UConn Marine Sciences was well represented at the 13th International Conference on Copepoda, July 16-21, Los Angeles, USA.  The conference was attended by scientists from 30 countries and dealt with all aspects of copepods (tiny crustaceans that are the most abundant animals on the planet).

PhD student Matthew Sasaki received the very first prestigious Kabata award for best student oral presentation for his talk, The remarkable thermal generalist performance curve of Acartia tonsa: Implications for survival in a warming climate. PhD student James deMayo received an award for outstanding poster for his presentation,  Combined effects of warming and acidification on life-history traits of Acartia tonsa, and visiting PhD student  Érika Pinho Correia (Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil) also received an award for outstanding oral presentation for her talk, Is there any pattern of diel vertical migration of microzooplankton in the equatorial Atlantic?. All three students are members of Professor Hans Dam’s research group ( https://marinesciences.uconn.edu/person/hans-g-dam/).

Warm congratulations to Matt, Jimmy and Erika!

Photo caption:

From left to right: Prof. Hans Dam, James deMayo, Erika Pinho Correia, and Matthew Sasaki at the Student Award Ceremony (Museum of Natural History of Los Angeles) of the 13^th International Conference on Copepoda.

Dr. Senjie Lin and his current and former Ph. D. graduate students, Brittany Sprecher and Yunyun Zhuang, engaged in an international collaboration to sequence Porphyra umbilicalis’ nuclear genome. Their efforts revealed how the red algae has been able to thrive in the harsh intertidal zone under exposure to high UV radiation, changing temperatures, and severe osmotic stress and desiccation for more than a billion years. Porphyra umbilicalis belongs to an ancient group of red algae, Bangiophyceae, and is a valuable human food source.

The team’s analysis found that P. umbilicalis has a small set of cytoskeleton motor proteins (explaining why red algae are smaller in size when compared to most multicellular lineages), several cellular mechanisms to cope with the stressful environment, and a high capacity for nutrient uptake and utilization.

Major support for the genome sequencing was through a contract with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute, sequencing analysis was supported by a National Science Foundations Research Collaboration Network grant, and the project was led by Dr. Susan Brawley at the University of Maine. The findings are published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

http://today.uconn.edu/2017/07/studying-silversides

Hannes Baumann and a student examine fish growing at the Rankin Laboratory at the Avery Point campus on June 9, 2017. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo) 

Save the Sound has launched a groundbreaking water testing program that will dramatically increase available data on the health of Long Island Sound. The bi-state non-profit organization already issues a closely watched “report card” on the health of the estuary. Now, the Unified Water Study: Long Island Sound Embayment Research will test water conditions in the Sound’s bays and harbors.

Read more by following the links below!

http://fox61.com/2017/05/31/study-will-sample-water-in-long-island-sound-this-summer/

http://today.uconn.edu/2017/05/save-sound-launches-unified-water-study-long-island-sound/

http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20170529/nonprofit-save-the-sound-researches-water-quality-in-connecticut-long-island-bays-and-harbors

Sophomore marine sciences student Jessica Hinckley is the recipient of a summer undergraduate research fellowship (SURF) where she will be working on a pioneering carbon dioxide time series in Long Island Sound with Prof Penny Vlahos. Jessica will be investigating trends and responses of dissolved carbon dioxide and oxygen under various temperature and wind conditions.

Image credit Julia Kendzierski.

Marine Sciences student Matthew Lacerra was featured by CLAS as one of their outstanding students graduating in 2017.

Image credit James Harrington.

Marine Science undergraduates can apply for the Mystic Aquarium Research Experience for Undergraduates, a program designed to promote independent research with real world application.

More info can be found here: http://www.mysticaquarium.org/reu/.

Sofi Jonsson’s paper about how terrestrial discharges of organic matter increase the accumulation of methylmercury in estuary environments was featured in a BBC article.

MARN 4001 students attended the annual meeting of the local group Clean Up Sound and Harbors (CUSH), presenting posters on their findings on the ecosystem of Wequetequock Cove.

You can find their posters here.