SCOR (Scientific Committee for Ocean Research, see https://scor-int.org/) has approved a new Working Group, “MetaZooGene: Toward a new global view of marine zooplankton biodiversity based on DNA metabarcoding and reference DNA sequence databases” (SCOR WG 157; see https://scor-int.org/group/157/) . The new WG is chaired by Ann Bucklin (UConn Marine Sciences), with co-vice-chairs K.T.C.A. (Katja) Peijnenburg (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and Ksenia Kosobokova (Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia). The WG will facilitate global cooperation among researchers using novel DNA-based approaches to study biodiversity of marine zooplankton. The goals of MetaZooGene are to ensure open access to data and direct comparison of results from different studies, encourage standardization of methods for applied uses in ocean assessment, and accelerate progress toward shared goals of understanding zooplankton biodiversity and functional roles in ocean ecosystems.

Photo P.H. Wiebe (WHOI)

Do you know what lives in our coastal marshes?
Explore Barn Island’s Salt Marsh on Sunday, September 16, 2018, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. with Avalonia Land Conservancy and scientists from UConn’s Department of Marine Sciences.

Join us to learn more about how our coastal marshes provide habitats for a variety of residents. There will be three stations for you to explore, located along a 0.25-mile stretch of the access road that runs through the marsh. A quick trip through the stations will take about an hour; to see everything, plan on two hours. Stations include:
• a welcome area with a touch tank of local intertidal organisms and marsh plants and a chance to examine some seaweed and take some home (as a pressing);
• a stream area where we are trapping fish and other aquatic animals, including hunting for coffee bean snails and scanning the sky for birds;
• a marsh pool and plant area where we will look at the plants and bacterial mats (imagine thin layers of rainbow Jell-O…), and look for insects.
At each station, you’ll also learn a bit about Avalonia Land Conservancy and the interesting history of Barn Island and marshes in general – as important habitats worldwide, and local farming and hunting practices.

Meet at the educational kiosks on the left just before the Barn Island CT state boat launch parking lot located at 249 Palmer Neck Road in Stonington. Turn southeast off Route 1 at Greenhaven Road then south on Palmer Neck Road and follow approximately 1.5 miles almost to the end (0.1 miles before the boat ramp). The access road is a dirt road but is handicapped accessible (and stroller accessible). No sanitation facilities are available at the event, though Porta Potties are available at the boat ramp, 0.2 miles from the welcome station.

Come prepared to get your feet wet!
This event is FREE and open to all – no registration is necessary.

Ann Bucklin (Professor of Marine Sciences) participated in a research cruise aboard the R/V Henry B. Bigelow exploring the deep layers of the North Atlantic Slope Water with oceanographers and engineers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and National Marine Fisheries Service. The expedition during August 10-21, 2018 was the inaugural cruise of the Ocean Twilight Zone initiative (OTZ, see https://twilightzone.whoi.edu/), a 6-year, $35 million effort that is using innovative technologies to document the ocean’s mysterious midwater layer. A combination of sonars, cameras, and sampling systems was used to try to quantify how many and what kind of animals live in this dimly-lit swath of ocean hundreds of meters below the surface. They found an abundance of marine life including zooplankton, squids, salps, and fish. The findings suggest that the sea’s murky depths might host more life than we thought.

Photo credit: Jennifer Berglund

University of Connecticut Department of Marine Sciences research professor emeritus Peter Auster and colleagues, including a Marine Sciences student serving as an intern, just returned from a cruise at Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of Georgia. With funding from the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, they were continuing a decade long study examining the behavioral interactions between predatory fish and their prey. This year, they expanded the scope of their research by using new 360-degree virtual reality video cameras that allow researchers to record interactions over time periods beyond that of divers and without human interference and over. The field of view of the video covers nearly a 360 degree sphere around each camera so pelagic predators high in the water column as well as reef predators are captured as the interact to herd and attack schools of prey fishes. Understanding the functional role of such interactions can aid both conservation and sustainable fisheries goals in these sub-tropical reef ecosystems.

Visit here to learn more:

https://graysreef.noaa.gov/science/expeditions/2018_nancy_foster/log_08072018.html

About 20,000 years ago, a blink of an eye in geologic time, the Earth was in an Ice Age. Huge parts of the planet were covered in ice sheets up to a mile thick. About 15,000 years ago, the ice sheets began to melt, and the driver of this process, known as deglaciation, was rising atmospheric CO2 levels.

The first study documenting that deglaciation is linked to increased levels of atmospheric CO2 was published in the early 1980s, yet the underlying driving mechanisms remain unknown more than 30 years later. University of Connecticut Department of Marine Sciences professor David Lund has received $379,000 from the National Science Foundation to study the role of the Atlantic Ocean circulation in storing and releasing carbon, addressing this significant knowledge gap.

Read the complete article here: https://today.uconn.edu/school-stories/ocean-currents-atmospheric-co2-deglaciation/

The Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation (CIRCA) at the University of Connecticut (UConn) recently announced a contract awarding just over $8 million to UConn from the Connecticut Department of Housing (DOH) for administration of a grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDR). UConn submitted a proposal to DOH in June 2017 for the project, “Development of the Connecticut Connections Coastal Resilience Plan” (C3RP).

CIRCA, with the support from faculty at the Urban Ecology and Design Laboratory of Yale University and Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, will use this $8 million NDR award to develop the C3RP. The planning process will involve extensive public input and coordination with state agencies and regional Councils of Governments and municipalities.

Through these partnerships, CIRCA will develop a resilience planning framework and assessments, develop implementation plans, assess flood risk, evaluate adaptation options, and engage stakeholders in New Haven and Fairfield counties to address vulnerabilities to future climate change and sea level rise. The C3RP project will run through May 2022 and will extend activities from an initial 2016 award from HUD to implement pilot projects in Bridgeport. This 2016 award led to a vulnerability assessment that includes maps of flood risk and social vulnerability and a conceptual resilience framework for the Connecticut coast. More on these products can be found here: https://circa.uconn.edu/projects/safr-ndrc/. In addition to the recent $8 million award to UConn CIRCA, additional funding will go to continue the pilot projects in Bridgeport.

In their announcement of this $8 million award, HUD highlighted the priority to “extend the existing planning effort to more communities in New Haven and Fairfield Counties with the goal of providing accessible downscaled inland and coastal flooding information at the watershed scale for inland and coastal municipalities.” When referring to the C3RP specifically, HUD said the award would “support the State’s efforts to bring these approaches to other at-risk communities along the I-95 corridor by contributing to planning efforts, including economic and climate modeling.”

The mission of CIRCA is to increase the resilience and sustainability of vulnerable communities along Connecticut’s coast and inland waterways to the growing impacts of climate change on the natural, built, and human environment. To learn more about CIRCA, visit http://circa.uconn.edu

Assistant professor of marine sciences Kelly Lombardo was awarded $583,701 for her project, titled “The Response of Coastal Squall Line Dynamics to Climate Change.”

The project will quantify the impact of a changing climate on severe thunderstorms over the eastern U.S. coastal region. In particular, the work will emphasize squall lines, or lines of thunderstorms, which can account for a third of all severe weather over the coastal Northeast. The population density of the northeastern U.S. creates a condition for great societal impact from these severe storms. Based on global circulation models that project an increase in U.S. summertime severe storm activity, this work will combine existing climate scenario projections and mesoscale numerical modeling techniques.

In addition to the training of undergraduate and graduate students, Lombardo’s research includes a component of public outreach and education towards improved communications between scientists and the public regarding weather and climate.

Click here to read more:  https://today.uconn.edu/2018/06/eight-uconn-faculty-win-nsf-career-awards/

Marine zooplankton are tiny animals, roughly the size of insects you might see on a summer day, that drift with ocean currents. Many of them are lovely, but except for scientists who study them, few people are aware that they are among the most numerous – and important – animals on Earth.

Click here to read the complete article by Professor Ann Bucklin: https://theconversation.com/scientists-are-using-dna-to-study-ocean-life-and-reveal-the-hidden-diversity-of-zooplankton-97815