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June 30, 2003

Highlights

  • From the Consortium on Ocean Research and Education (CORE) Newsletter: "CNSF CAPITOL HILL RECEPTION: Last week CORE joined twenty-six academic institutions and organizations at the Coalition of National Science Funding’s (CNSF) Annual Exhibition on Capitol Hill. The CORE booth highlighted NSF’s Oceans Observatories Initiative and included participation by Rutgers University’s Dr. Scott Glenn, who discussed the LEO-15 observatory with lawmakers and staff. The OOI will provide the initial basic infrastructure needed to implement an integrated system of ocean observatories that addresses the ocean science research community's growing need for sustained time-series measurements. Dr. Glenn highlighted the LEO-15 project and the coastal component of the OOI."
  • John Reinfelder received a "Certificate of Leadership Excellence" from the Cook College Student Life Program for being a faculty floor mentor, May 5, 2003.
  • Ken Able and the Marine Field Station/Tuckerton will host a visiting postdoc from Portugal. Dr. Susana Franca is with FLAD (Luso-American Foundation), and she'll be observing our tag-recapture techniques, primarily with Fundulus. Dr. Franca arrives in early July, and will stay through August.
  • Ken Able, Mike Fahay (NOAA/NMFS/Sandy Hook), Bob Cowen and Mark Sullivan (both with Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami) had their first of two ROV cruises on the R/V Connecticut on June 26-July 8. They are studying the effects of mobile trawling gear on the nursery and tilefish habitats associated with the shelf edge of the New York Bight. A second cruise will follow in early September.
  • Katja Fennel served on the DOE Carbon Cycle Review Panel, June 17-18, Washington D.C.
  • Prof. Alan Robock has been invited to serve on the Advisory Council for the Consortium for Atlantic Regional Assessment (CARA) at Penn State University, an EPA-sponsored project to examine the impacts of future climate change on the Atlantic Coastal region, including New Jersey.

Meetings Attended

  • Sybil Seitzinger attended an IGBP Congress Meeting in Banff, Canada.
  • Prof. Alan Robock gave an invited presentation on “Global Warming,” at the Special Libraries Association 2003 Annual Meeting, New York City, June 11, 2003. He also gave an invited presentation on “Impacts of Volcanic Eruptions on Climate,” at the NASA/UMBC Graduate Student Summer Program, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, June 13, 2003.
  • From the Consortium on Ocean Research and Education (CORE) Newsletter: "With Larry Madin of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Fred Grassle co-chaired the working group on "The Unknown Ocean" at the Defying Ocean's End conference organized by Conservation International. Also in June, he chaired the Census of Marine Life Scientific Steering Committee Meeting at the Southampton Oceanography Centre in England."
  • Qizhong (George) Guo attended ASCE-EWRI's World Water Resources and Environmental Congress in Philadelphia from June 22 to 26, 2003. Two papers were presented at the Congress. They are titled "Integrated Point and Nonpoint Source Modeling of Fecal Coliform in Whippany Watershed, New Jersey" and "Drainage Evaluations of a Proposed Stormwater Detention Basin Retrofit," respectively. George was also nominated and accepted as a member of Urban Water Resources Research Council at a pre-Congress meeting.
  • Garcia-Dominguez, E. and L.Y. Young. 2003. Arsenic methylation by sulfate reducing bacteria. Presentation and abstract for the Annual Mtg Am. Soc. Microbiol. Washington DC, May 2003.
  • Perez-Jimenez J.R., L.Y. Young, and L.J. Kerkhof. 2003. Dissimilatory sulfite reductase genes (dsrAB) disclose the composition of sulfidogenic communities in contaminated sediments worldwide. Presentation and abstract for the Annual Mtg Am. Soc. Microbiol. Washington DC, May 2003.
  • Scala, D.J., E. Kondracki and L.Y. Young. 2003. Effects of nitrogen source and bacterial competition on the growth rate of PAH-degrading bacteria. Presentation and abstract for the Annual Mtg Am. Soc. Microbiol. Washington DC, May 2003.
  • Sybil Seitzinger attended the Steering Committee meeting of the International Nitrogen Initiative (INI) in The Hague, Netherlands, May 11-13. This initiative seeks to bring together the international science and policy community regarding environmental and human health issues related to N. The INI is co-sponsored by SCOPE and IGBP.
  • Sybil Seitzinger attended a meeting of the BioGeoSciences workgroup at NSF on 22-24 May.
  • Dr. Lisa Totten co-chaired with Dr. Reinfelder a one-day workshop on the New Jersey Atmospheric Deposition Network at Rutgers on May 5, 2003.
  • Shirinian-Orlando, A., H. Birckhead, F. Minch, and C.G. Uchrin. "A New Approach of Estimating Hydrograph Parameters of a Low-Relief Coastal Watershed Drainage Basin," presented at the AWRA Mid-Atlantic Annual Region Conference, Philadelphia, May 2003.
  • Uchrin,C.G., J. Cardoni, W. Spronz, S. Tsay, H. Birckhead, C. McGee, and V. DeVasto. "Modeling Rainfall Induced Stormwater Runoff and Pollution in the Upper Maurice River Basin," presented at the AWRA Mid-Atlantic Annual Region Conference, Philadelphia, May 2003.
  • Callaghan, A.V., L.M. Geig, K.G. Kropp, J.M. Suflita, and L.Y. Young. 2003. Fumarate addition during hexadecane degradation by the sulfate-reducer AK-01. Presentation and abstract for the Annual Mtg Am. Soc. Microbiol. Washington DC, May 2003.
  • Liu, A., E., Garcia-Dominguez, E.D. Rhine, and L.Y. Young. 2003. Arsenite oxidation by chemolithotrophic bacterial isolated from sediment and soil. Presentation and abstract for the Annual Mtg Am. Soc. Microbiol. Washington DC, May 2003.
  • Rhine, E.D., E Garcia-Dominguez, and L.Y. Young. 2003. Characterization of new arsenic oxidizing or reducing isolates. Presentation and abstract for the Annual Mtg Am. Soc. Microbiol. Washington DC, May 2003.
  • T. Cardona and J. R. Reinfelder "Mercury Cycling in the Delaware River Estuary," 88th New Jersey Water Environment Association Meeting, Atlantic City, New Jersey, May 7, 2003.

New Grants

  • Sybil Seitzinger and Eric Davidson have been awarded an NSF grant for support of a workshop on denitrification in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems.
  • Emissions and Atmospheric Transport of PCBs and Hg From Stabilized Harbor Sediments. L.A. Totten is co-PI with J.R. Reinfelder and G. Stenchikov (Rutgers), and George Korfiatis and Richard Hires (Center for Env. Eng., Stevens Inst. of Technol). Source: New Jersey Marine Sciences Consortium and New Jersey Dept. of Transportation, Office of Maritime Resources. Amount: $353,268. Period: 1/1/03 - 12/31/04.
  • Prof. Alan Robock (PI) and Prof. Georgiy Stenchikov (co-PI) have received a four-year, $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation entitled “Collaborative Research on the Climatic Effects of the 1783-1784 Laki Volcanic Eruption,” August 1, 2003 ­ July 31, 2007. Part of the grant will go to their collaborator, Thorvaldor Thordarson at the University of Hawaii, and $481,789 of the grant will come to Rutgers. It will fund this team and a graduate student to conduct climate model simulations and observational analysis of an Icelandic eruption that resulted in record warm summer temperatures in Europe in 1783 and record cold winters in the Northern Hemisphere for the next two years. If the same eruption occurred today, air traffic in the Northern Hemisphere would be shut down for six months.
  • Prof. Robock and graduate student Chaochao Gao will produce an improved record of past climatically-significant volcanism using newly available ice core records. They will then use this record to simulate climate change of the past 1000 years with the state of the art global climate model of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, to better understand the natural and anthropogenic causes of climate change. NOAA Office of Global Programs, Volcanic Forcing of Climate over the Past 2000 Years An Improved Ice-Core-Based Index for Climate Models, August 1, 2003 - July 31, 2006, $299,336.
  • Increment to New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, "Impacts of Climate Change on New Jersey Water Resources," Contract SR-02-082, June 1, 2002 - December 31, 2003, $40,000. Profs. Robock and Georgiy Stenchikov and postdoc Dr. Gonzalo Miguez-Macho will use detailed, physically-consistent scenarios of future climate change to examine the impacts on water resources in New Jersey.

Publications

  • The Marine Field Station will have six articles in the next issue of Estuaries, which all resulted from a Phragmites australis Forum, January 2002, Cumberland County College.
    1. Able, K.W., S.M. Hagan and S.A. Brown. 2003. Mechanisms of marsh habitat alteration due to Phragmites Response of young-of-the-year mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus) to treatment for Phragmites removal. Estuaries May 22, 2003 26(2B):485-495.
    2. Currin, C.A., S.C. Wainright, K.W. Able, M.P. Weinstein and C.M. Fuller. 2003. Determination of food web support and trophic position of the mummichog Fundulus heteroclitus, in New Jersey smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora), common reed (Phragmites australis) and restored salt marshes. Estuaries 26(2B):496-511.
    3. Grothues, T.M. and K.W. Able. 2003. Response of juvenile fish assemblages in tidal salt marsh creeks treated for Phragmites removal. Estuaries 26(2B):564-574.
    4. Grothues, T.M. and K.W. Able. 2003. Discerning vegetation and environmental correlates with subtidal marsh fish assemblage dynamics during Phragmites eradication efforts: interannual trend measures. Estuaries 26(2B):575-587.
    5. Jivoff, P.R. and K.W. Able. 2003. Blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, response to the invasive common reed, Phragmites australis: Abundance, size, sex ratio and molting frequency. Estuaries. 26(2B):588-596.
    6. Raichel, D.L., K.W. Able, and J.M. Hartman. 2003. The influence of Phragmites (common reed) on the distribution, abundance and potential prey of a resident marsh fish in the Hackensack Meadowlands, New Jersey. Estuaries 26(2B):512-522.
  • Ziniu Yu and Ximing Guo published a genetic map for the eastern oyster, the first for a mollusc. Yu, Z. and X. Guo. 2003. Genetic linkage map of the eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica Gmelin. Biol. Bull. 204:327-338.

Student News

  • Ashley Brown, a current IMCS summer intern in Jim Ammerman's lab, has been named a Rutgers Undergraduate Research Fellow for 2003-2004. Ashley will be a sophomore in the fall and plans to major in Marine Science. As part of her research project she will participate in three cruises in the Gulf of Mexico in 2004, working with graduate student Jason Sylvan to explore the molecular mechanisms of phosphorus assimilation in marine microbes.
  • Megan Linkin, who will be a Senior Meteorology major in the Fall, has been awarded a $2,000 Scholarship by the Center for Environmental Prediction to support her work as a George H. Cook Scholar in her senior year. Megan's project is entitled, "Effects of El Nio and Volcanic Eruptions on North American Climate" and she will be working with Prof. Alan Robock.
  • Graduate student Chaochao Gao has been awarded a scholarship for full expenses to attend the Gordon Research Conference on "Solar Radiation and Climate," which will be held July 13-18, 2003, at Colby Sawyer College in New London, New Hampshire. Prof. Robock will also give an invited talk at this conference.
  • Luke Oman, M.S. and Lifeng Luo, Ph.D. (Alan Robock, advisor) received graduate degrees at the May, 2003 commencement.

Congratulations

  • Our congratulations to Yair Rosenthal on his promotion to Associate Professor with tenure, and to Alan Robock on his promotion to Professor II.