GoMRI Newsletter: Fall Issue 2019

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Above the Fold

“GoMRI Attends the Centennial AGU Fall Meeting”
“C-IMAGE and Story Collider Collaboration at AGU”
Frequently Asked Questions with Dr. Chuck Wilson
Note from the Research Board Chair
GoMRI Synthesis & Legacy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Community Happenings

Science Corner

Published Science Highlights from the GoMRI Program

Study Demonstrates High School Teaching Method for Oil Spill Science
K.M. Leftwich, J.W. Ioup, C.G. Seab
The Physics Teacher, 2019, Vol. 57(5), Article Number 336

Study Summarizes Laboratory Research on How Deepwater Horizon Oil Affects Fish
C. Pasparakis, A.J. Esbaugh, W. Burggren, M. Grosell
Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part C: Toxicology and Pharmacology, 2019, Vol. 224, 108558

Study Reports Advancement in Environmentally-Friendly Dispersant Technology
O.F. Ojo, A. Farinmade, J. Trout, M. Omarova, J. He, V. John, D.A. Blake, Y.M. Lvov, D. Zhang, D. Nguyen, A. Bose
ACS Applied Nano Materials, 2019, Vol. 2(6), pgs. 3490-3500

Study Identifies Phytoplankton Species as Resistant or Sensitive to Oil Spills
L. Bretherton, A. Williams, J. Genzer, J. Hillhouse, M. Kamalanathan, Z.V. Finkel, A. Quigg
Journal of Phycology, 2018, Vol. 54(3), pgs. 317-328

Study Provides Insights into How Floating Material Moves on the Ocean
J.R. Taylor
Journal of Physical Oceanography, 2018, Vol. 48, pgs. 1233-1241

Study Assessed Aging Oil Spill Material on the Seafloor and Found Recovery
K.L. Rogers, S.H. Bosman, M. Lardie-Gaylord, A. McNichol, B.E. Rosenheim, J.P. Montoya, J.P. Chanton
PLoS ONE, 2019, Vol. 14(2), Article Number: e0212433

Studies Show Beach Environment Enhanced Oil Degradation, But Still May Take 30 Years
I. Bociu, B. Shin, W.B. Wells, J.E. Kostka, T. Konstantinidis, M. Huettel
Scientific Reports, 2019, Vol. 9, Article Number 10071

M. Huettel, W.A. Overholt, J.E. Kostka, C. Hagan, J. Kaba, W.B. Wells, S. Dudley
Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2018, Vol. 126, pgs. 488-500

Study Quantifies Dispersant Effects on Initial Oil Slick Breakup by Waves
C. Li, J. Miller, J. Wang, S.S. Koley, J. Katz
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 2017, Vol. 122(10), pgs. 7938-7957

Study Quantifies Limitations in Using Marker Genes to Predict Microbial Capabilities
J.L. Sevigny, D. Rothenheber, K.S. Diaz, Y. Zhang, K. Agustsson, R.D. Bergeron, W.K. Thomas
BMC Genomics, 2019, Vol. 20, Article Number 268

Study IDs Oil-Degrading and Mucus-Producing Microbes Linked to Marine Oil Snow Formation
H.P. Bacosa, M. Kamalanathan, M. Chiu, S. Tsai, L. Sun, J.M. Labonté, K.A. Schwehr, D. Hala, P.H. Santschi. W. Chin, A. Quigg
PLoS ONE, 2018, Vol. 13(12), Article Number: e0208406

Eight-Year Study Quantifies How Oiling is a Continuing Stressor on the Marsh Ecosystem
R.E. Turner, N.N. Rabalais, E.B. Overton, B.M. Meyer, G. McClenachan, E.M. Swenson, M. Besonen, M.L. Parsons, J. Zingre
Environmental Pollution, 2019, Vol. 252(Part B), pgs. 1367-1376

Study Explains How Oil Spill Can Initiate Harmful Algal Blooms
R. Almeda, S. Cosgrove, E.J. Buskey
Environmental Science and Technology, 2018, Vol. 52(10), pgs. 5718-5724

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

GoMRI Newsmakers

Dr. Margaret Leinen, GoMRI Research Board vice chair and director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, recently received the 2019 American Geophysical Union’s Ambassador Award. The Ambassador Award honors a member’s outstanding contributions and achievements that extend beyond those recognized by traditional scientific discipline awards. The contributions and achievements include promoting discovery in Earth and space science, inspiring scientists to help improve lives around the world, leading scientific collaboration and innovation, and promoting a global talent pool. Congratulations Dr. Leinen!

Members of the GoMRI-funded LADC-GEMM Consortium were awarded the 2019 Rollie Lamberson Research Award, which recognizes the most outstanding published paper of natural resource modeling in the previous two years. The winning paper is titled Sensitivity analysis of the recovery time for a population under the impact of an environmental disturbance, authored by University of Louisiana at Lafayette scientists Azmy S. Ackleh, Ross Chiquet, Tingting Tang (now with San Diego State University), Amy Veprauskas, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientist Hal Caswell. Congratulations LADC-GEMM!

GoMRI Scholars in Action

GoMRI recognizes the graduate students whose vital research contributes to improving understanding about the damage, response, and recovery from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Candidates for the GoMRI Scholars program must be graduate students who have participated in a GoMRI-funded project for at least one year, whose research 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

When an oil slick spreads on the surface of the water, scientists have an array of special equipment to track it. The Gulf of Mexico Sea Grant Oil Spill Science Outreach team recently released a new publication titled In the air and on the water: Technology used to investigate oil spills. The bulletin outlines various technologies available at and above the water’s surface — even including satellites in space — to study oil in the marine environment and serves as a follow up to 2018’s Underwater vehicles used to study oil spills. Read all of the Gulf of Mexico Sea Grant Oil Spill Science Outreach Program publications here.

The team hosted a seminar, Shining light on Deepwater Horizon impacts to the Florida Panhandle, at the Pensacola Library on December 4, 2019. Speakers covered a variety of topics including degradation of buried oil on Pensacola beaches, lasting effects of the oil spill, seafood safety, and impacts of oil on sea turtles and dolphins. Presenters included Markus Huettel from Florida State University, Richard Snyder from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Cheryl Lassitter from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Alissa Deming from Dauphin Island Sea Lab, and Dianne Ingram from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. You can view the speaker slide presentations, as well as a video of the Question and Answer session, here.

Sea Grant partners have recently co-hosted a series of regional workshops, along with the Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and GoMRI, to focus on three areas pertaining to oil spills: public health, social disruption, and economic impacts. You can read about the rationale of the project here. Reports from the regional workshops can be found here.

Ocean Portal

The National Museum of Natural History routinely offers exhibit visitors a chance to talk informally to different types of experts and explore different types of objects during its Expert Is In programs. On October 8, 2019, several members of the GoMRI research community chatted with visitors to the museum’s Ocean Hall about their research and discoveries. A huge thank you to Erik Cordes, Mandy Joye, Rosanna Milligan, Steve Murawski, Ernst Peebles, and Tracy Sutton for making time to connect with visitors of all ages!

Two additional education and outreach events are currently being planned with our partners at the Smithsonian Ocean Portal and the National Museum of Natural History as part of our collaborative series to share GoMRI science with museum visitors in the final year of the program. A Nerd Nite DC event is tentatively planned for March 6, 2020, and Dispatches from the Gulf 3 will be screened on April 20, 2020 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. We look forward to sharing final details on these events once they are available and we would love to see you there!

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