Seminars

James Hein, USGS

Moss Landing Marine Labs Seminar Series - September 12th

Hosted by the Geological Oceanography Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public

Cara Wilson, NOAA

Moss Landing Marine Labs Seminar Series - September 19th, 2019

Hosted by the Invertebrate Zoology Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public

Cara Wilson is a satellite oceanographer for the Environmental Research Division (ERD) at NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in Monterey CA and is the PI of two regional nodes of NOAA’s CoastWatch program – the West Coast Regional Node and PolarWatch, which are both housed at ERD. Her research interests are in using satellite data to examine bio-physical coupling in the surface ocean, with a particular focus on determining the biological and physical causes of the large chlorophyll blooms that often develop in late summer in the oligotrophic Pacific near 30°N. She received a Ph.D. in oceanography from Oregon State University in 1997, where she examined the physical dynamics of hydrothermal plumes.  After getting her PhD she worked as the InterRidge Coordinator at the University Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France.  Her introduction to remote sensing came with a post-doc at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center which involved analyzing TOPEX and SeaWiFS data. She joined NOAA in 2002 and has been active in increasing the satellite usage within the National Marine Fisheries Service. She is also the treasurer for PORSEC (Pan Ocean Remote Sensing Conference) and the current chair of the IOCCG (International Ocean Colour Coordinating Group).

Kevin Arrigo, Stanford

Moss Landing Marine Labs Seminar Series - September 26th, 2019

Hosted by the Phycology Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public

Kevin is a biological oceanographer at Stanford University.  He studies the microbial ecology of polar ecosystems to better understand their role in marine food webs, nutrient cycling, and productivity.  His research focuses on photosynthetic organisms living in the sea ice and the ocean and how they are able to thrive in such extreme polar conditions.

Abstract:

Recent observations contradict the paradigm that waters beneath the consolidated Arctic Ocean ice pack harbor little planktonic life. However, high concentrations of phytoplankton biomass beneath Arctic sea ice have been reported in areas as widespread as Resolute Bay, Baffin Bay, the Barents Sea, the Laptev Sea, and the Chukchi Sea. The largest and most well documented of these under-ice blooms was observed in the Chukchi Sea beneath fully consolidated sea ice. At its peak, the algal biomass associated with this feature rivaled that of the most productive ocean ecosystems on Earth. It is likely that, in the present climate, under-ice blooms, while largely unaccounted for, are more prevalent and more productive than is presently understood. Because these under-ice blooms are invisible to satellite sensors, seasonally ice covered waters on Arctic continental shelves have the potential to support vastly higher rates of NPP than has been attributed to them in the past.

Maya Reimi, UC Santa Cruz

Moss Landing Marine Labs Seminar Series - October 3rd, 2019

Hosted by the Physical Oceanography Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public

Dr. Maya Reimi is a paleoclimatologist and isotope geochemist. She received her PhD from Texas A&M University working with Dr. Franco Marcantonio. For her dissertation she used radiogenic isotope ratios (Nd, Pb, U, Th) to understand changes in dust provenance and ocean water masses in the central Pacific, over the most recent glacial cycles. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher in Ocean Science at UCSC, working with Dr. Christina Ravelo. Her current research centers around understanding the changes in the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool during the Pliocene and early Pleistocene, using Mg/Ca in foraminifera as well as oxygen and carbon isotopes to reconstruct ocean temperature, salinity, and ice volume changes.

Sherry Lippiatt, NOAA

Moss Landing Marine Labs Seminar Series - October 10th, 2019

Hosted by the Geological Oceanography Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public

Sherry Lippiatt is the California Regional Coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Debris Program (NOAA MDP). She works with stakeholders to identify regional marine debris priorities and provides expertise and oversight for MDP-funded prevention, removal, and research projects in the state. Sherry partnered with the California Ocean Protection Council to develop and implement the California Ocean Litter Prevention Strategy and leads the MDP’s flagship citizen science program, the Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project. Sherry came to the NOAA MDP in 2010 as a Knauss Sea Grant Fellow and was honored as a 2016 NOAA National Ocean Service Team Member of the Year. Sherry earned a Ph.D. in Ocean Sciences from the University of California Santa Cruz.

Abstract:

Marine debris is one of the most widespread pollution problems facing the world's ocean and waterways. Huge amounts of consumer plastics, lost fishing gear, and other items lead to chemical and physical impacts on marine species and habitats, and socioeconomic impacts on coastal communities. With an estimated eight million metric tons of mismanaged plastic waste entering the ocean every year, everyone has a role to play in preventing debris at the source. This presentation will include an overview of this multifaceted issue and approaches to prevention, the state of the science on marine debris sources, fate, and effects, and a summary of current efforts in the field with a special focus on California.

Pheobe Lam, UC Santa Cruz

Moss Landing Marine Labs Seminar Series - October 17th, 2019

Hosted by the Chemical Oceanography Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public

Dr. Lam is a “marine particle geochemist” interested in the role that marine particles play in the biogeochemical cycling of major and minor elements in the ocean such as carbon, iron, and other trace elements. This includes the factors affecting the efficiency of the biological carbon pump; the past and current role of iron in stimulating primary production; the chemical speciation and bioavailability of marine particulate iron; the role of major particle composition on particle export (the ballast hypothesis) and on trace metal scavenging; and much more! She is actively involved in the International GEOTRACES program, which is greatly expanding our understanding of the cycling of trace elements in the ocean, and revealing new questions about the role of particles every day.

Abstract:

The GP16 Eastern Pacific Zonal Transect cruise from Peru to Tahiti in 2013 along 12-15°S crossed the large eastern tropical South Pacific oxygen deficient zone (ODZ) in the eastern half of the transect, which was expected to be an important source of dissolved iron into the ocean interior.  Contrary to expectations, there was no significant iron plume in the heart of the ODZ around 250 m that extended beyond the coastal margin, despite the ODZ penetrating several thousand of kilometers into the interior.  Surprisingly, a deep coastal iron plume in oxygenated waters centered around 2000 m was observed to penetrate >1000 km into the interior. In this talk, I examine the possible reasons behind the unexpected high Fe from the oxygenated deep slope relative to the more reducing ODZ above. 

John Ryan, MBARI

Moss Landing Marine Labs Seminar Series - October 24th, 2019

Hosted by the Vertebrate Ecology Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public

John Ryan received the B.S. degree in biology from the University of Massachusetts in 1988.  He worked in ocean science and terrestrial wildlife biology before pursuing graduate studies.  John received the Ph.D. degree in biological oceanography from the University of Rhode Island in 1998.  His graduate research focused on phytoplankton ecology in the northwestern Atlantic and was supported by fellowships from the Office of Naval Research and NASA.  John began a postdoctoral fellowship at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in fall 1998, working across biological and chemical oceanography research labs.  He was awarded a NASA New Investigator grant during his postdoctoral research.  Appreciating the science / engineering collaborations at MBARI, John has since remained there and is now Senior Research Specialist.  His research focus is on relationships between ecosystem processes and marine life forms — from plankton to whales.

Abstract:

Sound in the ocean carries a wealth of information about marine life, human activities, and geophysical processes.  MBARI’s Ocean Soundscape project taps into this vast information flow through a cabled observatory in the center of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.  This seminar will explore why and how we study sound, and what we are learning from research and education efforts.  Dimensions of our local ocean soundscape will be heard and seen, and some will be felt strongly through a capable sound system.

Shelley Dearhart & Tori Spence McConnell, Seafood Watch Program

Moss Landing Marine Labs Seminar Series - October 31st, 2019

Hosted by the Ichthyology Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public

Slawek Tulaczyk, UC Santa Cruz

Moss Landing Marine Labs Seminar Series - November 7th, 2019

Hosted by the Phycology Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public

Slawek Tulaczyk focuses his research on ice sheets and glaciers as dynamic features interacting with geologic, hydrologic, and climatic processes on different timescales. Much of his glaciological work is based on data constraining the recent behavior of the West Antarctic ice sheet.

One of the most important current goals of Tulaczyk's research is to test the idea that this marine ice sheet may collapse and contribute significantly to the ongoing global sea level rise. To do that, he investigates the physical controls on ice flow velocity and constructs quantitative models of ice flow dynamics. In addition to elucidating the possible fate of the West Antarctic ice sheet, this work enhances our general understanding of the feedbacks between ice-sheet behavior and climate changes. Large ice sheets respond to climate but they may play the role of pacemakers of climate fluctuations as well. It appears that behavior of ice sheets is modulated to a significant extent by the underlying geology.

Tulaczyk is exploring these geologic controls through sedimentological and geochemical analysis of subglacial sediment samples from West Antarctica. This line of research leads to the general questions regarding the mechanisms of glacial erosion, sediment transport, and deposition. Tulaczyk has used a variety of data sources (remote sensing, borehole experiments, subglacial sediment samples) to constrain the physics of the subglacial environment and its role in controlling ice flow velocities. His interest in deformation of ice and sediments leads to involvement in research related to such practical problems like landsliding and its triggering by climatically extreme conditions.

Abstract:

Liquid water is scant in cold polar regions but it plays a key role in biological, geochemical, and glaciologic processes in these areas that are sensitive to climate changes and serve as potential terrestrial analogs of extraterrestrial life habitats on cold planetary bodies. Here we report the results of a regional AEM (Airborne Electro Magnetic) survey which collected nearly 3000 km of subsurface electrical resistivity profiles down to depths of up to ca. 600m sampling ca. 20,000 square kilometers in the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV). Electrical resistivity provides a good indicator of subsurface liquid water because frozen geologic materials, as well as ice, have very high electrical resistivity (typically >>1000 ohm-m) while water-bearing geologic units can have orders of magnitude lower resistivity (10-1000 ohm-m). The AEM survey reveals widespread, but not omnipresent, subsurface brine systems in the study region. They occur near the coast and beneath the floors of major valleys connected to the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (e.g., Ferrar, Taylor, McKay) but are not present in similarly large valleys that lack a modern connection to the interior of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (e.g., Wright and Victoria). This spatial relationship suggests that brines detected by our survey may be transported into the MDVs by subsurface flow from beneath the ice sheet. Our investigations reveal a hydrogeologic system that is quite different than groundwater systems typical of coastal zones of other continents. However, this briny system may be representative of much of the ca. 24,000 km of Antarctic coastline and may deliver nutrients to the coastal ocean through submarine groundwater discharge.

Nate Jue , CSUMB

Moss Landing Marine Labs Seminar Series - November 14th, 2019

Hosted by the Invertebrate Ecology Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public