Seminars

Erika Woolsey, Stanford/The Hydrous

Moss Landing Marine Labs Seminar Series - April 18th, 2019

Hosted by The Fisheries and Conservation Biology Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public

Erika is a marine biologist, National Geographic Explorer, and Ocean Design Fellow at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (the d.school) in partnership with the Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions. She studied biology and art history at Duke University and conducted her Masters and Ph.D. research on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, where she lived and worked for seven years. Erika is CEO and co-founder of The Hydrous, a non-profit devoted to translating marine science into public understanding, and is Executive Producer of ‘Immerse,’ a virtual dive on the coral reefs of Palau.

Abstract:

How can we care about something we never see? Virtual reality (VR) can simulate places that are unreachable to most (like the ocean or outer space) and is a promising medium for science learning and generating empathy towards complex issues. In this seminar, Dr. Erika Woolsey will discuss the power of immersive experiences, especially related to threatened ocean environments, and share her VR/360 film ‘Immerse.'

Ivano Aiello, Moss Landing Marine Labs

Moss Landing Marine Labs Seminar Series - April 25th, 2019

Hosted by The Vertebrate Ecology Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public

Bio: Ivano teaches several graduate courses on different topics and methodologies concerning Marine Geology and cross-disciplinary fields in marine sciences. Ivano's teaching phyilosophy and the research conducted in the Geology Lab are multidisciplinary is the sense that students combine to different degrees geology with a variety of other disciplines in marine sciences (e.g. marine ecology, biology). Ivano's research has also a general interdisciplinary approach: Sedimentology/paleoceanography of upwelling biogenic sediments in Europe and the Pacific Rim (e.g. Monterey Fmt.), eastern equatorial Pacific and Peru Margin (ODP Leg 201), the sub-Arctic (IODP Expedition 323 in the Bering Sea). Relationships between geology and microbial activity in deeply buried marine sediments and other extreme environments. Past evidence of microbial activity preserved by authigenic precipitates in sediments (cold seeps). Geologic/geomorphology of central California rapidly changing costal environments including Elkhorn Slough, beaches and sea cliffs of Monterey Bay. Use of terrestrial laser scanning and 3D data analysis to asses small-scale geomorphologic change.

Abstract:

The Urania Basin (Eastern Mediterranean) is a Deep Hypersaline Anoxic Basin (DHAB) characterized by extreme physical and chemical conditions including very high temperatures (>50ºC), very high salinities (more than 5X seawater) and some of the highest methane concentrations ever recorded in the water column (up to 3.8 mmol/L). Although the Urania Basin is a classic example of DHAB and has been investigated multiple times in the past 30 years, a recent deep-sea expedition made some groundbreaking discoveries both in terms of the physics/geology of the environment as well as concerning occurrence and distribution of microbial life in arguably one of earth's most extreme and inhospitable environments.We found that the lower half of the deep water brine is filled with a very fine (~6µm), high-density (>1.6g/cm3) fluid mud mainly composed of floating modern and fossil species of coccoliths. Because of thermal convection and the very fine size of the coccolith particles, we hypothesized that without accelerating mechanisms (e.g. fecal pellets) the mud could stay in suspension for times longer than the slowest normal pelagic settling creating what looks like an ‘expansion’ of the seafloor several tens of meters into the brine. Based on a  diffusive-convective model, the origin of the Urania Basin stratification has be dated to 1650 years B.P., and may be linked to a major earthquake in the region. This deep-water basin characterized by an expansion of the seafloor into the water column, a 'zero-gravity' environment where particle are capable of staying in suspension for long times, and with a highly diversified microbial life that has more affinity to the deep subseafloor than to the water column could be a model system for life in other planets and moons (e.g. Europa).

Alexis Fischer, UC Santa Cruz

Moss Landing Marine Labs Seminar Series - May 2nd, 2019

Hosted by The Invertebrate Zoology Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public

Alexis is a Delta Science Postdoctoral Fellow who is interested in the physical, chemical, and biological factors that promote development of blooms, especially harmful algal blooms (HABs). To explore phytoplankton dynamics on daily timescales in the Monterey Bay and San Francisco Bay, she uses an Imaging FlowCytobot (IFCB), an in-situ automated submersible flow cytometer that generates high-resolution images of particles in-flow taken from the aquatic environment. Alexis completed her PhD in Biological Oceanography in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program. Her dissertation focused on cyst dormancy cycling and bloom initiation of Alexandrium catenella, a HAB dinoflagellate that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning.

Abstract:

Monterey Bay is the largest open embayment along the U.S. West Coast and is subject to intense autumn dinoflagellate blooms, many of which are harmful algal blooms. During 2004–2007 these blooms were so dominant that it was called the “age of dinoflagellates”. In 2018, after a decade absence, these conditions returned with an abundance of dinoflagellates documented at the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf (SCW) using an Imaging FlowCytobot (IFCB). The IFCB combines video and flow cytometric technology to capture images with chlorophyll fluorescence above a trigger threshold. A phytoplankton image training set was amassed and used to train a 28-category random forest classifier that has 90% overall accuracy. The dominant dinoflagellate was Akashiwo sanguinea, exceeding 40 cells mL-1 and 500 cells mL-1 in March and May, respectively – a time of year when dinoflagellates are characteristically rare. Also abundant were Prorocentrum spp., Ceratium spp., and Gymnodinum spp. – all “upwelling relaxation” dinoflagellate taxa (Smayda 2002). During the winter and spring, pulses of increased dinoflagellates were associated with wind reversals, relaxation of upwelling, water column stability, and river discharge, which would have created a retentive, nutrient-rich region at SCW. These daily dynamics were also reflected in interannual drivers of anomalous dinoflagellate abundance at SCW. A partial least-squares regression was applied to a 7-year de-seasonalized weekly SCW timeseries. Winds from the west and south, increased river discharge, and negative NPGO and ENSO anomalies could explain 80% of anomalous dinoflagellate chlorophyll from January through May. High-frequency IFCB sampling and our coastal phytoplankton classifier will continue to improve our understanding of harmful dinoflagellate bloom development and better inform monitoring decisions.

Kakani Katija, MBARI

Moss Landing Marine Labs Seminar Series - May 9th, 2019

Hosted by the Ichthyology Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public

Kakani received her PhD in Bioengineering at the California Institute of Technology and specializes in biological fluid mechanics and in situ imaging methods. She is currently a Principal Engineer and Principal Investigator at MBARI, with funding provided by the Packard Foundation, National Geographic Society, NOAA, and NSF-OTIC/IDBR. Kakani has been named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer in 2011 and a Kavli Research Fellow in the National Academy of Sciences in 2013.

Abstract:

The midwater region of the ocean (below the euphotic zone and above the benthos) is one of the largest ecosystems on our planet, yet remains one of the least explored. Little-known marine organisms that inhabit midwater have developed life strategies that contribute to their evolutionary success, and may inspire engineering solutions for societally relevant challenges. Although significant advances in underwater vehicle technologies have improved access to midwater, small-scale, in situ fluid mechanics measurement methods that seek to quantify the interactions that midwater organisms have with their physical environment are lacking. Here we present DeepPIV, an instrumentation package affixed to a remotely operated vehicle that quantifies fluid motions from the surface of the ocean down to 4000 m depths. Utilizing ambient suspended particulate, fluid-structure interactions are evaluated on a range of marine organisms in midwater (and the benthos). Initial science targets include larvaceans, biological equivalents of flapping flexible foils, that create mucus houses to filter food. Little is known about the structure of these mucus houses and the function they play in selectively filtering particles, and these dynamics can serve as particle-mucus models for human health. Using DeepPIV, we reveal the complex structures and flows generated within larvacean mucus houses, and elucidate how these structures function. Future technologies (currently in the development pipeline) that will enable study of organismal ecomechanics in the deep sea will also be discussed.

Roxanne Beltran, UC Santa Cruz

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

Hosted by The Vertebrate Ecology Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public

Roxanne obtained her PhD in 2018 from the University of Alaska
Fairbanks studying behavior and life history phenology in the world’s
most southern mammal, the Weddell seal. For her postdoctoral research
at UC Santa Cruz, Roxanne hopes to better understand the strategies
that seals use to survive and thrive in the open ocean; specifically,
how their behavior and survival may be impacted by our changing
planet. With funding from National Geographic, Roxanne is deploying
trackers with a research team to learn how elephant seal pups navigate
and dive during their first ocean migration. In addition to her
research, Roxanne is passionate about science communication and
inclusion of underrepresented minority students in scientific
research. She has written a children’s book, “A Seal Named Patches”
and has visited more than 4,000 K-12 students to share her work.
www.roxannebeltran.com

Abstract:
The life histories of semi-aquatic mammals are characterized
by various challenges that arise from the conflicting dynamics of
living both on land and at sea. Animals have evolved a variety of
solutions to cope with these challenges, from flexible life history
phenologies to wide-ranging behavioral strategies. The resulting
variability within- and between-species provides an opportunity to
evaluate how trade-offs are driven by a combination of physiological
constraints and ecological processes. Using a combination of
free-ranging and captive pinnipeds, I show how animal behavior can be
used to predict potential responses to global change.