The dinoflagellates aren’t happy.

In good times, these tiny ocean creatures live free-floating in the ocean or symbiotically with corals, serving up—or as—lunch to a host of mollusks, tiny fish and coral species. Some of them make glowing waves at night because they are bioluminescent.

But when conditions are wrong dinoflagellates poison shellfish beds and cause coral reefs to die.

Read the complete UConn Today article by Kim Krieger here: http://today.uconn.edu/2015/11/small-but-mighty-the-astounding-genome-of-the-dinoflagellate/

This article was also featured on NSF’s Science 360 News webpage:  http://news.science360.gov/archives/20151109/

On Saturday, September 26, 2015, 14 Marine Sciences graduate students put on another successful installment of Taste, Touch, and Smell of Science marine science day camp.  The camp held annually is an entirely graduate-run program which serves local and under privileged middle school students ages 9-13.  The day’s activities included a trip on the Eviro Lab II, boat time donated by Project Oceanology, and several interactive activities put on by graduate students for a group of 19 middle schoolers.  A special thanks to Connecticut Sea Grant, Department of Marine Sciences, and Project Oceanology for making this fun-filled and educational day possible.

Photos by Gihong Park

Friday morning (9-25-15), a group of interested graduate and undergraduate students from the Marine Sciences Department went to Mumford Cove to go beach seining.  Check out the action from the trip.

http://befel.marinesciences.uconn.edu/2015/09/26/field-work-beachseining-from-the-fish-perspective/

A proposed hydroelectric dam intended to provide “clean” energy in Labrador, Canada may have a more damaging impact on the environment than global warming, owing to a predicted increase in production of the potent neurotoxin methylmercury, according to a new study by researchers from UConn and Harvard University.  http://today.uconn.edu/2015/09/the-human-cost-of-clean-energy/

Read about Molly Hughes’ research experience in the Baumann lab: http://befel.marinesciences.uconn.edu/2015/09/10/lab-news-a-summer-research-experience/

The Mason, Fitzgerald and Morel 1994 titled “The biogeochemical cycling of elemental mercury: Anthropogenic influences”, published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 58: 3191-3198  (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0016703794900469) reached a milestone recently of more than 1000 citations. This paper provided a detailed examination of the influence of human activity on the global mercury cycle that is still relevant today. The paper was completed at the end of Rob’s PhD studies in the Department of Marine Sciences under Fitzgerald, and during his post-doc at MIT with Morel. The paper was based on a presentation made at a symposium “Topics in Global Geochemistry” in honor of Clair C. Patterson on 3–4 December 1993 in Pasadena, California, USA.

Professor Penny Vlahos blogs from Sri Lanka during her Fulbright Specialist visit.  Follow her stay at http://srilankafulbright.blogspot.com/.

Tim Bateman ’16 (CLAS) and Maya Thompson ’16 (CLAS) spent five-and-a-half weeks sailing from New Zealand to Tahiti on the Sailing School Vessel (SSV) Robert C. Seamans.  Olivia Robson’16 (CLAS) embarked on the SSV Corwith Cramer.

Read the full article here.

Over the next two centuries, climate change is likely to impact everything from industrial agriculture to the shape of our coastlines.

Read the full article here.