Seminars

Underwater secrets of the Hayward fault zone: integrated 3D imaging to understand earthquake hazards – April 19th, 2018

Kimberly Elson
Janet Watt, USGS
Moss Landing Marine Labs Seminar Series - April 26th, 2018

Hosted by the Geological Oceanography Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public

Janet Watt received her M.S. in Marine Science (Geological Oceanography) from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in 2004 while working at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, CA. As part of the Geophysical Unit of Menlo Park (GUMP), She used potential-field methods (gravity and magnetics) and 3D geologic mapping to understand earthquake and volcano hazards, and mineral and water resources in the western U.S. In 2010, She returned to her marine geology roots and joined the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center in Santa Cruz, CA where she currently works as a Research Geophysicist.

Her research focuses on characterizing onshore/offshore geologic structure, deformation, and active tectonics to address problems focused on geologic hazards and framework geologic processes. Her recent work involves the development and application of integrative geophysical approaches to 3D characterization of faults and fault interactions.

Underwater secrets of the Hayward fault zone: integrated 3D imaging to understand earthquake hazards

The next major earthquake to strike the ~7 million residents of the San Francisco Bay Area will most likely result from rupture of the Hayward or Rodgers Creek faults. Until now, the relationship between these two faults beneath San Pablo Bay has been a mystery. Detailed subsurface imaging provides definitive evidence of active faulting along the Hayward fault as it traverses San Pablo Bay and bends ~10° to the right toward the Rodgers Creek fault. Integrated geophysical interpretation and kinematic modeling show that the Hayward and Rodgers Creek faults are directly connected at the surface—a geometric relationship that has significant implications for earthquake dynamics and seismic hazard. A direct link enables simultaneous rupture of the Hayward and Rodgers Creek faults, a scenario that could result in a major earthquake (M = 7.4) that would cause extensive damage and loss of life with global economic impact.

Watch Dr. Watt’s MLML seminar presentation below:

Analyzing potential impacts of offshore wind projects off the coast of California – April 26th, 2018

Kimberly Elson
Scott Terrill, HT Harvey and Associates
Moss Landing Marine Labs Seminar Series - April 26th, 2018

Hosted by the Fisheries and Conservation Biology Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public

Scott is a native to the California Bay Area.  He received his B.S. and M.S. in Zoology from Arizona State University and received his Ph.D. from the State University of New York.  His research focused on avian migration and he is a Von Humboldt Fellow of the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology.  He has observed birds in the California current on hundreds of occasions for over 50 years.  He was the Regional Editor for seabird section for the journal North American Birds for 10 years and coauthored the seabirds section of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Site Characterization.  Currently, he is coauthoring a major study on the near California endemic seabird the Ashy Storm-Petrel.

Scott is Senior Ornithologist and Vice President at H. T. Harvey and Associates, an ecological consulting company started by Tom Harvey, Jim Harvey’s father, nearly 50 years ago.  This consulting group is relatively unique in that, in addition to applied ecology consulting services, it conducts basic research on marine systems funded by NSF, NOAA and others, and the group has contributed over 500 referred scientific publications.

 

Analyzing Potential Impacts of Offshore Wind Projects off the Coast of California

Significantly reducing carbon-based energy production is critical to mitigate the long-term impacts of anthropogenic induced climate change.  California has a very ambitious renewable energy target for the state.  Sources of renewable energy include solar, wind, hydropower, thermal and marine hydrokinetics (wave and tidal).  Many terrestrial wind projects exist in California and the abundant offshore winds provide a huge potential source of renewable energy.

A number of offshore wind projects exist in Europe and there is one project off the east coast of North America.  These projects are all nearshore projects in shallow water.  The potential for projects off California in deep water over the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) is being considered by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the California Energy Commission. Such projects would use turbines on floating platforms rather than turbines anchored to the ocean bottom.  Whereas some of the information on avian response to nearshore turbines in Europe can be used to inform risk assessments off California, especially nearshore wind projects if proposed, they would have very limited application to turbines off the OCS. The nutrient rich California current is used by large numbers of offshore pelagic birds, many of which disperse long distances to reach it.  Most of these species are quite different from those in nearshore Europe, and in many cases far offshore of Europe as well. I will also discuss the differences between the offshore wind projects in Europe and any proposed off California with respect to landbird migrants over the ocean. Although my specialty is birds, I will touch on potential concerns for some other offshore taxa as well.

I will be discussing some of the fundamental differences in the ocean avian communities in the Atlantic and the Pacific, and how those differences need to be taken into account when approaching risk assessments in the California Current.  Additionally, I will be discussing existing data that can be used to inform risk assessments, remaining data gaps, and possible next steps.

Watch Dr. Terrill’s MLML seminar presentation below:

Up, down & sideways: 4 decades of change in a Monterey kelp forest – May 3rd, 2018

Kimberly Elson
Dr. James Watanabe, Hopkins Marine Station
Moss Landing Marine Labs Seminar Series - May 3rd, 2018

Hosted by the Phycology Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public

Dr. James M. Watanabe received his PhD in zoology from UC Berkeley. His research interests focus on invertebrate zoology and marine ecology, with particular emphasis on kelp forests and rocky intertidal communities. Prior to joining the faculty at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station in 1994, he directed the research program at the Monterey Bay Aquarium for 10 years.

Dr. Watanabe has conducted research on the distribution and abundance of kelp forest invertebrates, the dynamics of sea urchin-mediated deforestations, and the physiological ecology of kelp . These studies have focused on predator-prey interactions, interspecific competition, and the effects of disturbance on marine organisms. He is also interested in the statistical problems of detecting changes in natural populations through time.

Dr. Watanabe's primary responsibility at Hopkins Marine Station is undergraduate teaching. During winter, spring, and summer quarters he teaches subjects ranging from introductory biology and invertebrate zoology to kelp forest ecology, experimental design, and statistics. His courses attempt to nuture an appreciation for the natural world through accumulation of detailed knowledge and hands-on experience.

 

Up, down, and sideways: four decades in a Monterey kelp forest

Four decades of observing the kelp forests of the Monterey peninsula have shown me a broad spectrum of variability in both time and space, from unexpected swings in the abundance of some species to near constancy in others.  Witnessing this procession of change has challenged my perceptions as the years have gone by and altered my understanding of how I think these communities function.  I'll present some data and a few thoughts on how massive barnacle settlement, sea star mass mortality, and sea urchin-mediated deforestation in the heart of sea otter country have taught me lessons from the kelp forest.

Watch James Watanabe’s MLML seminar presentation below:

Taking Your Science to Sea: Lessons Learned by a Chief Scientist – May 10th, 2018

Kimberly Elson
Dr. Kenneth Coale, Moss Landing Marine Labs
Moss Landing Marine Labs Seminar Series - May 10th, 2018

Hosted by the Ichthyology Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public

Dr. Kenneth Coale

The oceans, directly or indirectly, play a significant role in controlling almost every biological, physical, geological, climatological, process that occurs in the earth’s biosphere. Due to their vastness and inherent inhospitable nature, they are severely understudied and are now shifting rapidly as a result of climate change. Increasingly, decision makers are turning to marine scientists for guidance in the development and application of solutions to problems affecting them. Oceanographic research should therefore, be an area of rich study. For several reasons, however, the efforts to understand these systems have disproportionately lagged other areas of environmental science. One reason recently identified by the University National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) is the lack of familiarity that many young investigators have with the complex facilities and infrastructure necessary to access and perform research at sea.  In a recent survey, UNOLS also noted that many young investigators have little experience organizing an oceanographic field campaign, are unfamiliar with the observational and sample recovery technologies, and have the belief that such research is too expensive.   In a conversational format, Kenneth Coale will discuss the basic aspects and challenges of using these platforms and share some scientific life-lessons learned from leading over 50 oceanographic cruises on ships large and small.

Watch Kenneth Coale’s presentation below:

Advances in the study of foraging behavior of cetaceans from 3D movement and video tags

Kimberly Elson
David Cade, Hopkins Marine Station
Moss Landing Marine Labs Seminar Series - December 7th, 2017

Hosted by the Phycology Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public

David Cade was an educator (6 years in the outdoors and 6 years in a math classroom) before returning to science to pursue his passions. After earning a master’s degree in education at Stanford University in 2005 and a master’s in oceanography at Oregon State University in 2014, Cade is now in the midst of his Ph.D. work in Jeremy Goldbogen’s lab at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station where he studies the foraging ecology of baleen whales. 

 
Advances in the study of foraging behavior of cetaceans from 3D movement and video tags

For nearly all of human existence on the sea, our understanding of whales has been limited to what we can observe at the surface. For fully aquatic animals such as these, however, time spent on the surface is really a tiny fraction of the life cycle of these largest predators on the planet. Basic questions about feeding behavior and ecology have only begun to be answered in the last fifteen years with the advent of animal-borne sensors capable of logging cetacean behavior underwater. Only in the last three years have sensors that measure orientation and motion been combined with high-quality video cameras to provide us with a whale's eye view of the feeding events that are so critical to overall population recovery from 20th century lows. These devices have allowed old hypotheses to be tested, and new questions and insights have been generated with every new deployment.

Revealing the microscopic using underwater robotic sensors

Kimberly Elson
Dr. Christina Preston, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Moss Landing Marine Labs Seminar series - November 30th, 2017

Hosted by the Environmental Biotechnology Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public

Chris Preston received her undergraduate degree at James Madison University, PhD at UC Santa Barbara with Ed Delong, and was a Post Doc at Hopkins Marine Station with Dave Epel.  Her early work was mainly describing symbiotic associations between marine invertebrates and bacteria/archaea.  Since joining MBARI over 15 years ago, her focus has shifted more towards studying microbial populations (free-living & particle attached) throughout the water column using in situ instrumentation.

 
Revealing the microscopic using underwater robotic sensors

One of the long-standing challenges common to studying microorganisms in the environment is acquiring and processing samples.  Traditionally, this has involved shipboard sample collection and laboratory-based analysis.  New in situ sensors combine novel engineering and molecular biological methods and can function underwater longer than the length of research cruises.  This allows scientists to monitor and experiment within the environment in a whole new way.  In this talk, I’ll discuss how the Environmental Sample Processor (ESP) developed by MBARI can address the challenge of sample collection and processing over an extended period under non-traditional laboratory conditions, and its capability to support a variety of downstream molecular detection systems.  I’ll focus on lessons learned from the operation of our 2nd generation ESP, and how that has impacted development of our 3rd generation instrument.

Watch Dr. Preston’s MLML seminar presentation below:

Marine Heat Wave Impacts Bull Kelp Forest Ecosystems in Northern California

Kimberly Elson
Dr. Laura Rogers-Bennett, UC Davis Bodega Marine Lab
Moss Landing Marine Labs Seminar Series - November 16, 2017

Hosted by the Fisheries and Conservation Biology Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public

Dr. Laura Rogers-Bennett completed her Ph.D. in Ecology at the University of California, Davis and two post-doctoral fellowships one at U.C. Santa Cruz’s, Institute of Marine Science and the other at the U. Washington’s, Friday Harbor Labs. Dr. Rogers-Bennett is a Senior Environmental Scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in the Marine Region working at the U.C. Bodega Marine Lab. The work in her lab focuses on marine invertebrate population dynamics, fishery management and marine conservation. In the lab they use an interdisciplinary approach combining field, laboratory and quantitative modeling to examine questions related to recruitment dynamics, MPAs, marine conservation biology, fisheries sustainability, ecosystem tipping points and climate change.

Watch Dr. Rogers-Bennett’s MLML seminar presentation below:

Aquaponics research at Humboldt State University

Kimberly Elson
Dr. Rafael Cuevas Uribe, Humboldt State University
Moss Landing Marine Labs Seminar series - November 9, 2017

Hosted by the Phycology Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public

Dr. Rafael Cuevas Uribe is an Assistant Professor for the Department of Fisheries Biology at Humbolt State University.  He received a PhD in Wildlife and Fisheries from Louisiana State University, a MS in Aquaculture/Aquatic Science from Kentucky State University, and a BS in Biology from Universidad de Guadalajara.

Watch Dr. Cuevas-Uribe’s MLML seminar presentation below:

“pH”ingerprinting coastal oceans: connecting climate change, natural variability, and biological feedbacks

Kimberly Elson
Dr. Nyssa Silbiger, CSU Northridge
Moss Landing Marine Labs Seminar series - November 2, 2017

Hosted by the Geological Oceanography Lab

MLML Seminar Room, 4pm

Open to the public

Dr. Nyssa Silbiger is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at CSUN.  She did her postdoc at UC Irvine, PhD at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Masters at UNC Chapel Hill, and Bachelors at Florida State University.  During her PhD, she was a NOAA Dr. Nancy Foster Scholar.  Her research broadly focuses on understanding interactions between anthropogenic stressors and natural variability on ecosystem processes.

Watch Dr. Silbiger’s MLML seminar presentation below: