The University of South Florida, Eckerd College, Florida Institute of Oceanography, Hamburg University of Technology, Mote Marine Laboratory, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Pennsylvania State University, Texas A&M University, University of Calgary, University of Miami, University of South Alabama, University of West Florida, Wageningen University

July 2014 Newsletter
In This Issue
Contact Us
Adminstrative
Students
Education and Outreach
GoMRI
Related News
Quick Links


On the Web:



Contact List

 

  Director

Steven Murawski

 

Chief Scientist

David Hollander

 

Center Coordinator

Sherryl Gilbert

 

Cruise Coordinator

Nancy Thompson

 

Data Manager

Todd Chavez

 

Education and Outreach

Teresa Greely

Liesl Hotaling

Hello C-IMAGE Members,

Happy 4th of July from your C-IMAGE Team!

colorful-fireworks.jpg
Administrative .....

 

Conference Calls

 

Steve Murawski and the C-IMAGE Leadership spoke with the full consortium on June 11th and gave an update on the RFP-4 process. We also discussed planned summer field work, Teacher-at-Sea opportunities, GoMRI 2015 meeting session proposals, and C-IMAGE wrap up. Notes from all of our calls can be found on the password protected area of our website.

 

Our next call will be the third week of July 2014 and will focus on Task 1, Near and Far Field Modeling.  Please visit the doodle poll and indicate a time:  

 

http://doodle.com/agsvk4vqyk4whsny 

 

Note - the first poll that was sent around had the incorrect week. Even if you have already responded, please do again.

 

Quarterly reports are due on Tuesday July 15.  Please be thorough in your reporting.

Highlight on Students/Post-docs

 

This is the place in the newsletter where we summarize the last month or so of research efforts, but we have SO many amazing students doing fantastic things, we want to cover some of them here.

 

GoMRI Scholars Program

 

The GoMRI Scholars Program aims to recognize the graduate students whose vital research contribute to improve understanding about the damage, response, and recovery following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  Two students per consortium were selected for this first round of the program.  
 
Their interview centered around how they began their research and what they think about being a part of the  GoMRI community.  
Susan Snyder with a tilefish
Kait Frasier looking at deployment locations
 
For C-IMAGE, Susan Snyder and Kait Frasier were selected. Susan is a MS student of Steven Murawski's out of the University of South Florida, and Kait is a PhD student of John Hildebrand's out of Scripps. 
 
Susan Snyder's interview is now up on the GoMRI site. See it here!  We will pass along Kait's when it's up.

 

Smithsonian Ocean Portal (from the GoMRI Announcement)

  

The Smithsonian Ocean Portal posted a guest blog by Patrick Schwing about GoMRI-funded research. Schwing is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of South Florida, College of Marine Science, and member of the C-IMAGE and Deep-C consortia.

  

His blog explains the importance of forams - tiny single-cell organisms that live in environments with little oxygen - in understanding impacts from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Schwing is using his research to learn about human impacts on coastal and marine sedimentary depositional environments.


 

The Smithsonian blog begins: "You are not alone if you don't know what forams (short for foraminifera) are, so let's start with the basics."  Read the entire Ocean Portal blog.

 

  

Student of the Month, Kristen Dahl
 
During our last call, we mentioned our new Student of the Month initiative.  By taking advantage of an interdisciplinary program like C-IMAGE we can build the next generation of scientists and help them build capacity.  The first  step is to become informed about what they're studying.  
Kristen Dahl is a PhD student working on the ecology of invasive lionfish in the northern Gulf.  She is a student of Will Patterson's out of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab at the University of South Alabama.
She was asked two questions about her research and her daily activities.
     
Read about her answers at our Student of the Month blog!
 
If you want to be the subject of next month's blog, just drop me a line.
 
 
Kristina Deak, a Guy Harvey Scholar
 
 
Florida SeaGrant has implemented a "Friday Interview Series" with the 2014 Guy Harvey Scholars.  What are the marine scientists of tomorrow doing?  See the full interview with our very own Kristina Deak from the University of South Florida and Mote Marine Laboratory.
Publications

 

Two C-IMAGE publications released this month were featured on the GoMRI website. 

The first is a study that points to clams as a possible oil indicator species in higher energy environments of the Gulf of Mexico.

 

 
The second is a study on skin lesions and PAH concentrations in Gulf fishes following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  Results indicate skin lesions are highly correlated with oil exposure and not to other variables. Researchers also point out time series of PAH concentrations in fish indicate an episodic spike in exposure and a subsequent decrease.

 

For more publication links, please  visit our website.  If we're missing any, please contact us.

Education and Outreach.....

 

Teacher At Sea

If you have plans to be out in the field during the summer of 2014, please consider hosting a Teacher At Sea.  This is a wonderful opportunity to get teachers engaged in the scientific process and provides them with fun experiences and lesson plans they can use in the classroom for their students.  The experience does not have to be multi-day, but can also include day trips to neighboring estuaries and beaches.  For more information, please contact our Education coordinator, Dr. Teresa Greely.

From GoMRI....  
 
The Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science Conference, 2015
It's never too early to look ahead.  Next year's conference will be February 16-19, 2015 in Houston, Texas.

 

GoMRI Webinars

 

The two GoMRI research webinars are now posted and available online.

 

Dr. Joe Katz, DROPPS: Effects of Dispersants on the Dynamics of Crude Oil Droplets

Dr. Jeff Chanton, ECOGIG and Deep-C: Tracers in the Gulf

 You can access both via this link: http://gulfresearchinitiative.org/gomri-webinar-user-agreement-form/

 

Please note that these webinars are designed to designed to inform GoMRI researchers of the various research efforts taking place within the GoMRI community. Please do share this information with your GoMRI colleagues but please do not distribute this information outside of the GoMRI network. 

 

The next webinar will be presented by our own Steven Murawski and Will Patterson tentatively scheduled for Wednesday August 6th.  Details will be passed along as they become available.

 

QA/QC Analytical Chemistry Exercise

 

The deadline to respond indicating your willingness to participate has passed, but here is the information on the exercise and some background material for your information.

 

On January 26, 2014, the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) convened a Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QAQC) for Petroleum Compounds workshop, attended by experts in various subfields of oceanography and chemistry. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the current state of knowledge with regard to hydrocarbon chemical analysis, with the goal of elucidating best principles for assessing and confirming quality hydrocarbon analysis data as well as ways to improve current methodologies. A summary, the presentations and relevant articles discussed at the meeting can be found at : 
 
 

As a result of this workshop, and in cooperation with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, GoMRI has launched the Hydrocarbon Intercalibration Experiment (HIE) to address the need for advancing the importance of laboratory QAQC practices and for interlaboratory comparison and calibration.   

General....
 
Various opportunities for students and researchers are posted to our website under the "Opportunities" tab.  Most recently, a fellowship announcement from the National Academy of Sciences is advertised, the Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellowship Program.  Visit the site for more information.
 
Related, our website is going through various stages of updating. Please pass along any content of interest.
Sincerely,

Your C-IMAGE Administrative Team