GoMRI Newsletter: Fall Issue 2015

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Above the Fold

“Return to Ixtoc and Mud & Blood”
“GoMRI Inspires Citizen Scientists”
Frequently Asked Questions by Dr. Chuck Wilson
Note from the Research Board Chair
Education Spotlight
GoMRI Researcher Interview with Dr. Debra Murie

 

 

 

 

 

 

Community Happenings

GoMRI Announces RFP-V Awardees

The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative and the GoMRI Research Board are very pleased to announce the awardees from the RFP-V proposal process. RFP-V called for proposals from individual investigators or small collaborative teams whose research will be funded for GoMRI Years 6-8 (2016-2018). Twenty-two projects were selected for funding, totalling $38 million over the next three years. GoMRI congratulates the awardees and we look forward to the science that comes from these awards in the coming years.

Click here for the full list of awardees.

Science Corner

Published Science Highlights from the GoMRI Program

Study: Early-Responder Microbial Groups Differed Over Time in Oiled Beach Sands
L.M. Rodriguez-R, W.A. Overholt, C. Hagan, M. Huettel, J. E. Kostka, and K.T. Konstantinidis
The ISME Journal, 2015

Study Shows Hypoxia and Dispersed Oil May Increase Fish Mortality
S. Dasgupta, I.J. Huang, A.E. McElroy
Public Library of Science (PLOS) One, 2015, 10 (6)

Study Suggests Biodegradation Strongly Influences Oil Spill Transport Predictions
E.W. North, E.E. Adams, A.E. Thessen, Z. Schlag, R. He, S.A. Socolofsky, S.M. Masutani, S.D. Peckham
Environmental Research Letters, 2015, Vol. 10 (2)

Studies Identify Oil Spill Effects in Deep Sea Fish
J.H. Tarnecki and W.F. Patterson III
Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science, 2015, Vol. 7 (1), 135-147

Modelling Study Quantifies Gas Bubbles Effects on Oil Plume Dynamics
A. Fabregat, W. Dewar, T. Ozgokmen, A. Poje, N. Wienders
Ocean Modeling, 2015, Vol. 90, 16-28

Model Comparison Study Confirms Subsea Dispersant Effectiveness
S. Socolofsky, E. Adams, M. Boufadel, Z. Amen, O. Johansen, W. Konkel, D. Lindo, M. Madsen, E. North, C. Paris, D. Rasmussen, M. Reed, P. Ronningen, L. Sim, T. Uhrenholdt, K. Anderson, C. Cooper, T. Nedwed
Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2015, 96 (1-2), 110-126

Study Quantifies Photooxidation and Biodegradation of Surface Oil
H. Bacosa, D. Erdner, Z. Liu
Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2015, 95 (1), 265-272

Study: Eco-Friendly Oil Herders Show Promise for Effective Marine Spill Cleanup
D. Gupta, B. Sarker, K. Thadikaran, V. John, C. Maldarelli, G. John
Science Advances, 2015, Vol. 1, No. 5

Study Describes Transport Pathways During Estuary and Coastal Waters Exchange
A. Valle-Levinson, K. Huguenard, L. Ross, J. Branyon, J. MacMahan, A. Reniers
Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 2015, Vol. 155, 137-147

To see all GoMRI publications, please visit the GoMRI Publication Database.

Video Clip of the Quarter

C-IMAGE has been spotlighting members of their team in brief videos, which have been posted to their YouTube Channel.

LADC-GEMM was recently featured by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, one of LADC-GEMM’s participating institutions, on the work the group is doing to understand the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on whale populations. Check out the video here.

GoMRI Newsmakers

GoMRI would like to congratulate Dr. Allan Clarke and Dr. Jeffrey Chanton, both from Florida State University, on being selected as 2015 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fellows. Both Dr. Clarke and Dr. Chanton are members of the GoMRI community; Dr. Clarke is co-PI on the RFP-I funded consortium Deep-C and Dr. Chanton has served as co-PI and investigator on many GoMRI funded awards over the years, including ECOGIG I and II, Deep-C, and C-IMAGE II.

Dr. Dean Grubbs from Florida State University, GoMRI-funded scientist with the Deep-C Consortium, was featured in Discovery’s Shark Week this year in the episode titled “Alien Sharks: Close Encounters.”

GoMRI Scholars in Action

The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) is recognizing the graduate students whose vital research contribute to improving understanding about the damage, response, and recovery of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Candidates for this program must be graduate students who have participated in a GoMRI-funded project for at least one year, whose work is primarily funded by GoMRI, and who are working on a dissertation or thesis based on GoMRI-funded science.

Learn more about the scholars’ research and career paths on the GoMRI website:

Sea Grant

The Gulf Sea Grant program is continuing to offer oil spill science seminars; the most recent seminar took place on November 18th in Long Beach, MS and discussed seafood safety in the event of oil spills. Additional seminars are planned for later in the fall and in early 2016. Check out the Gulf Sea Grant website for more information on past presentations and for information on how to register for upcoming seminars. Some of the presentations can also be found on GoMRI’s YouTube Channel.

In addition to the seminars, the Gulf Sea Grant program has been working on several outreach publications. Most recently, they have released two fact sheets, one on Deepwater Horizon’s impact on Gulf seafood and another highlighting historical information on fisheries landings and disasters in the Gulf of Mexico. These and all other Gulf Sea Grant publications and resources can be found here.

Ocean Portal

Oil Impacts Jellyfish

Smithsonian Ocean Portal recently featured a story on how jellyfish are impacted by oil exposure and how their reaction to the stress of oil spill events made actually help contribute to the breakdown of oil in the water column. The story features work by Dr. Brad Gemmel of the DROPPS Consortium.

Check out the article here!

 

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