NASA has awarded Dr. Renato Castelao and collaborator Ruoying He of North Carolina State Univeristy $775K to use underwater robots called gliders and satellite imagery to investigate the role of Gulf Stream eddies on the exchange of water between the coastal ocean off Georgia and the deep ocean. The water exchange is thought to provide an important food source for a succession of organisms, helping sustain biological production off the Georgia coast.  The field efforts will occur during summer 2014 and 2015.  Dr. Castelao is featured on UGA Today which gives more information on this research project.

Dr. Aron Stubbins (Skidaway Institute of Oceanography and adjunct in the UGA Dept. of Marine Sciences) is a co-author of “Global Charcoal Mobilization from Soils via Dissolution and Riverine Transport to the Oceans,” published in the journal Science on April 19, 2013.  The study concludes that black carbon, formed from the burning of biomass and fossil fuels, may account for as much as 10% of the carbon transported by rivers into the ocean, and may influence local and global climate. Details can be found at: www.skio.usg.edu/?p=research/chem/biogeochem/blkcarbon

Women in (Marine) Science

Marine Sciences faculty members Patricia Yager and Samantha Joye participated in a UGA forum on women in science, organized as a Women's History Month activity. They discussed the positive impacts of female role models as well as challenges for personal lives. Athens Banner-Herald Article link: http://onlineathens.com/uga/2013-03-20/women-scientists-discuss-careers-uga-panel

Graduate student Linquan Mu won a best poster award at the Gordon Research Conference on Polar Marine Sciences (Ventura, California; March 10-15) for his poster titled ""Spatial Variability of sea surface pCO2 in the Amundsen Polynya". Congratulations Lin!

Congratulations to Dr. Patricia Yager who is featured as UGA's Focus on Faculty.  Her research has taken her to the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans and to the Amazon River plume in the tropical Atlantic Ocean to understand how climate change will impact these important ecosystems. She is also the Director of the Georgia Initiative for Climate & Society which brings together a scientific community to study climate variability and change.

Ph.D. candidate Carrie Givens successfully defended her dissertation entitled " A Fish Tale:  Comparison of the Gut Microbiome of 15 Fish Species and the Influence of Diet and Temperature on its Composition" this fall under the direction of Dr. Hollibaugh.  Carrie was awarded a John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship and leaves Athens in February to work with the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Washington DC.

The Georgia Coastal Ecosystems Long Term Ecological Research project directed by Dr. Merryl Alber, has been awarded a $5.8 million grant from the NSF to continue studying the long-term effects of climate change, sea level rise and human alterations of the landscape on ecosystems found in the marshes, estuaries, sounds and coastal waters surrounding Sapelo Island, GA.  The project originally started in 2000 and this second renewal adds another 6 years to extend the long term data on plant and animal populations, water chemistry, carbon cycling and many other parameters to 2018.  The project consists of more than 30 UGA researchers along with scientists from 14 academic institutions and agencies who study environmental change over the long term and participate in education outreach to train K-12 educators in research activities that can then be used in the classroom.

Patricia Dunleavy, together with Dr. Samantha Joye's research program, developed an educational exhibit about Life in Extreme Deep Sea Environments and how these unique habitats are explored. The exhibit is on display in the Miller Learning Center through Fall semester 2012.

Five researchers from Dr. Samantha Joye's research group are participating in a 6-week research expedition to the Gulf of Mexico on board the R/V Endeavor. The photo shows (L to R) Joy Battles, MSc student, Johanna Schweers, PhD student (Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research, GEOMAR, Keil Germany), Melitza Crespo-Medina, post doctoral associate, and Ryan Sibert, PhD student; Virginia Fleer, PhD student, is not shown. The researchers are characterizing the biogeochemistry and microbiology of hydrocarbon-influenced and control sites, with a particular emphasis on documenting impacts and ecosystem recovery from the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This research is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative's ECOGIG (Ecological Impacts of Oil and Gas Inputs to the Gulf) program.