Outreach

Harmony of Nature II: Music as a Tool for Science Communication

Posted on March 24, 2025March 25, 2025 by Hannes Baumann

Molly, a scientist and bass trombone player in the Southeastern Connecticut Community Orchestra, and Sophy, a pianist trained at The Juilliard School and a teacher at Yewon Arts School in Seoul, previously merged their passions to create Harmony of Nature phase I in 2022. The project transformed environmental data (temperature changes, wind speed, wave height, and tides) from the South Korean Meteorological Agency into sounds and classical compositions.

The project received a lot of positive feedback, especially following live performances. Motivated by this success, the team enlisted Max, a composer also trained at The Juilliard School and computer scientist, to help develop a second album. Like the first, Harmony of Nature II uses environmental data to generate musical compositions, but with a specific focus on wave data.

One piece, called honshu_east_all - tsunami, is composed from data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) buoy system during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The piece features bell tones at intervals that correspond to the tsunami signal detected by the buoys as it traveled across the Pacific Ocean. Another composition, sea level rise, uses NOAA Tides & Currents buoy data from long-standing stations in NY and CT to explore sea level rise in Long Island Sound.

The goal of these compositions is to translate complex, non-intuitive environmental data into a deeper emotional connection to nature. While it can be difficult to quantitatively measure the exact impact on scientific literacy or audience actions, Molly notes that in-person feedback has been “very positive” with listeners expressing emotional connections and increased knowledge.

The team is already working on Harmony of Nature III, with a target release date sometime between 2025 and 2026. Currently, they are exploring datasets from the 2024 Atlantic Ocean hurricane season that brought devastation to the US including storms such as Beryl, Helene, and Milton. At the same time, they are also exploring data related to rapid Arctic environmental changes and glacial melt. Their future goals include expanding the instrumentation, recruiting more musicians for recordings and performances, and including researchers from other scientific fields.

“This exercise in collaboration and science communication presented me with opportunities to learn from my two teammates who have totally different skillsets from my own and who challenge my inclinations and training as a scientist. I am out of my comfort zone in all our meetings”, says Molly.

For her, the experiences with Harmony of Nature have offered multiple iterations of science communication training from communicating to Sophy and Max as well as to their intended audience. Molly adds that effective science communication, whether through music or other avenues, relies on understanding your audience, distilling your message, and avoiding jargon.

So far, Sophy has performed Harmony of Nature II at several venues in the US, including the Marc A. Scorca Hall at the National Opera Center in New York City (3/23/24), the Branford House at UConn Avery Point (3/27/24), and at the von der Mehden Hall at UConn Storrs (3/29/24).

“Just keep swimming: challenges in PhD research”

Posted on March 8, 2025March 11, 2025 by Hannes Baumann

The ole adage holds true for DMS graduate student Emma Siegfried’s first experiments on a new species of sand lance

By Samantha Rush and Hannes Baumann

In 1984, the late Alphonse Smigielski and colleagues published a research paper that showed how American sand lance (Ammodytes americanus) could be successfully spawned and reared in the laboratory. Now, DMS PhD student Emma Siegfried is working to continue experimental research on this species, finding that revisiting the 40 year old study is not without challenges.

Sand lances are so called forage fish, meaning that their role in the ecosystem is to eat tiny planktonic organisms while being important food themselves for higher trophic animals such as other fish, seabirds, and marine mammals. Despite their importance, there is insufficient information about how this species will cope to climate change, particularly during the most sensitive larval and embryo stages. To fill this knowledge gap, Emma’s work focuses on exploring how increasing water temperatures and carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels affect sand lance embryos and larvae.

Previous research conducted in Prof. Hannes Baumann’s Evolutionary Fish Ecology lab discovered that embryos of the closely related Northern sand lance (Ammodytes dubius) are extremely sensitive to elevated CO₂ levels, as they are projected to occur in future oceans. However, whether American sand lance are equally CO₂ sensitive is not known.

Emma’s thesis research began in 2024 by first trying to find a reliable and easy to access location, where the species could be found and collected. In the harbor of the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve in Wells, Maine, she found what she needed, because her fish occurred in high numbers there and could be sampled at low tide easily via beach seine. Now Emma’s goal was to catch the fish as close as possible prior to their spawning season, which in the case of sand lance starts with the beginning of winter.

In late August and early October 2024, Emma and her lab mates successfully collected sand lance and transported them live to the Rankin Seawater at Avery Point. There, however, sand lance proved challenging to care for, as they prefer spending days to weeks burrowed in sand (hence their name), making it difficult to monitor their health and development. Subsequent sampling efforts in November and early December brought a new set back, because the previously accessible population in Wells Harbor had evidently moved into slightly deeper waters and thereby out of reach for the beach seine. Unfazed, Emma proceeded to rear the fish she already had in the lab, hoping that they would ripen and eventually produce embryos for a CO₂-sensitivity experiment.

At first, this looked like another failure. Sand lance use the declining temperature as a cue to ripen, but the waters of eastern Long Island Sound that flow through the Rankin lab remained unseasonably warm well into December. Eventually, however, on 23 December 2024, water temperatures crossed the critical 7°C threshold, and 3 days later, Emma and her lab mates indeed succeeded in strip-spawning a few ripened up females! The fertilized embryos were then placed in the Automatic Larval Fish Rearing System (ALFiRiS) that allows computer-controlled exposure of organisms to different temperature and CO₂ conditions.

Unfortunately, more experimental setbacks followed. Less than 1% of the embryos actually developed to hatch, the CO₂-induced acidification did not produce the desired target pH levels, and a system malfunction remained undetected long enough to raise water temperatures to unnatural levels. Emma remains positive, however, and looks at her trials and tribulations as well as the preliminary data as a valuable exercise in gathering experience with this new, non-model species.

“Even though it didn’t go the way we expected, [we] still learned a lot.” she says.

She added that science is by definition challenging, but she is eager to apply what she has learned and move forward. More generally, her thesis research aims to answer the question whether CO₂-sensitivity is a shared trait among sand lance species. To that end, she is applying for a grant to collaborate with researchers in Bergen, Norway who have experience with another, closely related sand lance species (Lesser sand eel, Ammodytes marinus). She hopes to secure funding to travel and conduct research there from December 2025 through March 2026.

At DMS phytoplankton are now on IFCB-TV

Posted on February 5, 2025February 6, 2025 by Hannes Baumann

The team of DMS researchers Dr. Zofia Baumann, Dr. Kate Randolph and Hazel Levine are happy to share that a major new instrument has begun its long anticipated work. The Imaging Flow Cytobot - or IFCB for short - is for now installed in the Rankin Seawater lab, after being purchased with a UConn-CLAS shared equipment grant nearly two years ago (Dierssen, Baumann et al.).

The instrument has the capacity to monitor and display in real time the breath-taking diversity of microscopic life in the ocean. Our IFCB focuses on the smaller size classes 5 - 150 um, which mostly represent single cell algae and small mixotrophs.

Leveraging additional NSF support, we were able to overcome challenges with operating the IFCB on a routine basis. The IFCB now accesses the intake line of the Rankin Lab (a very small fraction of it) and then photographs any particles and characteristic shapes. The compilation below shows a given size range to illustrate some of the diversity. The IFCB now records these images and displays them on a public-facing online Dashboard, which can be mesmerizing to watch.

Plankton-composite — The composition of some of the larger phytoplankton as captured by the IFCB on February 6th 2025.

The implementation of the IFCB in Rankin Lab was led by Kate Randolph and greatly supported by Hazel Levine, Bob Dziomba, Charlie Woods, Todd Fake, and Chris Mills! Thank you.

The next step is to develop an AI-based classification system for automatic species identification. This will still take time, but we are collaborating with other IFCB users, including its inventors, and are optimistic about the progress ahead.

We hope you enjoy the stunning images of phytoplankton on what we like to call

"IFCB TV" !

Posted on February 5, 2025February 5, 2025 by Hannes Baumann

Reposted from UConn Today by Sarah Al-Arshani | January 28, 2025

A study led by marine sciences Ph.D. student Hannah Collins found that Novamont’s Mater-Bi, a starch-based polymer, degraded significantly faster than traditional plastics—showing promise for reducing marine pollution

Plastic pollution has become a global crisis, with the United Nations Environment Programme estimating between 19 and 23 million tons of plastic waste leak into aquatic ecosystems each year. A partnership between UConn marine sciences researchers and a leading bioplastics manufacturer is showing promise in addressing this issue.

A recent study published in the Journal of Polymers and the Environment found that Mater-Bi, a starch-based polymer produced by Italian company Novamont, degraded by as much as nearly 50% over nine months in a marine environment—significantly more than traditional plastics.

Novamont, which has a U.S. office in Shelton, collaborated with the UConn team to evaluate the product’s biodegradation.

tanks-hannah-and-larissa-3-998x665 — Marine sciences Ph.D. candidate Hannah Collins and Larissa Tabb '22 evaluate the lab tanks to check on degradation progress. (Contributed by Hannah Collins)

The study was led by Hannah Collins, a marine sciences Ph.D. candidate. Collins and her co-author, Larissa Tabb ’22 (CLAS), highlighted research done as part of the Marine Environmental Physiology Laboratory under the guidance of her advisor, professor and head of marine sciences Evan Ward.

“I’ve always been interested in how marine animals interact with their environment,” Collins says. “When our lab started looking at microplastics, it was clear how pervasive and damaging this problem is.”

Collins says the findings could have meaningful implications for reducing plastic pollution in aquatic environments. For example, products like Mater-Bi could replace traditional plastics used in aquatic structures, such as kelp farm lines, to reduce the possibility of plastic pollution.

“We’ve seen the pictures of sea turtles with plastic around their heads,” she says. “We have a lot of evidence of the negative effects of plastic pollution.”

Collins, who grew up visiting Cape Cod and the beaches of Long Island Sound, has long been fascinated by marine life. After earning a degree in biology from Gettysburg College and working in Alaska’s salmon fisheries, she decided to combine her passion for marine organisms and the environment, first in her master’s program and now for her Ph.D.

She says the collaboration with Novamont has helped her feel like she is making a difference in addressing marine pollution. It also provided her with hands-on experience examining real-world product applications.

Biodegradable plastics like Mater-Bi degrade much faster than traditional plastics, reducing risks to aquatic environments. However, Collins notes that many of these products are often tested under controlled conditions, not in real-world marine environments.

Collins’ research on Mater-Bi was conducted in a semi-controlled environment at the John S. Rankin Laboratory on the Avery Point campus. The lab filters seawater from the surrounding area to keep large organisms, like crabs, out. This allowed Collins and her team to test how much the product degraded in natural conditions while ruling out the impact of interference from those large organisms.

Her team tested samples of a Mater-Bi compostable bag, a traditional plastic bag, and a known biodegradable plastic in the lab. Every two weeks, they checked and measured how much each sample degraded by either mass or area. After nine months, they found that the Mater-Bi samples lost between 25% and 47% of their mass or area. Additionally, they found that the rate of degradation increased during warmer months.

“Microbial activity tends to increase in warmer conditions, which likely contributed to the faster degradation rates we observed,” Collins says.

Collins says she is hopeful that these findings could lead to future uses of Mater-Bi in aquaculture, especially for products where temporary or disposable materials are often used, such as oyster grow-out bags or kelp farming lines.

“If something breaks loose, it won’t persist in the water for decades,” she says.

Collins and Tabb have maintained connections with Novamont. Collins will attend the World Aquaculture Conference in New Orleans this March, where she hopes to connect industry leaders with biodegradable products like those produced by Novamont.

“Addressing plastic pollution requires a range of solutions,” she says. “Biodegradable plastics are just one piece of the puzzle.”

New fellowship offers outreach experience for DMS students!

Posted on September 17, 2024September 17, 2024 by Hannes Baumann

The New Generation of Marine Scientists and Stewards Fellowship is a new initiative led by Dr. Zofia Baumann, who has secured funding for the Department of Marine Sciences to award $1,500 to each of three graduate students for the academic year 2024/25. The inaugural recipients of this fellowship are Anagha Payyambally, Emily Watling, and Bernard Akaawase, who bring a rich diversity of backgrounds, experiences, and expertise to share with K-12 students in Groton, CT.

Located in the southeastern corner of Connecticut, Groton is part of the ancestral territory of the Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Nipmuc, and Lenape Peoples, who have been stewards of this land for generations. Groton is also classified as an Environmental Justice Community, underscoring the importance of land and water stewardship to protect the marine ecosystems that coastal communities, including Groton, rely on. Scientific inquiry is a powerful tool that can empower people to become environmental stewards, and the fellowship recipients will engage with K-12 students in Groton to share their unique perspectives on this process.

Anagha Payyambally is a first-generation graduate student from India pursuing a Ph.D. in chemical oceanography. She understands the immense value of sharing ideas with the younger generation and is eager to contribute to this initiative.

Emily Watling, a New England native passionate about the marine environment, is working toward her M.S. with a focus on marine ecology. She is excited to collaborate with the other fellows and bring a "storm of ideas" to the table.

Bernard Akaawase, originally from Nigeria, is a third-year Ph.D. student specializing in physical oceanography. Committed to engaging with the younger generation, he has also served as the community outreach chair for the Graduate Students of Color Association (GSCA) at UConn.

As the fellows embark on this journey, stay tuned for updates on their activities and impact in the Groton community.

Bridget Holohan – MVP technician

Posted on June 5, 2023June 13, 2023 by Hannes Baumann

Ewaldo: What was your academic journey before you got here?

Bridget: I grew up in Michigan, and I wanted to be an oceanographer. The only school close to where I grew up that had an oceanography program was the University of Michigan, and I wasn't quite ready to go across the country at 18. When I was finishing up there –this was before the internet so finding a job to apply for was harder than it is now–I didn't quite know what I was going to do for a job and decided to go to graduate school. Okay, maybe it wasn’t the best decision to go based on that. I went to the University of Rhode Island and got my master's degree. I thought about whether I wanted my PhD, but I decided that I like to be the one getting my hands dirty, not the one writing a proposal or writing the paper. I wanted to be the one doing it. So, I decided if I got a PhD, more than likely, that wouldn't be what I was doing. I stopped at a master’s degree, which was a good decision for me. As I was finishing up there, I saw a job in the state of Connecticut at the Williams Mystic program. They were looking for a TA.

Ewaldo: And how did you decide to be an oceanographer?

Bridget: I decided to become an oceanographer when I was the age of 12. My family went on a cruise down in the Caribbean and one of the things we did was snorkel. The first time I went snorkeling, I was blown away. I had no idea that there were all these amazing things under the surface of the water. No idea. I grew up in the Midwest. I knew about fish, we have the Great Lakes, but the organisms under the water in the Great Lakes do not look like in the tropics. It was just so incredibly fascinating. I wanted to study the ocean but at that point it was just a fantasy doing research on the ocean. I was planning to become a pharmacist because that seemed more sensible. However, when I started thinking about applying to colleges, I asked myself: why would I be a pharmacist? What I really want to do is oceanography.

Ewaldo: Williams-Mystic program. What is it?

Bridget: It's an off-campus study program of Williams College, which is conducted at Mystic Seaport. And it's entirely based around the ocean. Students come in for one semester. It's like a semester abroad, only it is a domestic program which is focused on the ocean. And they take either marine biology or oceanography. They also take maritime history, marine literature, and marine policy. They read Moby Dick, as you might imagine. They totally get immersed in the program.

Ewaldo: That’s super interesting. What was your master’s degree in?

Bridget: My master's research was on the ecology of Ceriantheopsis americanus, which is a burrowing mud anemone.

Ewaldo: And why didn't you follow up on that particular topic?

Bridget: There's not a lot of jobs for that particular topic. So, I found a job that was mainly education. But it was a horrible salary. Like a third of what you students make. So, in the summer, I went to an oceanography summer camp and worked there. Then after a couple of years, I was like: “Okay, I cannot make a living at this”. I was searching around not being so successful. In the meantime, I did another environmental education job down in Virginia, which was fun.

Ewaldo: All the way down! So when did you come back up to the Northeast?

Bridget: As I was finishing that up, my former boss said: “I got a Pew Foundation Grant, and I put in money for a research assistant. Do you want to come work with me?” I said yes and I went to work with him, but it was only a two-year grant. As that was coming to an end, I saw a job by a man named Evan Ward. I didn't really know anything about culturing phytoplankton, which was what he wanted. But I figured I could learn. Why not? Right. So yeah, that's how I got here. And that was in 1999.

Ewaldo: It's been 24 years! And what was your position then – and currently?

Bridget: I was a research assistant when I started. Now, I'm a research assistant three, but in a lot of ways, my job is very similar. The only thing that has really changed is that as funding got tight, I started to work for Rob Mason as well. I also worked with Claudia for some time, because her job was expanding. I like the fact that there's a lot of variety. I hate being bored.

Ewaldo: You have done a lot of different things and learned a lot of things in this dynamic way. What were your biggest challenges and also biggest joys here?

Bridget: You know, I really enjoy working with bivalves, I like running experiments. Even though sometimes they can be a little crazy. I like seeing the whole process, from what we are proposing to do, to making it happen, and analyzing the data. And then luckily, I don't have to write it.

Ewaldo: Would you have advice for grad students?

Bridget: Boy, that's a really good question. One of the things in this is just kind of funny, because writing is not my favorite thing to do. But people often get hung up on the writing portion, thinking to themselves: “Okay, I need to write the perfect sentence”. Sometimes you just need to write. The beauty of the computer is that you can delete it, you can move it, you can copy and paste it into a different document. So you just have to get your ideas down on “paper”, and then refine them later. Just write it down, get it on the computer, and then fix it.
Also, I recognize that there can be a weird power dynamic between students and professors. But with most professors, you can really just say, “I need help with this….” Rather than wasting a bunch of time, being afraid to ask. Professors will be more receptive than if you wait five months and say you haven't been able to get this to work for five months. That is especially true when students are first starting out, and I see that is an easy role for me to fill. Because students are more comfortable coming to me and saying: “Hey, I don't know what's going on here”. Usually I can point them in a direction or even facilitate the conversation. And of course, there have certainly been times that my advice has been about things having nothing to do with oceanography.

Ewaldo: This is all great advice. Thank you. Maybe the final question, what's the story behind the five cents for advice in your door?

Bridget: I came back to my office one day, and we had a new nameplate and my title was wrong. Nobody told us they were going to change nameplates. I was not happy, so I took it off. I, of course, calmed down. I was going to put the correct title and make it more legible by making our names bigger (I shared an office at the time). It wasn’t a priority for me, so I took my time replacing it. One day I came back to my office and the Lucy character from the Peanuts comic was there. In the Peanuts comics, she had a little booth where she gave advice for five cents. One of my colleagues put it in there because sometimes people come to me for things other than science related advice. I found out later that it was Jeff Godfrey. I thought it was super funny, so I just left it. And one day I came back and there was a little bag of nickels.

Ewaldo: Who did that?

Bridget: It was Lydia Norton

Ewaldo: I guess that sounds about right! Hehe. Thank you so much, Bridget!

CT-NERR is fully staffed and operational!

Posted on June 5, 2023June 20, 2023 by Hannes Baumann

By Ewaldo Leitao

Thanks to the tremendous efforts of our esteemed researchers, the University of Connecticut now hosts the Connecticut National Estuary Research Reserve (NERR). The NERR System is a network of 30 coastal areas designed to protect and study estuarine ecosystems. The NERR System is a program of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), and recently Connecticut was added to this group. These reserves serve many purposes, and Long Island Sound is a large economic contributor and recreational area. Considering the importance of coastal and estuarine ecosystems, the Connecticut Reserve is an important program that fosters management guided through information collected by scientists. Some of the sites selected include Bluff Point and Haley Farm State Park. You can read more about it here.

While the initiative and leadership was spearheaded by Prof. Jamie Vaudrey within the Marine Sciences Department, the office now counts with many new names and faces. You will find them located in offices on the second floor. But we want to make sure to give them all a proper welcome! You can find their full bios and contact information here.

Jamie Vaudrey - Research Coordinator - CT NERR

Jamie is a marine ecosystems ecologist and modeler, interested in the impacts of humans on coastal waters. She received a B.A. in Biology with a minor in Philosophy from Wellesley College, MA; moved on to study environmental education in the Florida Keys, then in Oregon; then on to graduate school at the University of Connecticut. Jamie was the UConn lead, shepherding the establishment of a NOAA National Estuarine Research Reserve in Connecticut and is currently the Research Coordinator for the Reserve. Jamie is also involved with EPA’s National Estuary Program, serving on the science advisory committees of the Long Island Sound Study and the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program. You can learn more about her research interests by visiting her website: https://vaudrey.lab.uconn.edu/. Her favorite reserve is the Mumford Cove! “I first ‘met’ Mumford Cove as a graduate student, 24 years ago – the study location of my dissertation. In 1999, eelgrass was just starting to recolonize the Cove and I had the opportunity to document the progress of its return, working with a team of fellow grad students and undergrads who are still some of my best friends today. Amazing how much a small Cove has to teach, and how many opportunities it provides!”

Larissa Graham - Education Coordinator - CT NERR

Larissa has worked in the environmental field for nearly 15 years, sharing science-based information with a variety of coastal audiences. She worked for the New York Sea Grant as the Long Island Sound Study Outreach Coordinator, and for the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant, the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, and, most recently, the Student Conservation Association as the Alabama and Mississippi State Director. Larissa is looking forward to settling back into her New England roots. She spent a lot of time boating and fishing with her family as a child, which fostered her love for the Sound.

Ashley Hamilton - Research Assistant - System Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP)

Ashley graduated from the UConn Avery Point community with a B.S. in marine sciences, and completed a master’s degree from the University of Rhode Island, where her research focused on the impacts of anthropogenic stressors to commercially important bivalve species. Since 2016 she has worn various hats in the shellfish and seaweed aquaculture industry, including farm hand, hatchery production and researcher. Ashley is excited to guide the next generation of undergraduate researchers. Ashley shared that her “NERRdiest” thing is to get tattoos of the organisms she works or studies, which includes a (scientifically accurate!) anatomical eastern oyster. She shares: “Next on my wish list is a blue mussel shell in celebration of finishing my thesis, and I can see some marsh plants and critters in my future as I venture into the CT NERR monitoring program!”

Jason Krumholz - Stewardship Coordinator - CT NERR

Jason is an Associate Professor at UConn and the Stewardship Coordinator for the Reserve. In this role, he helps to facilitate resource inventory, conservation, and restoration goals in concert with federal, state, and local partner organizations as well as contributes to scientific research, outreach, and education efforts at the Reserve. He served with NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center as the Liaison Ecologist to the Long Island Sound Study, where he worked with a wide range of partner organizations at the interface of science and policy on several efforts to improve the transmission of scientific data into management. He is the Chief Scientist for two small non-profits; The Reef Ball Foundation, which uses designed artificial reef technology to facilitate coastal restoration, and Slow No Wake, which works on marine debris removal and education in the recreational fishing sector. He is also a founding board member of Remote Ecologist, a non-profit organization designed to remove the barriers to participation faced by independent and unaffiliated research scientists. Jason recounted that once he got roped into diving off of Pine Island to collect green crabs in the middle of the winter for a colleague. "It was so cold that ice was literally forming on our gear. It was one of those moments that was pretty miserable at the time, but the memory of it is somehow very positive… one of those moments where you realize that if you like what you do enough to do THIS, then you’re probably going to really enjoy doing it for the rest of your career.”

Katie Lund - Coastal Training Program Coordinator - CT NERR

Katie joins the Reserve from her previous position at UConn’s Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation where she led engagement activities and managed municipal and research grant projects to increase resilience of Connecticut’s communities to the growing impacts of climate change. Katie has worked for over 20 years on a variety of coastal management topics – including the Northeast Regional Ocean Council and Long Island Sound’s marine spatial plan and the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management’s special area management. Katie holds an M.S. in Marine Resource Management from Oregon State University. “One of my favorite memories of the Reserve is the first walk I did on Bluff Point with my kids when they were very young”, shared Katie. “After we’d gone a couple miles and they were ready to turn around, I saw a small side trail to the right and convinced them to try it. We popped out onto a beautiful beach…such a surprise – I had no idea there was such a BIG and quiet and beautiful beach as part of Bluff Point. Over ten years later, I now work for the NERR and this beach is part of our new reserve!”

George McManus - Interim Manager and UConn Center Director - CT NERR

George is a biological oceanographer. He received his PhD from Stony Brook University and worked at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, the University of Maryland, and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab before coming to UConn, where he has taught for 28 years. His research is focused on microbial plankton, including bacteria, phytoplankton, and ciliated protozoa, documenting their diversity and distributions in the coastal ocean. He is currently serving as the Interim Reserve Manager and Center Director. One of his fond memories of the Sound is when he was fishing with his son and a seal popped up next to the boat with a fish in his mouth. “We just stood there watching and marveling at this bit of the food chain taking place before our eyes”, said George.

Sam Stadnick - Fiscal Officer - CT NERR

Sam joins the Reserve as its Fiscal Officer after working in the Connecticut House of Representatives where he assisted elected officials with their constituent service and legislative responsibilities. He is thrilled to use his experience in public affairs to protect the natural areas of Eastern Long Island Sound and the Lower Connecticut River Valley where he has been a longtime hiker and boater. Sam is also very proud to return to UConn, where he graduated with a B.A. in Political Science. Sam mentioned that: “When fishing near Millstone Point with my father, we would often catch Tautog, or blackfish – one of the most beautiful (and delicious) fin fish in Long Island Sound. The rocky outcroppings that lie off of Millstone Point provide great habitat for the fish and great recreational fishing opportunities.”

Finally in person again: Feng Graduate Research Colloquium 2023!

Posted on June 2, 2023June 13, 2023 by Hannes Baumann

18 May 2023. After a COVID-forced hiatus of more than two years, our department finally held a successful Feng graduate student research colloquium in person again. The Feng Graduate Research Colloquium has been a tradition in the Marine Sciences Department since 1996. Named after the first Head of the Department of Marine Sciences, Dr. Sung Y. Feng, the colloquium was started by Prof. Hans Dam. The colloquium acts as a conference in which students receive friendly, constructive criticism, and have the opportunity to work on developing their abstract writing, leadership, and scientific communication skills. The Colloquium is funded by the Department of Marine Sciences and the S.Y. Feng Scholarship Fund.

This years colloquium featured 16 oral presentations and 20 posters spanning the entire diversity of marine research in our department. Special thanks to the student organizers and Debra Schuler for the help behind the scenes.

See the colloquium list of talks and poster presentations, including abstracts

Our [student] Life on the Ocean

Posted on May 31, 2023June 13, 2023 by Hannes Baumann

By Ewaldo Leitao.
When we say we work or study oceanography, it is common for us to be met with a: “Wow, you must spend a lot of time doing cool stuff in the ocean then!” Alas, most of us spend most of our time on a computer. However, cruises are still an essential part of oceanographic research to collect the necessary data or test equipment. In our department, many students have this opportunity to participate in such cruises; all with fascinating and unique research interests. Over the past year, several students joined cruises to get familiar with field techniques, collect their own data, or to better understand their study area. In this piece, graduate students in our Marine Sciences department shared their experiences in cruises that took place from Summer 2022 up to May 2023.

“In the Summer 2022 I participated in the Sea Education Association (SEA) summer cruise through the great pacific garbage patch, which sailed from Honolulu, HI to San Diego CA, starting In late June and ending in late July. SEA typically runs programs with undergraduates, who take part in cruises to learn about oceanography, sailing, and earn course credit. As a grad student, I was able to tag along as a visiting scientist and focus on collecting data.

My research focused on taking optical measurements, such as spectral reflectance, of freshly-collected plastic pieces. Previous work has been published on plastic spectral reflectance properties, but these measurements were made on dried and stored samples. Out in the environment, plastic pieces are likely to have some degree of biofilming growing on them. So, I sought to collect spectral reflectance measurements of freshly collected plastics in order to assess how the presence of biofilms might impact plastic spectral reflectance. Knowing this will be useful for sensitivity analyses seeking to develop a satellite-based ocean plastic detection algorithm.

During the cruise, I conducted daily neuston net tows to collect plastic pieces. Neuston nets are towed along the surface of the water to collect as many buoyant plastic pieces as possible. Once collected, I rinsed the plastics out of the net and into a bucket, then picked them out and aggregated them for spectral measurement.”

“I participated in NASA’s Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE) IOP1 as part of the science party aboard the R/V Bold Horizon. The cruise took place from 10/06/2022 – 11/04/2022 in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 100 miles offshore of San Francisco, California. The focus of this experiment was to sample ocean fronts that are a few kilometers in size to study their dynamics and effects on vertical transport. The ocean fronts were sampled using aircraft, ship surveying, and autonomous platforms such as wave gliders, sea gliders, saildrones, floats, and drifters. I worked the night shift from 4pm – 4am, running an instrument called an EcoCTD, which measures temperature, salinity, pressure, chlorophyll, backscatter, and oxygen. I also helped with the recovery and deployment of wave gliders and mixed layer floats.

I am currently (03/06/2023 – 04/06/2023) aboard NOAA’s R/V Ronald H. Brown for U.S. GO-SHIP’s decadal reoccupation of A16N in the Atlantic Ocean. I am participating in the first leg of the cruise, sailing from Brazil to Spain. The second leg of the cruise will be sailing from Spain to Iceland. This is a longline hydrographic cruise, where we take CTD casts at many stations along the same longitude line. The CTD rosette has 24 bottles and is deployed to the bottom of the ocean. I am working with Dr. Chris Langdon’s research lab out of the University of Miami. The Langdon lab is leading measurements on oxygen, pH, and total alkalinity. I am overseeing pH measurements using a spectrophotometer. Other groups are taking measurements which include DIC, DOC, CFCs, velocity, temperature, salinity, and biological samples. The best part of my trip so far has been getting to explore Brazil, crossing the equator, and viewing beautiful sunrises every morning.”

Yipeng He, alumnus of the Mason Mercury Lab, studied air-sea mercury exchange in the ocean for his PhD, also had cool research experiences in cruises.

“I was on a scientific cruise - the GEOTRACES GP17 cruise, leaving San Diego (CA) on Nov 13 2022. Going from North Pacific to South Pacific, crossing the Equator, going further south and crossing the Antarctic cycle, and arriving at Punta Arena (Chile) on Jan 25 (2023). The boat was R/V Roger Revelle, which was my second time sailing on this boat. The first time was the GEOTRACES GP15 cruise in 2018. I was collecting samples and measuring atmospheric mercury species, air-sea exchange of mercury species and surface ocean Beryllium-7 profile.”

Kayla Mladinich Poole receives R. LeRoy Creswell Award for Outreach and Education

Posted on April 4, 2023April 4, 2023 by Manning, Cara

Kayla Mladinich Poole, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Marine Sciences, was awarded the R. LeRoy Creswell Award for Outreach and Education through the National Shellfisheries Association (NSA). Kayla was selected for her extensive communications and outreach experience with the public and in STEM, as well as for her work as an active volunteer at the annual NSA conferences. Kayla is the first recipient of the award created to honor R. LeRoy Creswell’s life and impressive work in outreach and extension services. Congratulations, Kayla!

The ole adage holds true for DMS graduate student Emma Siegfried’s first experiments on a new species of sand lance

We hope you enjoy the stunning images of phytoplankton on what we like to call

"IFCB TV" !

UConn Today features DMS graduate student Hannah Collins’ research into biodegradable plastics

Reposted from UConn Today by Sarah Al-Arshani | January 28, 2025