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March 31, 2008

Highlights

  • On March 3rd, Governor Corzine submitted the nomination of Eleanor Bochenek to the Marine Fisheries Council to the State Senate. The Marine Fisheries Council is involved in managing our fish and wildlife resources, and has the power to veto marine fishery regulations proposed by the Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner.
  • Paul Falkowski was interviewed by Richard Harris of NPR, as part of its coverage of "Outlook for Oceans Bleak as Sea 'Deserts' Grow" on All Things Considered. Click here to read, or to listen click on link http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87959035
  • Peter Rona served on the National Research Council Associateship Program panel for Engineering/Applied Science/ Math March 20-21 in Washington, DC.
  • Peter Rona convened a workshop on 14 March for students and faculty at the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and IMCS on use of the Marine Geoscience Data System (http://www.marine-geo.org), a transformative system managed by the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, that links multidisciplinary seafloor databases and contains tools to assemble the data as research products.
  • Peter Rona presented an invited talk, "Illuminating Biodiversity at Seafloor Hot Springs in the Deep Ocean," at a United Nations briefing on Marine Biological Diversity Beyond Areas Under National Jurisdiction attended by national missions to the General Assembly at UN Headquarters in New York on 3 March 2008.
  • Mike Kennish (Research Professor/Research Coordinator for the JCNERR) and Scott Haag (Researcher/GIS Coordinator for the JC NERR) were quoted in an important article in the Asbury Park Press, "Barnegat Bay Watershed Plan Will Focus on Inland Locations." by Kirk Moore, March 13, 2008. This article highlights important coverage of Wednesday's Trust for Public Lands meeting held at the Jacques Cousteau Coastal Center in Tuckerton, NJ. Future land conservation plans for the Barnegat Bay will focus on stream corridors and other far inland areas. To read more, click here.
  • Eleanor Bochenek is featured in a very nice article by Kim Kavin, published in the April issue of Northeast Boating magazine. Click here to read.
  • Thirty-one men and women who devoted their time, talent and stewardship to support the mission of the JC NERR were honored at the Annual Volunteer Recognition Program on March 20, 2008. Volunteers provide support at the Coastal Center and the Rutgers University Marine Field Station.
    • The Volunteer of the Year plaque was awarded to Steve Zeck. His dedication, flexibility, and ability to complete tasks are qualities valued by researchers at JC NERR and RUMFS.
    • Volunteers who dedicated 500+ hours of volunteer service were also honored. The recipients were Rose Faiss, Mary (Betty) Graybush, Helen Zaengle and Steve Zeck.
  • Alan Robock gave an invited presentation, Climatic consequences of nuclear conflict (Nuclear Weapons ­ The Greatest Peril to Civilization, A conference to imagine our world without them; Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, February 21-22, 2008)

Meetings Attended

  • Peter Rona and Karen Bemis presented coauthored posters on their work on acoustically imaging, visualizing and quantifying seafloor hydrothermal flow at at the NSF Ridge 2000 Program, Mantle to Microbe: Integrated Studies at Oceanic Spreading Centers, meeting in Portland, Oregon 23-27 March 2008. In addition, Karen presented a paper, Comparison of particle particle dispersion patterns in models and acoustic observations.
  • Jim Miller attended the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Orlando, FL. Jim served on a team reviewing the NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami, FL.
  • Costa Vetriani participated in the Mantle to Microbe: Integrated Studies at Oceanic Spreading Centers meeting, held in Portland, OR, March 25-28, 2008, and presented a short talk entitled: Microbial colonization of post eruptive vents on the EPR at 9°N.
  • Liz Sikes and Patricia Medeiros attended the Ocean Sciences meeting in Orlando and presented the following papers:
    • Medeiros, P.M., Sikes, E.L. Changes in natural source inputs to sedimentary organic carbon along the Mullica River and estuary NJ: a multi-biomarker and stable isotope characterization. ASLO, Ocean Sci. Supp.
    • Sikes, E.L., M.A. Uhle, and S.D. Nodder Source, degradation, and fate of sedimentary organic matter in a coastal marine environment: Evidence from the Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand., ASLO, Ocean Sci. Supp.
  • John Reinfelder attended the the AGU-ASLO 2008 Ocean Sciences Meeting, March 3-7, 2008. John chaired general session, Biological Oceanography, Marine Biology and gave the presentation, Nitrogen Cost of the Diatom CO2 Concentrating Mechanism. John was also co-author of the following talks and posters:
      • Chen, R.F., Cai, W.J., Chant, R., Gardner, G.B., Huang, W., Reinfelder, J., Schofield, O., Carbon Cycling in the Hudson River Plume
      • Wright, D.D., Frazer, T.K., Moline, M., Schofield, O., Reinfelder, J.R., Trophic Transfer of Trace Metals in a Buoyant River Plume
      • Frazer, T.K., Chant, R.J., Glenn, S.M., Jacoby, C.A., Keller, S.R., Moline, M.A., Reinfelder, J.R., Schofield, O., Wright, D.D., Yost, J., Phytoplankton and Zooplankton Dynamics in a Buoyant River Plume
      • Kustka, A.B., Bidle, K.D., Reinfelder, J.R., Molecular Evidence for C4-Type C Fixation in Diatoms
      • Crespo-Medina, M., Chatziefthimiou, A., Bloom, N., Reinfelder, J., Vetriani, C., Barkay, T., Interactions of Chemosynthetic Bacteria with Mercury at Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents

New Grants

  • Arango, H. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, "Community Sediment-Transport Model." ($80,036 addnl)
  • Bidle, K. National Science Foundation, "Examination of the Autocatalytic Cell Death Machinery in Marine, Planktonic Photoautotrophs." ($43,054 addnl)
  • Chant, R. University of Delaware, "Mechanisms of Sediment Trapping & Accumulation in Newark Bay, NJ." 10/1/07-09/30/09, ($72,627)
  • Glenn, S. Office of Naval Research, "Characterizing Mesoscale Physical Oceanography on the New Jersey Shelf - NLIWI" (Non-Linear Internal Wave Initiative). 01/01/08-12/31/09, ($105,451)
  • Kerkhof, L. Department of Energy, "Structure & Function of Subsurface Microbial Communities." ($118,393 addnl)
  • Mike Kennish is the Principal Investigator of a recently awarded research grant from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to continue the study of eutrophication in New Jersey's coastal waters. The project title is: "Assessment of Eutrophication in the Barnegat Bay-Little Egg Harbor System: Use of SAV Biotic Indicators of Estuarine Condition." The award is for $51,182.
  • McDonnell, J. Geraldine Dodge Foundation, "Marine Activities Resources & Education Program (MARE) 2008." 03/01/07-10/31/08, ($55,000)
  • Sherrell, R. American Chemical Society-Petroleum Research Fund, "Development & Application of a Direct Coral Proxy for Surface Water Phosphate in the Paleo-Ocean." 02/01/08-08/31/10, ($100,000)
  • Sherrell, R. National Science Foundation, "A Coral Skeleton P/Ca Proxy for Surface Ocean Phosphate: Testing and Calibration." 02/15/08-01/31/11, ($430,947)
  • Taghon, G. and Able, K (PIs), National Science Foundation, "REU Site: Research Internships in Ocean Sciences (RIOS)." 03/01/08-02/28/09, ($93,159)
  • Wilkin, J. Office of Naval Research, "Rapid Environmental Assessment (MARCOOS) Using an Integrated Coastal Ocean Observation System." 08/01/06-04/30/09

Publications

  • Bellenger, J.P., Wichard, T., Kustka, A.B., Kraepiel, A.M.L. 2008. Uptake of molybdenum and vanadium by a nitrogen-fixing soil bacterium using siderophores. Nature Geoscience 1, 243 - 246
  • Bidle, K.D. and S.J. Bender. Iron starvation and culture age activate metacaspases and programmed cell death in the marine diatom, Thalassiosira pseudonana. Eukaryotic Cell 7(2): 223-236
  • Dighton, J., Tugay, T., Zhdanova, N. 2008. Fungil and ionizing radiation from radionuclides. FEMS Microbiology Letters. DOI:10.1111/j.1574-6968.2008.01076.x
  • LaVigne, M., M.P. Field, E. Anagnostou, A.G. Grottoli, G.M. Wellington, and R.M. Sherrell (2008). Skeletal P/Ca tracks upwelling in Gulf of Panamá coral: Evidence for a new seawater phosphate proxy, Geophysical Research Letters, 35, L05604, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2007GL031926 6 March 2008
  • Rhine, E.D., Onesios, K.M., Serfes, M.E. Reinfelder, J.R., and Young, L.Y. Arsenic Transformation and Mobilization from Minerals by the Arsenite Oxidizing Strain WAO. Environ. Sci. Technol., 42 (5), 1423­1429, 2008. 10.1021/es071859k Web Release Date: February 1, 2008.
  • Robock, A., 2008: Twenty reasons why geoengineering may be a bad idea. Bull. Atomic Scientists, in press.

Student News

  • Katye Altieri (Ph.D. candidate) was selected to receive an Outstanding Student Talk Award for her presentation at the recent ASLO/TOS/AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting in Orlando, FL (3-7 May). This is quite an achievement- these awards were reserved for the top 6% of student presentations (15 out of 268 eligible student talks) as determined by session chairs.
  • Sindia Sosdian was awarded one of five Felllowships from the American Australian Association for advanced research at a top Australian university. Sindia's research interest is climatology, concentrating on paleo-climatology, paleo-oceanography and oceanography. As a Sir Keith Murdoch Fellow, Sindia will be based at the Australian National University, Canberra, and her research will investigate the "fundamental controls on Australian rainfall by reconstructing changes in sea surface temperatures and rainfall across the last 7,000 years."
  • Michele LaVigne's paper, "Skeletal P/Ca tracks upwelling in Gulf of Panamá coral: Evidence for a new seawater phosphate proxy," was published in Geophysical Research Letters and featured in the "Editor's Choice" section of Science magazine. Co-authors are Eleni Anagnostou and Paul Field of the Sherrell lab.
  • Melitza Crespo-Medina won the Ocean Sciences Award of Recognition at the Ocean Sciences meeting held in Orlando, FL, on March 2-7, 2008. She presented a poster entitled: Microbe-Mercury Interactions at Deep-sea Hydrothermal Vents from the East Pacific Rise at 9ºN, which was co-authored by Costantino Vetriani, Tamar Barkay, John Reinfelder, et al.