Seminars

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Abstract:

Due to the public health risks of wastewater contamination of coastal waters worldwide, there is a need for rapid tracking of sewage-laden flows. Fluorescence-based submersible sensors have been used for monitoring organic contaminants in natural waters; however, their potential to serve as a real-time warning of high bacteria concentrations and wastewater pollution under estuarine conditions with tidal influence remains to be evaluated. The Tijuana River Estuary has been plagued by decades of cross-border sewage flow that poses major public health risks for beach goers, Navy Seals, and border patrol agents, and has resulted in long-term beach closures on both sides of the US-Mexico border. This study assessed the use of submersible, in-situ tryptophan-like (TRP) and humic-like (CDOM) fluorescence sensors for tracking fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) concentrations in real-time in the Tijuana River Estuary during three conditions: 1) dry weather without cross-border sewage flow, 2) dry weather with cross-border flow, and 3) wet weather with cross-border flow. FIB concentrations of samples collected during scenario #2, dry weather with cross-border flow, were most significantly correlated with submersible TRP and CDOM sensor fluorescence. TRP and CDOM fluorescence were also measured using a benchtop, scanning fluorometer with instrument corrections, which yielded significant correlation (p < 0.001) with FIB concentrations under all hydrologic conditions, reflecting the superior performance of the benchtop instrument. Regular maintenance conducted weekly or fortnightly was required to minimize sensor fouling. Also, the presence of high strength wastewater resulted in an inner filter effect, which requires post-processing corrections or data flagging as part of quality control efforts. Overall, we conclude that TRP and CDOM sensors are currently able to provide real-time warning of sewage contamination. However, quantifying the magnitude of contamination is not yet possible in real-time, and efforts are underway in our research groups to achieve this goal.

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Dr. Liz Alter is a marine evolutionary biologist, Assistant Professor of Biology at California State University, Monterey Bay and a Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Her research focuses on understanding how biodiversity is generated and maintained, particularly in oceans, estuaries and rivers, using the tools of genomics. Dr. Alter serves as a Commissioner on the Fish and Wildlife Advisory Commission of Santa Cruz County, as well as the Scientific Advisory Board of the Billion Oyster Project, which seeks to restore coastal ecosystems while training high school students in marine science. She holds a PhD from Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station, and an MS from UC Berkeley.

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Danielle Haulsee is the Chief Science Officer at Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, specializing in fisheries oceanography and the spatial and behavioral ecology of marine animals. She obtained her Ph.D. in 2017 from the University of Delaware's College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment, focusing her doctoral work on characterizing the movement ecology and social dynamics of a coastal top predator found along the East Coast of the U.S., the sand tiger shark. A key feature of her research is integrating advanced bio-logging (using tags carried by animals to record information), remote sensing and underwater robots to study the impact of a dynamic ocean on the occurrence and distribution of marine fish and sharks. Using these technologies, Danielle focuses her research on tackling applied research questions, contributing to bycatch reduction strategies, impact assessments of offshore wind development, and working towards more effective dynamic ocean management strategies. Her work spans multiple oceans, from studying the movement ecology of sharks and sturgeon in the Atlantic, to the fisheries ecology of billfish in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, to the oceanography of the White Shark Cafe in the Central Pacific and off the Nansen Ice Shelf in Antarctica.

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Natalia Llopis Monferrer is a postdoctoral fellow at the Carbon Flux Ecology Lab at MBARI. She received her PhD in Chemical Oceanography at the “Université de Bretagne Occidentale” (France). Natalia is a motivated biogeochemist with a passion for understanding how plankton influences the cycling of certain elements in our oceans, working to improve our knowledge of ocean biogeochemical cycles. Her research focuses on the ecology of silicifying Rhizaria, which are eukaryotic, mostly heterotrophic single-celled organisms, globally distributed, dwelling chiefly in the open ocean, from the surface down to bathypelagic depths. The goal of her postdoctoral project at MBARI is to characterize the silicification process in Rhizaria by combining different techniques: (i) exploration of genomic data to characterize the SITs of Rhizaria at different environmental conditions, (ii) targeted collection and maintenance of these delicate protists using cutting-edge technologies (e.g., remote operated vehicles, microfluidics) and, (iii) state-of-the-art imaging techniques, based on optical, fluorescent and electron microscopy, to examine silica deposition at a cellular level. This project will shed light on the little-known ecology of individual Rhizaria, and their ultimate role in relation to diatoms in the global plankton ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles.

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Kyle Cavanaugh is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at University of California, Los Angeles and Vice Director of the UCLA Marine Center. He received his PhD in Marine Science from the University of California Santa Barbara in 2011 and then completed a postdoc at the Smithsonian Institution. His research involves using satellite imagery to study the drivers and consequences of changes in coastal foundation species such as giant kelp forests and mangroves.

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Dr. Tom Turner received his Ph.D. in population biology from UC Davis in 2008. After finishing his postdoc at the Gregor Mendel Institute in Vienna, Austria, he became an assistant professor at UC Santa Barbara in 2009 and in 2015 began work as an associate professor. His work focuses on the diversity, systematics, and ecology of California sponges, particuarly the description of new species in shallow-water ecosystems such as kelp forests.

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Barbara Spiecker (she, her, hers) is a deaf marine ecologist at UCSB who is broadly interested in scale-dependent responses of marine communities across space and time. She uses mathematical and statistical tools coupled with experiments and field observations to answer questions related to responses of marine communities to climate change and monitoring and management of marine habitats. She is a co-founder of a non-profit, Atomic Hands that focuses on making science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) engaging through American Sign Language (ASL), empowering the signing community to develop and deliver engaging STEM topics and encourage networking among deaf STEMists. She has a Ph.D. in Integrative Biology from Oregon State University, M.S. in Marine Biology from Northeastern University, and a B.S. in Biology from Rochester Institute of Technology.

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Dr. Olavo Marques is an observational oceanographer interested in how waves and turbulence interact with the ocean circulation. He is originally from Brazil, where he got his bachelor of science in oceanography from University of Sao Paulo, and then came to the US where he did his PhD at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). In his PhD research, he used observations from Tasmania to study how deep-ocean internal tides impinge on complex topography over the continental slope and drive near-bottom turbulent mixing. He is currently a postdoc at the Naval Postgraduate School and the UCSD, where he is studying how surface surface waves and coastal processes are impacted by rocky environments, such as those found throughout central California.

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Dr. Cyronak runs the Coastal Carbon Laboratory (CCL) in the Institute for Coastal Plain Science at Georgia Southern University. Research in the CCL focuses on the carbon cycle in coastal ecosystems such as estuaries, marshes, coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass beds. We are interested in the role that these ecosystems play in the global carbon cycle, how they will be affected by climate change, and what role they can play in carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere. Learn more about the CCL: www.coastalcarbon.org.

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My research interests are Earth history and the evolution of life, and the interactions between the biosphere and the geosphere. As such this research can generally be considered paleontology, insofar as paleontology encompasses all aspects of the history of life. My research incorporates multiple lines of evidence, and multiple tools, to investigate questions in the history of life. These lines of evidence include fossil data, molecular phylogenetics, sedimentary geochemistry, and ecological and physiological data from modern organisms. Ultimately, the goal is to link environmental change with organismal and ecological response through the lens of physiology.