Conference Calls:

We took a bit of a breather from our conference calls for January and February but we're picking up where we left off.  Our first call of 2014 will be on March 20, 1:30-2:30pm EDT.  Cameron Ainsworth, John Walsh and Jason Lenes will give updates on our Task 6 Ecosystem Modeling efforts.  We'll also update you on the RFP-4 process.

As always, please use this time to connect to all of the other C-IMAGE partners if you have something you would like to discuss. 

Past calls:

Tuesday October 1, 2013, 11:00am EDT 

Task 4 Update: Impacts on Benthic Ecosystem, Plankton and Fish Communities, and Marine Mammals

Thursday November 14, 2013: RFP-4

After reviewing all of the submitted one-pagers, Steve gave a fantastic overview of our vision for our next round of potential funding and outlined key science objectives.

Tuesday December 3, 2013, 11:00am EST

Task 5 Update: Ecotoxicology

Tuesday January 7, 2014, 11:00am EST

Oil Spill Meeting/All Hands Meeting Discussions

Contracts: 

GoMRI approved our continuation onto Year 3 in November, 2013 and we've executed all but one subagreement amendment for Year 3 funding.  

4-Page Summary Objective, RFP-4: 

C-IMAGE leadership requested a 4-page summary of proposed research objectives for each Task. This document should be written by your Task Lead and submitted to Sherryl and Steve by March 17, 2014. Steve, David and Sherryl will then synthesize the drafts into a clear vision of our goals for the consortium. When drafting this, include:

1) Research Objectives: scientific questions, expected milestones, ultimate goals, timelines, combination of state-of-the-art research approaches with deep scientific knowledge of the Gulf of Mexico to create fundamental advances in understanding the interactions that occurred and continue to occur between the marine ecosystem, oil, and dispersants. 

2) Approach: innovation and best practices, key personnel, # of post docs and students (template forthcoming).  Provide sufficient detail to allow assessment of the scientific merit of the proposal.

Please visit GoMRI's website for details on the RFP-4.

Conflict of Interest Forms:

If you have researchers and post docs new to the C-IMAGE program, please notify Sherryl know so she can add them to the participant list.  They also need to fill out a Conflict of Interest form to be in compliance with the Master Research Agreement.

Your Year 3 Quarter 1 report is due Tuesday, April 15, 2014.

Please make an effort to be thorough with your reporting.  We want to make sure the Research Board has a complete picture of our activities, especially your publication list.  You will receive the latest GoMRI template shortly.

Laboratory:  

Modifications of the high pressure lab at TUHH include software to semi-automate the rise velocity measurement of methane bubbles in seawater under pressure, the installation of an endoscopic camera that determines the particle size distributions inside the jet (SOPAT) and modifying the module for test crude oil jets in addition to methane and methane hydrates. Initial particle side distributions in the single phase methane jet (mean particle size 350 um) and single phase oil jet (mean particle size 147 um) are completed. Single oil jet experiments are completed with diesel oil, light crude, and a low emulsification oil. Other types of oil and multiphase jet experiments are next. To foster communications between the experimental and modeling groups, we initiated a student exchange opportunity between TAMU and TUHH. A model sensitivity analysis was performed to show how particle size distributions impact the first peeling height. Publications are in progress.

High pressure biodegradation experiments were performed with deep sediments taken from the GoM by our Penn State and West Florida partners. The strains of bacteria that are present and actively degrading methane are highly dependent on pressure. In particular, experiments in high pressure reactors and low pressure control reactors showed a negative impact of high pressure on the growth of a naphthalene degrading bacterium. When biodegradation rates are incorporated into the far-field model, the model results show better agreement with field data (Lindo et al. 2014). Experimental design and source and surrogate oil characterizations are complete for calculating partitioning coefficients in dead source oil. These results will be incorporated into near field modeling efforts.

Publications:

Lindo-Atichati, D., Paris, C. B., Le Henaff, M., Schedler, M., Valladares-Juarez, A. G., Muller, R. Simulating the effects of droplet size, high pressure biodegradation, and variable flow rate on the subsea evolution of deep plumes from the Macondo blowout, Deep Sea Research, Special Issue "The Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem: Before During, and After the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill", in press 

Field:

Much of the last couple of months has been devoted to analyzing the large number of water, sediment, and fish samples collected during the busy 2013 field season. Some highlights so far...

Acoustic and camera-based datasets have also been collected to study deep diving cetacean responses to natural and anthropogenic forces and to determine shifts in community structure in reef fish. Sperm whales populations correlate positively with sea surface temperature, sea surface height anomalies, and wind, and negatively with oil. (Merkens, 2013, PhD Dissertation)

Garcia-Pineda et al. (2013) show that Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) may not only be used to detect oil on the surface, but also to identify regions of thick emulsified surface oil.

Our Ecosystem Modeling group with help from colleagues at Mote Marine Laboratory and Masdar Institute of Science and Technology show the value of using gliders, satellites, and field measurements together to study 3-d structures in the ocean and use a Karenia brevis bloom as an example.

Our latest count is "34 in preparation".

Student Abroad Program:

Saman Hosseini, a recent graduate from the Hamburg University of Technology, spent a couple of months here in the US at the University of South Florida helping out with our November 2013 cruise in the Gulf and then he was off to Texas A&M University to perform a sensitivity analysis on the near-field model in Scott Socolofsky's lab.  During his stay, Sam produced an informative C-IMAGE highlight video (subtitled in German) to show at the Night of Science Festival in Hamburg, Germany on November 2, 2013.

Sam also participated on one of our camera technology expeditions on the Weatherbird II and kept a blog while at sea. While seasickness kept him a bit quiet, he managed to give Steve Murawski's graduate student, Sarah Grasty, a hand near the end.

Another student from the Hamburg University of Technology, Lennard Anderson, is at the University of Hawaii working with GISR's Steven Masutani to develop a mass transfer module that will improve high pressure modeling efforts. We hope to foster more of these student exchanges as opportunities come up! 

St. Pete Science Festival: 

Many C-IMAGE scientists and students came out to participate in the 3rd Annual St. Petersburg Science Festival.  Over 20,000 science citizens came out to enjoy a perfect St. Pete Saturday while learning a few things about the world around them. 

C-IMAGE students Susan Snyder, Emily Chancellor and Sarah Grasty teach a young generation about fish anatomy while having fun.

A sample of our artwork collection!

Podcasts: Mind Open Media released two C-IMAGE podcasts!

Fitting the Gulf of Mexico Inside a Computer: How to build an ecosystem model

Our modeling podcast was picked up and streamed on PRI's Living on Earth. GoMRI's Maggie Dannreuther offered a collection of all of our podcasts on GoMRI's site.

Our next podcast is in production and should be released any moment!

SENSE IT:

MOSSFA:

The first Marine Oil Snow Sedimentation and Flocculent Accumulation (MOSSFA) workshop was hosted at Florida State University, COAPS October 22-24, 2013. Attendees include scientists from 5 GoMRI centers, federal agencies, and private industry. The workshop report is ready for download.

The MOSSFA panel also hosted a Town Hall Meeting at the GoMRI Conference on Tuesday January 28th that was also well attended.

Blue Ocean Film Festival & Conservation Event: