academies of Science, Engineering and Mathematics: Early Career Fellowships
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National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Sciences: Minorities in Aquaculture Internship Opportunity
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Department of Defense: Visualization of Coastal Data, Coastal Vulnerability Assessment Fellow
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GCOOS maintains a listing of funding opportunities. Have an opportunity you'd like to advertise? Email Laura Caldwell
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NASEM: Gulf Research Program’s Early-Career Research Fellowship
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Florida Red Tide Mitigation and Technology Development Initiative – 4th Request For Proposals
- Living Planet Fellowship
- Gulf of Mexico Alliance
- Restore Science Program
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27-1 July: United Nations Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. Lisbon. B roadcast live on UN WebTV
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GCOOS is the Gulf of Mexico regional component of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) and the only certified system dedicated solely to the Gulf of Mexico. Our mission is to provide timely, reliable, accurate and on-demand information on the open ocean and coastal ocean waters of the Gulf of Mexico to ensure a healthy, clean, productive ocean and resilient coastal zone. |
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Dr. Jorge Brenner, Executive Director • Dr. Barbara Kirkpatrick, Senior Advisor • Bill Lingsch, U.S. Glider User Group Coordinator • Dr. Chris Simoniello, Outreach & Education Coordinator • Felimon Gayanilo, Systems Architect, Co-Data Manager • Bob Currier, Research Specialist, Product Developer, Co-Data Manager • Marion Stoessel, Senior Research Associate • Jennifer Vreeland-Dawson, Research Associate • Grant Craig, Program Coordinator • Laura Caldwell, Program Assistant • Nadine Slimak, Public Relations & Content Marketing, Vetted Communications
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In Memoriam: Matt Howard, 1952-2018
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