The Summer of 2020 was a difficult time. Covid was raging, and tensions were rising as a spotlight was placed on one case of racial injustice after another. It was difficult to believe that there was still such blatant racism in our country – difficult to believe only for those of us who weren’t facing it daily. It’s a privilege to only hear about injustice on the news.

The events of that summer led to changes in our communities and our department. The graduate student officers started an anti-racism journal club to become more educated about racism in our field and how to address it. This club developed into the Marine Science Pod of the Unlearning Racism in Geoscience (URGE) program in January 2021. URGE was put together by NSF and WHOI as a curriculum for addressing and unlearning racism in geosciences, which notably has very low racial diversity in the field. This lack of diversity, which has not increased in 40 years, limits the quality of research potential in the community. The URGE program features multiple two-week long sessions which contain readings and interviews featuring expert opinions and personal experiences. Pod meetings involve discussing these materials and working on assignments (deliverables) as a group. These deliverables are then posted on the pod website publicly. Graduate student Kelly McGarry reflects on the importance and value of this program, “We’re trying to become experts in the ocean, but we’re not experts in racism. That’s not what we spend all day thinking about and studying and reading and writing about. But there are people who do that, it’s their full-time job to understand these different aspects of racism.”

Members of the DMS URGE Pod joined to better understand racism in geosciences, help develop anti-racist strategies, and make use of the resources offered. Graduate student Hannah Collins shares, “I decided to join because I wanted to continue the education and discussion process the graduate students began over the summer in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. I thought that, since one of the objectives of the pod was to develop deliverable action statements and items, we would translate our own educational discussions into tangible goals that we could propose to the department, which I felt was really necessary to combat systemic racism within academia.”

So far there have been 8 sessions which have all covered different aspects of racism, including the history, justice, accessibility, inclusivity, and others. Graduate students in the pod share their experiences on the readings, discussions, and deliverables:

“I feel like a lot of people don’t realize how hard it is to break into geosciences as a whole, but what has been enlightening for me has been thinking about and discussing all of the barriers both big and small that work together to prevent people from underrepresented minorities from advancing in the field. For example, the nature of geosciences means that often field work is a necessary experience to develop skills to be a good scientist and researcher, however fieldwork can be expensive and it’s often easier for oppressive actions and behaviors to occur without repercussions when you’re out in the field.” – Hannah Collins

“One thing that has stood out to me as we discussed specific topics is how similar the experiences are across different topics. Whether we discuss issues of accessibility or inclusivity, much of the literature describes the same trans-disciplinary problems that result in institutional barriers for people of color in STEM.” – James DeMayo

“It is through the session deliverables that I have been able to learn about the many resources out there that UConn offers to tackle or handle matters of racism.” – Michael Mathuri

Addressing racism in our field does not stop with the end of the URGE program. After the program ends, pod members aim to continue to hold the anti-racism journal club from last summer, and plan on actively working with the department as a whole to become more inclusive. Jimmy DeMayo shares, “The group has plans to help draft new, prominently displayed, codes of conduct for the department that communicate the department positions on matters of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are also exploring new ways of advertising available studentships and job positions that help reduce the barrier to entry for students of color interested in marine science.” The department and university support this goal and has signed an agreement signifying support – which can be found here.

By Jamie Vaudrey

A new Center will soon be joining the Avery Point campus, occupying space in the Weicker Building and elsewhere on campus – the proposed Connecticut National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR), the 30^th in the nationwide system. As a partnership between NOAA, UConn, and the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), the proposed reserve will protect and enhance Connecticut’s coastal environments by leveraging system-wide programs to provide additional opportunities, capacity, and funds for research, training, stewardship, and education. The NERR will be headquartered on the Avery Point campus and, in the years to come, may bring a new building to campus.

Reserve staff (numbering about 15 people) will conduct and provide support for research, education, training, and stewardship within Reserve boundaries and in neighboring communities. A long-term monitoring program forms a cornerstone of the system and the NERR staff will seek input in 2022 on where we’d like to see that monitoring occurring. Are you interested in research in Long Island Sound and the neighboring upland properties? Collaborating with Reserve staff on science, education, or stewardship projects opens a path to National Science Collaborative funds, a competitive grant program awarding ~$3 million annually. The Davidson Fellowship provides graduate student support, and additional internship and research opportunities are available for undergraduate and graduate students.

The Biden Administration is interested in including the designation of the CT Reserve in their year one accomplishments, so the Reserve should be “official” by January 2022 and hiring staff by July 2022. The Designation Steering Committee, including DMS members J.E. Ward, I. Babb, C. Tobias and J. Vaudrey, and CT Sea Grant Director S. De Guise, is working with an advisory committee (including DMS member P. Vlahos) on a draft management plan and draft environmental impact statement; these will be available for public review in late summer 2021 with public hearings in September 2021.

By Samantha Siedlecki

In the spirit of Jacques Cousteau’s sentiment: “The future is in the hands of those who explore…,” nine graduate students, two faculty, and the crew of the R/V Connecticut ventured out into the Long Island Sound and offshore waters of the Mid-Atlantic Bight on two separate occasions in October, 2020.  The Expedition Course entitled: Connecting urban estuaries to the sea: Coastal oceanography of Long Island Sound and the shelf of the Mid-Atlantic Bight is offered to the graduate students every other year.

This past fall, the course was offered amidst the pandemic, but ship operations had already designed protocols to safely continue operations aboard the R/V Connecticut, and the University agreed to support testing of the students to participate in the course. As a result, the course proceeded, albeit with some adjustments for safety amidst the pandemic.  The students were excited and eager to have their first at-sea research experience and the faculty were eager to revisit the transect they had observed in the class two years before. The 2018 class found that conditions improved with distance from shore – it was actually warmer sampling out there because the ocean water was so warm – consistent with the increased influence of the Gulf Stream waters in the region that has been observed. Sure enough, when the 2020 course embarked onto the outer shelf, they encountered similar warm conditions.  When the students lowered sensors on the outer shelf to measure temperature, salinity, chlorophyll, oxygen, and pH throughout the water column, they discovered a salty subsurface intrusion that brought with it higher pH, nutrient rich water and completely different species than further inshore.

Back at the lab, the samples were analyzed and the results plotted and mapped.   Inspired by their exploration of the coastal waters nearby, the students wrote proposals in small groups about what they would like to investigate further in the future with this experience and ended up generating some very interesting hypotheses about the nearby coastal ocean.  They ranged from questions about the influence of the outflow from Long Island Sound on the phytoplankton composition on the shelf, to mechanisms driving the pH variability associated with the salinity intrusion on the outer shelf, and the influence of temperature on the cross-shelf trends in the biological pump characteristics. Many faculty and staff contributed to the success of the class, and the crew went above and beyond to ensure we got what we needed at sea.  The future is in good, grateful hands.

The element mercury (Hg) enters the environment by natural and human sources, transforms in complex ways, and often ends up in the fish we eat. Mercury can be methylated (addition of a CH₃ group) in the environment to form methylmercury, which builds up in fish tissues and can reach high concentrations in large fish. This is a concern because methylmercury is a toxin which can lead to negative neurological, developmental, and even cardiovascular effects. Because of these impacts, it is important to understand how mercury and methylmercury cycle in the environment, so that ultimately, we can develop effective management techniques.

In a recent publication, Professor Robert Mason and former graduate student Dr. Emily Seelen (now a postdoctoral scholar at USC) investigated the differences in mercury cycling between contaminated and uncontaminated sites within 10 estuaries along the coast of the US Northeast. Contaminated sites are areas where mercury was directly released into waterways many years ago, usually as industrial waste. Uncontaminated sites contain less mercury, but it is still present in lower concentrations. Samples and measurements were taken throughout 2012-2016, which produced a data set containing mercury, methylmercury, and chemical and physical properties of the water and sediment. Watershed land use data was also applied. Seelen explains the data analysis, “We used different statistical approaches to look for trends between the variables. The main findings were derived from a multiple linear regression analysis, which we used to evaluate which variables best described the concentrations of mercury and methylmercury in surface waters.”

“We found that historically contaminated sites retain and recycle their mercury, which makes external signals such as riverine input less detectable. The longevity of mercury in such systems suggests that remediation by removal of the contaminated sediments is key.” On the other hand, in uncontaminated estuaries, mercury likely enters from via runoff, and is then gradually buried into the sediment. In both cases, methylmercury does not seem to come from the sediment or runoff. “We therefore suggest that the concentration of methylmercury in surface waters is determined by the amount of mercury released into the estuarine system, whether that be from the watershed or the sediments.” Seelen explains.

These findings show that mercury cycling is very different in historically contaminated sites than uncontaminated sites. For uncontaminated sites, the mercury comes from the entire watershed, which does not leave us with an easy way to carry out remediation projects. Seelen states that ultimately, “to lower mercury concentrations in fish, we need to emit less mercury.” According to the EPA, present-day emissions come from a variety of sources including artisanal and small-scale gold mining, coal combustion, metal production, cement production, and many others. The path to regulating and decreasing these emissions begins with studies such as this one.

Citation:

Seelen, E. A., Chen, C. Y., Balcom, P. H., Buckman, K. L., Taylor, V. F., & Mason, R. P. (2021). Historic contamination alters mercury sources and cycling in temperate estuaries relative to uncontaminated sites. Water Research. DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2020.116684

Jeff Godfrey has been providing diving support for the Department of Marine Sciences (DMS) since 1999, on projects ranging from studying salps in frigid Antarctic waters to studying fish in the Great Barrier Reef. Before his time at UConn, Jeff worked in the sunny Florida Keys. The news of the diving officer job ad was mentioned to him by a friend who started working at the UConn library. DMS flew him up to not-as-sunny Connecticut for the interview, and he was offered the job. Though it doesn’t compare to the Keys, Jeff says CT is growing on him.

At DMS, Jeff is a vital part of our department, providing diving support as part of our marine operations, and helping students, staff, and faculty that utilize diving as a research tool. He also provides training for beginner scuba divers, through the course Intro to Scientific Diving, as well as offering various advanced certifications.

Jeff’s favorite part of the job is interacting with the students, he says “they make the job fun and sometimes they remind me of how old I am, but sometimes they keep me young too.”  Several of the students that were scuba certified through Jeff’s class went on to careers that utilize diving, including an instructor at NOAA diving facility and a diving safety officer at URI.

For Jeff, diving is not just a job, but also a passion. He spends many weekends diving, exploring a lot of local wrecks. “When I retire, I don’t plan on changing much.”

There have been many achievements in our department in the past months! Here are highlights of recent awards, grants, and publications in the Department of Marine Sciences from October 2020 through April 2021.