Month: November 2024

Seminar – Ocean Observatories: Open Access to the Open Ocean

Katherine Duncan
Dr. Michael (Mike) Vardaro  | UW OOI
Presenting: "Ocean Observatories: Open Access to the Open Ocean"
Hosted by the MLML Invertebrate Ecology Lab

MLML Seminar | November 19th, 2024 at 4pm (PDT)

Watch the Live Stream here or here

Ocean Observatories: Open Access to the Open Ocean

Building on the legacy of ship-based oceanographic expeditions, recent technological progress has begun to transform many approaches to ocean research – a shift from expeditionary science to a permanent presence in the ocean. New developments in sensor design, computational speed, communications bandwidth, miniaturization, genomic analyses, high-definition imaging, robotics, and data assimilation, modeling, and visualization techniques continue to open new possibilities for remote scientific inquiry and discovery. One example of this approach is the National Science Foundation-funded Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), an integrated infrastructure program composed of science-driven platforms and sensor systems that measure physical, chemical, geological, and biological properties and processes from the sub-seafloor to the air-sea interface. The project is delivering real-time and near real-time open-access data within an expandable architecture that can incorporate emerging technical advances in ocean science over its 25-year-plus lifespan. The OOI network was designed to address specific science questions that will lead to a better understanding of our oceans, enhancing our capabilities to address critical issues such as climate change, ecosystem variability, ocean acidification, and carbon cycling.

 

Dr. Mike Vardaro

Research Scientist, University of Washington

Mike has worked with the NSF Ocean Observatories Initiative since 2011; as a Project Scientist at Oregon State University focusing on designing, testing, and deploying the Endurance Array off the coast of Oregon and Washington; as the OOI Data Manager at Rutgers University, working with the Cyberinfrastructure (CI) team to monitor and evaluate quality-controlled data streams for the OOI user community; and currently as a Research Scientist at the University of Washington on the Regional Cabled Array, which streams real-time data to shore from a network of 150 diverse instruments that span the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate. He has also been a marine science lecturer at San Jose State University since 2020. Prior to working with the OOI, he designed and deployed photographic and oceanographic instrumentation in the Gulf of Mexico (while earning a Master's in Oceanography at Texas A&M), Northeastern Pacific (as a Ph.D. project at Scripps Institution of Oceanography), and Southeastern Atlantic oceans (MBARI postdoc) to study the links between surface productivity, carbon flux, and deep benthic invertebrate populations, and how such systems change over time.

Thesis Defense by Randi Barton – November 15th

Katherine Duncan

 

"Population genetic analysis informs dispersal capacity in representative marine trematodes"

A Thesis Defense by Randi Barton

MLML Invertebrate Ecology

Live-Stream | November 15th, 2024 at 3:00 pm PST

Abstract

In marine and terrestrial systems, life history drives the distribution of organisms and informs the spatial scale of population connectivity. Nearly all bony reef fishes and invertebrates have a bipartite life cycle with a planktonic larval stage, which increases the organism’s dispersal capacity, and concludes with a relatively non-dispersive adult phase. While many studies have identified the relevant spatial scale for studying population structure in fishes and invertebrates, few have done the same for parasitic taxa, which have even more complex life histories with a higher diversity in the range of dispersal strategies they use. Parasite taxa differ in (1) life cycle complexity, (2) host specificity, and (3) the types of hosts they can infect. All variables are likely to have both independent and synergistic effects on dispersal capacity. This research investigates dispersal capacity using population genetics in two complex life cycle parasites- marine trematodes from Family Microscaphidiidae and Family Paramphistomatidae. We examined the population structure of adult microscaphidiids across the Northern Line Islands and found significant, high genetic structure, suggesting low gene flow. We also examined the population structure of adult and larval paramphistomes across the islands of French Polynesia, and found evidence of cryptic species. Overall, this study supports the idea that parasite life history contributes to their dispersal capacity, and highlights current issues associated with parasite genetic research such as the lack of biodiversity knowledge and the need for more studies on wild populations of parasites in natural systems.

 

Bio

I graduated from CSU, Monterey Bay in 2020 with my B.S. in Biology. During my undergraduate I became interested in population genetics, and began working with Dr. Alison Haupt on a project to better understand marine parasite dispersal using population genetics. This project evolved into my master’s thesis work at MLML, where I am co-advised by Dr. Alison Haupt and Dr. Amanda Kahn. In 2022, I began working at Granite Canyon Marine Pollution Studies Laboratory as a Lab Assistant alongside my studies. Now, I am a Staff Research Associate and oversee lab operations and lead field collections of sediment for a statewide monitoring program. After I graduate from MLML, I hope to incorporate my molecular experience into the toxicology work conducted at Granite Canyon, to enhance our understanding of how pollutants are affecting biological systems in both freshwater and marine ecosystems. Outside of school and work, I love being outside and doing activities such as hiking, backpacking, and tidepooling. I also love a good nap with my two cats.

Seminar – Shorelines from Space: Measuring California’s Coastal Changes with Satellite Imagery

Amadeo Scott
Dr. Jon Warrick  | USGS
Presenting: "Shorelines from Space: Measuring California’s Coastal Changes with Satellite Imagery."
Hosted by the MLML Geological Oceanography Lab

MLML Seminar | November 12th, 2024 at 4pm (PDT)

Watch the Live Stream here or here

Shorelines from Space: Measuring California’s Coastal Changes with Satellite Imagery

Dr. Jon Warrick

Research Geologist at USGS

Jonathan Warrick PhD is a Research Geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Santa Cruz, California. His research focuses on coastal change and the movement of sediment from rivers to the sea. Jon has led efforts to characterize the outcomes of the massive dam removal project on the Elwha River of Washington in collaboration with the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, federal agencies, and several universities. Recently, Dr. Warrick has led the USGS Remote Sensing Coastal Change project, which has collected and interpreted remote sensing data to better understand changes to U.S. coasts from wildfires, floods, landslides, hurricanes, and other storm events. Jon received a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2002 and has authored or co-authored over 90 peer-reviewed science articles, reports, and book chapters. Dr. Warrick and his work has been featured in multiple media outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, KQED Forum, Outside Magazine, and the nationally broadcast CBS Evening News, and he was recently featured in the short video entitled "Science of Surfing," developed by the USGS and available on YouTube.