News

Dr. Lingjie Zhou defends PhD on quantifying phytoplankton carbon biomass using DNA

Posted on November 30, 2022November 30, 2022 by Manning, Cara

Congratulations to Dr. Lingjie Zhou on her Ph.D. defense. Check out Dr. Zhou’s description of her Ph.D. journey and accomplishments below. We are wishing Dr. Zhou all the best for her future career!

I defended my Ph.D. dissertation entitled “Estimate phytoplankton carbon biomass using DNA” on Nov. 15^th, 2022. My Ph.D. research was aimed at establishing the correlations among the cellular contents of DNA, C, and rDNA in phytoplankton and I measured these parameters for 11 species spanning major algal lineages at different growth stages and under different growth conditions. The correlations would enable oceanographers to determine the species composition and species-specific carbon biomass in the phytoplankton community simultaneously. Throughout the Ph. D. study period, I gave presentations at conferences, including the Northeast Algal Symposium, Phycological Society of America, ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting, and Feng Graduate Research Colloquium. I have published several papers as co-author (listed below), and I’m still working on my own papers now. I have received the Student Research Award from the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department of the University of Connecticut (UConn) and the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History in 2019 as well as several summer research awards from the Department of Marine Sciences at UConn.

References:
Nanjing Ji, Jinwang Huang, Zhenzhen Zhang, Lingjie Zhou, Xin Shen, Senjie Lin, Identification and expression analysis of meiosis-related genes in the harmful alga Heterosigma akashiwo (Raphidophyceae). Harmful Algae, 2020, 92, 101736, ISSN 1568-9883, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hal.2019.101736.

Nanjing Ji, Zhenzhen Zhang, Jinwang Huang, Lingjie Zhou, Shengxian Deng, Xin Shen, Senjie Lin. Utilization of various forms of nitrogen and expression regulation of transporters in the harmful alga Heterosigma akashiwo (Raphidophyceae). Harmful Algae, 2020, 92, 101770, ISSN 1568-9883, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hal.2020.101770.

Chuner Cai, Feng Liu, Ting Jiang, Lingke Wang, Rui Jia, Lingjie Zhou, Kai Gu, Jianfeng Ren, Peimin He. Comparative study on mitogenomes of green tide algae. Genetica, 2018, 146(6): 529–540, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-018-0046-7

Zhou at the 56th Northeast Algal Symposium in April 2017

Zhou at the ASLO 2019 Aquatic Sciences Meeting in February 2019

Annette Carlson presents master’s thesis on oxygen and nutrient cycling in St. Helena Bay

Posted on November 19, 2022November 20, 2022 by Manning, Cara

Congratulations to Annette Carlson, who presented her master’s thesis on November 9, 2022. Annette‘s thesis was entitled “Quantifying interannual variability of shelf nutrients and associated hypoxia in St. Helena Bay with new metrics and tools” and she was advised by Professor Samantha Siedlecki. St. Helena Bay is located in the Southern Benguela Upwelling System off the coast of South Africa. During her master’s, Annette traveled to South Africa to work with collaborators at the University of Cape Town and gain experience collecting water samples, and analyzed an existing dataset to characterize and develop mechanistic understanding of the variability in nutrients and oxygen in this dynamic upwelling region.

Annette also presented a webinar on her thesis work to the Global Ocean Oxygen Network in October 2022, which is available on YouTube, and she participated in several conferences.

Congratulations, Annette, and best wishes in your future career!

Carlson’s thesis was funded by the US National Science Foundation through a grant to Dr. Samantha Siedlecki and Dr. Julie Granger.

Annette Carlson and colleagues (Raquel Flynn (left), Sina Wallschuss (right)) sampling for oxygen and nutrients in False Bay, Cape Town, South Africa. Photo credit: Pieter Truter.

DMS Kayla Mladinich shows that bivalves can reject microplastics

Posted on November 8, 2022November 8, 2022 by Hannes Baumann

8 November 2022. DMS is happy to share the latest publication by PhD student Kayla Mladinich, showing the surprising but good news that blue mussels and oysters appear not to ingest all microplastic particles floating in the water.

By Kayla Mladinich.

Oysters and mussels are filter feeders that draw particles in from the surrounding water to be eaten. These animals can select which particles are eaten or rejected depending on factors such as particle size and surface properties. This study was performed to determine what kinds of microplastics will be consumed or rejected by oysters and mussels. Both species rejected larger microplastics more than smaller microplastics and did not differentiate between different types of plastic polymers. The results suggest that oysters and mussels will not ingest all microplastics that they are exposed to in the natural environment!

Shell recycling will help restore oysters in Long Island Sound

Posted on November 7, 2022November 7, 2022 by Hannes Baumann

By Elaina Hancock.

7 November 2022. An unexpected find of a healthy, well-established oyster reef tucked away in a shoreline park inspired UConn Marine Science researcher Zofia Baumann to study ways to help these vital ecosystem engineers make a comeback.

Oyster habitats were largely destroyed by development, over-harvesting, and pollution, but in Long Island Sound, their numbers might be on the rise. Baumann and others hope to help restore Connecticut’s oyster populations.

Oysters build habitats where many species flourish, they improve water quality and make shorelines more resilient to erosion, but they need old shells to start building on. The site that became the focus of the project is one where oyster shells were deposited. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of shells in Connecticut and addressing this problem is the primary goal.

The project brings together members of the community, shellfish farmers, and regulators, as Baumann says, this effort relies on the community, otherwise, it will not work.

Dr. Yipeng He becomes the department’s newest PhD!

Posted on November 3, 2022November 3, 2022 by Manning, Cara

Congratulations to Dr. Yipeng He, who successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled “Air-sea exchange of mercury and its species in the coastal and open ocean” on October 28, 2022. Dr. He was a student in Professor Rob Mason’s group and his PhD research included research cruises in the Pacific Ocean (GEOTRACES cruise GP-15), Arctic Ocean, and Long Island Sound to collect measurements of mercury at the air-sea interface. Drs. He, Mason and colleagues have already published some of the thesis results in Environmental Science & Technology and Atmospheric Environment.

Check out some photos from Dr. He’s journey below!

Dr. He will be departing soon for another GEOTRACES research cruise to collect more mercury data!

Dr. Yipeng He and Dr. Rob Mason following a successful thesis defense!

Yipeng He and colleagues on an Arctic research cruise

Yipeng and colleagues coring ice in the Arctic

Yipeng and the Mason lab with their atmospheric mercury sampler

Outreach event for eelgrass restoration

Posted on October 29, 2022October 29, 2022 by Manning, Cara

On October 19, members of the Marine Sciences Department participated in an outreach event for a research project that is led by Professors Craig Tobias and Jamie Vaudrey, graduate student Shannon Jordan, and Chris Pickerell from the Cornell Cooperative Extension. The research is funded through the Long Island Sound Study. The researchers are aiming to improve the success of eelgrass restoration by adding a chemical amendment to the sediments when eelgrass shoots are transplanted to a new location.

The outreach event involved bringing community members and scientists together to prepare the eelgrass shoots for transplanting at the new sites in the Niantic River. Shannon and the team have also been conducting lots of field measurements and laboratory experiments in the lead up to the transplanting event. We look forward to learning how the eelgrass grows in its new habitat over the next year!

Shannon Jordan, Josie Mottram, Anagha Payyambally, and Alex Frenzel prepare eelgrass shoots for transplanting

Community members prepare eelgrass shoots for transplanting. Credit: Jamie Vaudrey

Shannon Jordan and Alex Frenzel participate in fieldwork for the project

Shannon, Amelia, Brian and Peter collect sediments for laboratory experiments

Graduate student Mackenzie Blanusa participates in NASA S-MODE cruise

Posted on October 29, 2022October 29, 2022 by Manning, Cara

Graduate student Mackenzie Blanusa (a MSc student in Professor Cesar Rocha’s group) has written a blog post about her experience on the NASA Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE) research cruise.

Check it out here!

Mackenzie says: “I had been patiently waiting and dreaming about this research cruise for months. Yet a few days before traveling from Connecticut to Oregon for ship mobilization, I couldn’t shake a feeling of denial – like I couldn’t believe I was really going to be out in the Pacific Ocean on a research vessel for an entire month. … S-MODE is wrapping up in a few days and I’ll be on my way back home. The sense of denial I once felt has been replaced with self-confidence and motivation to pursue a career as a seagoing oceanographer. I have learned so much from all the other scientists on board who are more than happy to share their knowledge with a curious graduate student. Although S-MODE is ending, I know this is just the beginning of my journeys at sea.”

Congratulations to Mackenzie and the team on a successful expedition, and we look forward to seeing you back on campus!

Mackenzie (left) and Avery Snyder (right) getting ready to deploy a mixed layer float. Credit: Alex Kinsella

Marine Sciences faculty and students participate in Early College Experience event

Posted on October 4, 2022October 5, 2022 by Manning, Cara

On September 23, 2022, the Department of Marine Sciences helped to welcome 200 students from 12 high schools across Connecticut to the Avery Point campus for the annual Early College Experience Cardboard Boat Race event. These students are taking UConn courses at their local high schools and also prepared boats made only from cardboard and duct tape, which they raced in the waters off of Avery Point in the afternoon.

Prior to the races, Professor Matassa shared a presentation on the life of an ecologist and Professor Manning described how oceanographers use new technology to study changing ocean chemistry. Graduate students Mackenzie Blanusa and Riley Pena led a demonstration on the buoyancy of different vegetables. We look forward to seeing some of these high school students join the UConn Husky family in the future!

Congratulations are also on order for Marine Sciences undergraduate Devan Barnum who won the Avery Point community cardboard boat race on September 21, on behalf of the men’s basketball team!

Check out this article in The Day for more photos of the boat race.

The photos below were taken during the event and are provided by Michael Illuzzi, Gordon Daigle and Cara Manning.
Top: Graduate Students Riley Pena and Mackenzie Blanusa led a demonstration on buoyancy.
Middle: Prof. Matassa conducts a presentation on the life of an ecologist
Bottom: Prof. Manning dressed as a pH indicator for a presentation on changing ocean chemistry.

Prof. Rob Mason presented with Lifetime Achievement Award

Posted on September 21, 2022September 21, 2022 by Hannes Baumann

July 2022. DMS is proud to announce that Prof. Rob Mason was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award during this years ICMGP2022 (International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant). A big, heartfelt congratulations to this award, Rob!

Here is what the awarding committee said about Prof. Mason lifetime achievements:
Cross-posted from ICMGP2022

Dr. Robert (Rob) Mason has been a professor of Marine Sciences, with a joint appointment in Chemistry, at the University of Connecticut (UConn) since 2005. Prior to his current position he was a faculty member at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, part of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Studies, from 1994 to 2005. After graduating from UConn in 1991 with a PhD in Marine Sciences, under Dr. Bill Fitzgerald, he completed a post-doc at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts working with Drs. Francois Morel and Harry Hemond. Rob completed his undergraduate training in Analytical Chemistry in Durban, South Africa (RSA) and his MS at the University of Cape Town in 1983. Besides his academic studies and achievements, he has worked in research and development and for the Sea Fisheries Research Institute in Cape Town, RSA, studying oil pollution, and also completed 2 years as a program officer for the US National Science Foundation (NSF).

Rob has authored and co-authored over 230 scientific papers and book chapters, with over 27,485 citations with an H-index of 85 (Google Scholar). His four highest cited papers have more than 1000 citations each. He has co-edited four books and edited 6 special issues of journals focusing on large research activities, such as multi-investigator ocean cruises and conferences. He published the book Trace Metals in Aquatic Systems. Rob and his research group have presented papers at more than 400 national and international meetings, and he has been invited to present his research at institutions globally. Rob has attended all the International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant (ICMGP) conferences, except the first conference in Sweden when he was denied a visa due to the cultural boycott against South Africans that was in place due to the continuation of apartheid. He has been a ICMGP plenary speaker on two occasions (Minamata in 2004 and Nova Scotia in 2011). He has been on the Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) for a number of the ICMGP conferences, and was an Executive Committee Member for the 2017 conference in Providence, Rhode Island, and is for the 2022 virtual meeting. He has been on the organizing committee and a SSC member for other international conferences, including the International Conference on Heavy Metals in the Environment (ICHMET), where he was a plenary speaker in 2018, and the International Estuarine Biogeochemistry Symposium (IEBS), which he hosted in 2004. He has chaired sessions at most of the ICMGP meetings and at the other conferences that he has attended.
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His mentoring activities have resulted in 13 PhD and 8 MS theses, where he has been the major advisor, and he has been a committee member for many other graduate students. Eighty percent of his graduate students have been women and, besides the USA, his students have come from Africa and Asia. He has been an external examiner for PhD students in Canada, Europe and South Africa. He has also mentored more than 10 post-docs and visiting scientists from around the world, including Fulbright Scholars and students/post-docs from Europe and Asia. He has also had many high school and undergraduate students working in his laboratories over the years. He has taught classes throughout his career, and has always incorporated his research into his teaching. He expects to continue to teach classes in Chemical Oceanography, Trace Metals and Isotopes and Environmental Chemistry in the future.

He has collaborated extensively with scientists from around the world and has been involved in synthesis and other activities through national and international organizations including the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), and other UN organizations, and their partnership programs, the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP), and the Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollutants (HTAP) initiative. He has been actively involved in communicating science to policy makers both in the USA and globally. He has been involved in many activities as a science advisor to federal, state and local organizations and industry related to contaminated sites and/or the impacts of human activities on local waters and biota, and subsequently humans and wildlife, and in their remediation.

Rob’s research has been funded by numerous federal and state agencies, as well as from non-governmental organizations, with the majority of his funding from the NSF (30 grants). He has been part of long-term studies, such as the METAALICUS Project, the GEOTRACES Program and studies on mercury in coastal environments in collaboration with colleagues at Dartmouth College. He has collaborated extensively with scientists in America, Europe, Asia and Africa. His research has taken him to the far corners of the Earth, including remote regions of the Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. He has participated in 9 open ocean cruises during his career, and been chief scientist on more than one occasion, and has been involved in many coastal cruises and terrestrial studies. He has conducted research in Southern Africa and was also a Fulbright Scholar doing studies in West Africa related to artisanal gold mining (ASGM) impacts on the environment.

Rob recently participated in a research cruise in the Arctic Ocean and his post-doc was involved in another cruise around Iceland in 2021. He expects to continue his open ocean studies going forward, and hopes to remain involved in the GEOTRACES program. He is continuing with studies of Hg interactions in coastal waters, and the relationship between Hg cycling and transformation and those of other elements, such as selenium. He is currently the major advisor/co-advisor of 5 PhD students and is actively involved in their research, and is also actively writing papers based on prior studies. There are many papers still to be written and he is also currently involved in synthesis efforts as part of the current AMAP mercury synthesis. He expects to remain active in research, teaching, consulting and related activities for several years as there are too many good ideas to pursue to stop right now!

On the behalf of the mercury scientific community, the Scientific Steering Committee of the 15th International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant, cordially congratulate Professor Mason for receiving the LAA Award.

Pieter Visscher selected as a GSA 2022 fellow

Posted on September 21, 2022 by Hannes Baumann

DMS is proud to announce that Prof. Pieter Visscher has been newly elected as a 2022 fellow at the Geological Society of America. The GSA Society Fellowship is an honor bestowed on the best of our profession by election at the spring GSA Council meeting. GSA members are nominated by other GSA members in recognition of a sustained record of distinguished contributions to the geosciences and the Geological Society of America through such avenues as publications, applied research, teaching, administration of geological programs, contributing to the public awareness of geology, leadership of professional organizations, and taking on editorial, bibliographic, and library responsibilities.
Congratulations, Pieter!

This is what nominator Nora Noffke said about Pieter:

"Pieter Visscher has made commendable contributions in carbon biogeochemistry, geomicrobiology, and marine sedimentology. He is active member of GSA for 25 years, and has presented regularly at GSA meetings. More so, Pieter has successfully trained many students and peers"