Summer 2006 Newsletter
The SEERS Spring 2006 meeting was held in beautiful, historic St. Augustine, FL, March 30-April 1. The meeting site was the new Guana Tolomato Matanzas (GTM) National Estuarine Research Reserve Environmental Education Center in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL. The meeting was generously sponsored by Jim Jacoby (Marineland, FL), GTM-NEER, SC Department of Health and Environmental Control's Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, Alliance for Coastal Technologies, E. Schweizerbart'sche Publishers, Hydrolab/HACH Corporation, SeaRay Environmental Consulting, and YSI. SEERS members presented a dolphin photo to Jim Jacoby, owner of Marineland, in recognition of his generous financial donation to SEERS and for use of the newly renovated Marineland facility for the meeting banquet.
| Upcoming Fall 2006 Affiliate Society Meetings | ||
| Society | Dates | Location |
| SEERS | 19-21 October | Coastal Georgia Center, Savannah, Georgia |
| NEERS | 26-28 October | Coast Guard Academy, New London, CT |
| CAERS | No fall meeting | |
| ACCESS | No fall meeting | |
| GERS | 2-4 November | Omni Marina Hotel, Corpus Christi, Texas |
| PERS | No fall meeting | |
| AERS | 5-7 October | Community College of Baltimore County Catonsville Campus |
| For detailed information about each meeting, please check the Affiliate Societies' websites | ||
Special thanks go to our hardworking local hosts Brian Lapointe (Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution) and Lori Morris (St. Johns River Water Management District).
A record 169 individuals attended the meeting. This included 10 high school students and their teacher. There were 65 college student attendees. The geographic distribution was 86 members from Florida, 56 from South Carolina, 17 from Georgia, 9 from North Carolina, and 1 from Virginia.
Technical sessions at the meeting included 41 platform presentations (17 graduate students and 2 undergraduate students) and 34 poster presentations (13 graduate student, 8 undergraduate student, and 1 high school student). Sessions included anthropogenic impacts, coastal water quality, and a special symposium on hurricane impacts.
An oceanside banquet with live music was held at Marineland. SEERS members enjoyed a fabulous dinner right next to the dolphin tanks. Marineland trainers were present to answer questions. Cassandra Lee provided beautiful flower arrangements for the dinner tables. SEERS T-shirt sales were tremendous; topping off a very successful SEERS meeting.
Student Presentation Award Winners
Graduate student awards were given to Jean-Marie Buschur (University of South Carolina) for best platform presentation and Jennifer Beck (College of Charleston) for best poster presentation. Undergraduate student awards went to T. Ross Garner (The Citadel) for best platform presentation and Tracey Modeste (Savannah State University) for best poster presentation. An honorable mention award was presented to Jeremy Brewer (Bluffton High School) for his poster presentation. Winners received a certificate and a one-year membership to ERF and SEERS.
The award winning presentations were titled:
Survey of PAH Contamination in South Carolina Tidal Creek Sediments, Tubificid Worms, and Shrimp: Potential for Dietary Transfer to Humans. Garner, T.R. and J.W. Weinstein, Department of Biology, The Citadel, Charleston, SC.
Ecotoxicology of Benzalkonium Chloride, a Common Antimicrobial Surfactant Found in Treated Wastewater. Buschur, J.M. and J. Pinckney, Department of Marine Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
Plant Source Influence on Survivorship and Vegetative Reproduction of Spartina alterniflora in South Carolina Marshes. Beck, J., College of Charleston, Charleston, SC and D. Gustafson, The Citadel, Charleston, SC.
The Effect of the Parasite Probopyrus pandalicola on the Survival of the Grass Shrimp, Palaemonetes pugio. Modeste, T. and M.C. Curran, Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Savannah State University, Savannah, GA.
Volunteers and Scientists Unite to Monitor Marine Phytoplankton and Harmful Algal Blooms. Brewer, J.2 , W.A. Wicke1, J. Paternoster2, K. Novacin1, and S.L. Morton1, 1NOAA/NOS/Marine Biotoxins Program, Charleston, SC, 2Bluffton High School, Bluffton, SC
Student Travel Award Winners:
Congratulations to the following students who received SEERS travel awards in the amount of $100.00 each to attend the Spring 2006 meeting:
- Edward Durant, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Wilmington, NC
- Lisa Hayes, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
- Sara Mackenzie, Savannah State University, Savannah, GA
- Caroline McFarlin, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
SEERS People
Outgoing SEERS officers Mike Mallin (President), Brian Lapointe (Member-at-Large) and Denise Sanger (Program Chair) were recognized at the Spring meeting for their dedicated service to SEERS.
Welcome Aboard!
Elections for the positions of SEERS President-Elect, Member-at-Large and Program Chair were held via e-mail prior to the Spring Meeting. Congratulations to our newest SEERS board members:
Eric Koepfler (President-Elect), Coastal Carolina University, Conway, SC
Email address: eric@coastal.eduPeter Verity (Member-at-Large), Skidaway Oceanographic Institute, Savannah, GA
Email address: peter.verity@skio.usg.eduCraig Tobias (Program Chair), University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Wilmington, NC
Email address: tobiasc@uncw.edu
The current SEERS board consists of Marie DeLorenzo (President), Eric Koepfler (President-Elect), Mike Mallin (Past-President), Paul Pennington (Secretary), Chandra Franklin (Treasurer), Craig Tobias (Program Chair), Peter Verity (Member-at-Large), and Amanda Kahn (Student Representative).
The SEERS Fall 2006 Meeting
The SEERS Fall 2006 meeting will be held in Savannah, GA, October 19-21. The meeting will be held at the Coastal Georgia Center, and the banquet will be held at Skidaway Oceanographic Institute.
AERS descended upon Center City, Philadelphia for our Spring Meeting at the historic Academy of Natural Sciences. Dave Velinsky (Acting Director of the Patrick Center for Environmental Research) and Matt Osiecki were gracious hosts. They evidently had forgotten all about the shenanigans that occurred the last time unruly estuarine scientists invaded the Academy, back in 1961. This time AERS members were generally well-behaved, and no incidents were reported.
The Thursday evening reception was held in North American Hall, among impressive dioramas of large mammals. A fascinating exhibit entitled "Frogs" was in residence at the Academy and many AERS members were observed sneaking off to check it out throughout the meeting.
On Friday morning, our Keynote Speaker, Jon Sharp (University of Delaware), delivered an engaging historical perspective on water quality in the Delaware Estuary. His presentation was followed by a panel of invited speakers including Danielle Kreeger and Kellie Westervelt (Partnership for the Delaware Estuary), Kenneth Strait (PSEG's Estuary Enhancement Program), and Dave Velinsky. Dave Osgood moderated the morning panel presentations, which were followed by a lively question and answer session.
The afternoon session included a diverse array of contributed papers. We learned about invasive crustaceans, diamondback terrapins, and oil spills. The coveted Venerable Clam was awarded to long-time AERS member and former AERS President Alice ("A.J.") Lippson, co-author and illustrator of Life in the Chesapeake Bay.
A certificate of honorary AERS membership was presented to a distinguished guest of honor, Ruth Patrick. Dr. Patrick founded the Academy's Limnology Department (now the Patrick Center for Environmental Research) in 1947. Upon receiving her honorary membership certificate, Dr Patrick related some fond memories of the early days of estuarine science in the mid-Atlantic region.
The Friday evening banquet, held in Dinosaur Hall, was a great success. While attendees munched on salmon and chicken, Ken Hayes, President of Aqua Survey, Inc. entertained us with a slide show documenting his recent underwater exploration of Cleopatra's Palace in the 3000 year old lost Egyptian city of Heracleion.
Everyone was up early on Saturday to hear two more sessions of contributed presentations. Then came the Student Awards Ceremony...The award for best graduate oral presentation went to Celine Santiago-Bass, of Rutgers University, for her presentation entitled "Effects of heavy gill parasite burdens on the anatomy, physiology and behavior of Fundulus heteroclitus." The award for best undergraduate oral presentation went to Gerald Bright, of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and Howard University, for his presentation entitled "Comparison of habitat utilization between juvenile hatchery-reared and wild blue crabs." Finally, the award for best poster went to our Program Chair, Dave Gillett, of VIMS, for his poster entitled "Macrobenthic production in disturbed and non-disturbed shallow estuarine habitat."
After the festivities were over, a small group of intrepid meeting attendees braved the unseasonably warm, sunny weather and made their way down to the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum Marsh. The AERS group hiked the area, observing birds, turtles, and acrobatic carp in the tidal shallows.
Many individuals worked very hard to make the meeting a success. Dave Gillette of VIMS did a great job assembling the meeting program. Leila Hamdan and Pete Straub handled registration and T-shirt sales during the conference. Joel Hoffman kept the web site humming along with up-to-date conference information. Thanks to ERF President Bob Christian for joining us and informing us about "a post-modern coast. "
Finally we wish to thank our 8 generous meeting co-sponsors:
Academy of Natural Sciences
Albright College
Aqua Survey, Inc.
Barry A. Vittor & Associates, Inc.
ENSR/AECOM
HydroQual Inc.
Partnership for the Delaware Estuary
PSEG Estuary Enhancement Program
The best part is that each of our co-sponsors made a significant contribution to the meeting. Co-sponsor representatives served on our expert panel, delivered contributed oral and poster presentations, entertained and informed us at the banquet, provided student volunteers, and even organized a late night billiards tournament at the Best Western (Thanks Cap'n Al and Jim...).
Mark your calendars! The AERS Fall 2006 Meeting will be held at the Catsonsville Campus of the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) on October 5-7, 2006. David O'Neill, a faculty member in the Biology Department at CCBC and a member of the AERS board, will host the meeting, along with AERS Past-President Chris Swarth. Our Program Chairs, Dave Gillett and Rachel Blake, will soon be issuing a Call for Abstracts. Pat McGrath is the new AERS webmaster, and will be updating our web site with new resources and helpful links as they become available. We will have an expert team of panelists, led by Keynote Speaker Grace Brush of Johns Hopkins University, to discuss "New Advances in Chesapeake Bay Science." Our local hosts are surveying several options for the Friday evening banquet. At the conclusion of the meeting, on Saturday afternoon, a field trip will be led by the Baltimore Port Authority to Hart-Miller Island, an 1140 acre two-cell dredged material containment facility located offshore of Baltimore County, in Chesapeake Bay.
The latest AERS news, gossip, and information on the Fall 2006 AERS meeting can be found at www.aers.info.
Two successful local meetings were held to date. Andy Canion reports that the The Dauphin Island Sea Lab hosted the 2006 Graduate Student Symposium February 3-5. A total of 5 awards (1st-3rd best presentations, best poster, and people's choice best) were presented to the following students: 1st Place Presentation: Daniella del Valle, 2nd Place Presentation: Luciano Chiaverano, 3rd Place Presentation: Michael Dance, Best Poster: Zachary Darnell, People's Choice for Best Presentation: Ron Eytan.
Tracy Villareal reports that the University of Texas Marine Science Institute hosted the 2006 Texas Bays and Estuaries Meeting April 20-21. About 105 people attended and 2 awards were presented to the following students: 1st Place: Harris Muhlstein, and 2nd Place: Lucia Carreón-Martinez.
The next GERS meeting will be held at the Omni Marina Hotel in Corpus Christi, Texas on November 2-4, 2006. We will be trying a new format to hold the GERS meetings biennial in even years to complement the ERF conference in odd years.
Can't talk about the Gulf with acknowledging the elephant in the room, namely the opening of hurricane season. While Florida got hammered in 2003 and 2004, no one forgets Katrina and Rita of 2005. While this is not a full report, most notably lacking reports from colleagues in New Orleans, below are observations from two marine labs that were hard hit.
From the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) Nancy Rabalais reports that "LUMCON is still recovering from the hurricane season of 2005." They are in the final stages of roof repair. Repairs remain for the dormitory rooms, some internal water damage, the Fourchon Field Camp, the downstairs fisheries lab, the offshore observing system, and other miscellaneous items. One of the biggest problems in the storms, particularly Katrina, was the total collapse of the communications systems. No cell, no phone, even the satellite phone did not work well and needed to be recharged every now and then. LUMCON now has a new emergency phone number for information that goes to Baton Rouge and not down the Bayou. Also, there is a new satellite phone, with spare batteries and a car charger. An alternative site for email is being set up for when the LUMCON server is down, which it was for quite some time after Katrina.
Hardest hit was the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (GCRL), which lost most of its infrastructure and the many colleagues who lost their homes. Mark Peterson reports, "GCRL is moving forward with the disaster left after Hurricane Katrina." The vast majority of scientists are back in renovated offices and working toward getting replacement equipment, supplies, field gear, and external buildings. The graduate students are again moving forward, and three students actually graduated this spring and summer. At least four new graduate students will be starting in Fall 2006. There is still a long way to go in terms of permanent buildings and other infrastructure, but GCRL is making significant progress.
As Nancy says in closing, "we are crossing our fingers."
NEERS held its spring 2006 meeting in Nantasket Beach, Hull, MA from April 6-8. Nantasket Beach is a barrier beach at the mouth of Boston Harbor. This was one of our largest meetings, with over 170 attendees. The meeting began with a special symposium, Love that (Not So) Dirty Water-- Science and Management of an Urban Estuary, that provided a synthesis of the results of over 15 years of research and management actions related to the clean up of Boston Harbor. Improvements in the water quality, sediment quality, and biota in the harbor following the upgrade of the wastewater treatment facility and the diversion of wastewater from the harbor was a recurring theme of the symposium. ERF provided funding to NEERS so that Bob Diaz of VIMS could present a paper at the symposium on benthic conditions in Boston Harbor and nearby Massachusetts Bay.
Friday consisted of contributed papers and posters, almost all by students. Autumn Oczkowski of the University of Rhode Island received the Ketchum Prize (best oral presentation by a graduate student) for her paper, Hunting for 'Caddy's Peak', an example from the Nile Delta lagoons, Egypt. The Rankin Prize for the best oral presentation by an undergraduate went to Sarah Foster of Hampshire College for Influence of a eutrophic gradient and Zostera marina on nitrification-denitrification in a shallow estuary. The Dean Prize, given for the best poster by a graduate student, went to Cary Chadwick of the University of New Haven for Integration of remote sensing and field data to assess the spatial distribution and composition of salt marsh vegetation in Connecticut salt marshes. Angela Mills of University of Maine-Machias won the Warren Prize for the best undergraduate poster, Using molts to discern juvenile horseshoe crab population structure at Taunton Bay, Maine. As usual, the overall quality of the student papers was impressive, and the judges had a difficult time selecting only one winner in each of the four categories.
The business meeting followed the contributed paper session. The role of NEERS as the host of ERF 2007 in Providence was highlighted. Many NEERS members are already involved in planning this conference. Please contact (Co-Chairs Giancarlo Cicchetti (cicchetti.giancarlo@epa.gov) or Jim Latimer (latimer.jim@epa.gov) if you are interested in helping out.
Historian Alan Young was applauded for his heroic effort of scanning in all meeting programs and abstracts from NEERS meetings from our first meeting in 1970 onward. This involved 900 pages and took Alan five months. Webmaster Ron Rozsa has uploaded these to the NEERS website so you can now view all NEERS programs and extant abstracts (abstracts from 9 meetings between 1970-1980 are missing) on line. From the NEERS.org Home page, go to the "Library" page. For the old programs (1970 to 2000), click on "PAST PROGRAMS" and choose the meeting you wish to download. For the old abstracts, click on "NEERS ABSTRACTS.
President Pam Neubert continued to urge members to sign up for the NEERS list server to facilitate communication.
The business meeting was followed by the awards banquet and dancing in the local pub. More contributed papers were presented on Saturday, and the formal presentations were followed by a field trip to World's End, an Olmstead-designed park in Hingham that is also the site of a salt marsh restoration project. At the close of the meeting, the prestigious Stickleback Award was given to Sheldon Pratt of URI. This award is given to the person who best exemplifies the NEERS spirit by having a record of long term service to NEERS, dancing the last dance Friday evening, and making it to the first presentation the following morning.
The Fall 2006 NEERS meet will be a joint meeting with the Long Island Sound Foundation. It will be held from October 26-28th at the US Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT. Sam Wainwright is the NEERS meeting organizer. The meeting will begin on Thursday with a special symposium, "On the Science and Management of Long Island Sound: a Multi-Stressed Ecosystem." This will be followed by contributed papers on Friday and Saturday morning. The abstract deadline is September 11, 2006. This will be an election meeting for the offices of President Elect, Secretary, and Treasurer. Marshall Pregnall, Past President, will head the nominating committee. Check the NEERS website (www.NEERS.org) for updates on the meeting and the elections.
Another meeting of interest to many NEERsians was the second workshop on salt marsh dieback in New England. It was held on May 24th in Wellfleet, MA on Cape Cod, and was organized by Steve Smith of the Cape Cod National Seashore. The NEERS website is hosting a list server on this topic. The meeting provided an update of observations of this puzzling phenomenon in New England, which seems particularly prevalent in Cape Cod and Connecticut salt marshes. The meeting included presentations by Irv Mendelssohn on "brown marsh" in Louisiana, Merryl Alber on marsh die-back in Georgia, and several presentations on the possible role of plant pathogens in New England. After the oral presentations, a field trip to a Wellfleet salt marsh that is currently undergoing die back provided a first hand look for conference participants and more food for thought.
Summer arrived with a bang in the Pacific Northwest. PERS members sampling during the June low tides are using lots of sun block during the above normal temperatures in the region. Quite a contrast to the chilly temperature experienced during the annual meeting at the Friday Harbor Laboratories last February where warmth was felt around the fire and engendered by superlative student presentations. This reporting illustrates the scope of student research, as represented by titles of award winning presentations.
Graduate Oral
1st Place: The effects of black brant herbivory and fecal addition on the animal community within an eelgrass bed of Humboldt Bay, CA by Adam Frimodig, Humboldt State. University
2nd Place: An Ethnobotanical study of the Kwakwaka'wakw Traditional Harvesting of Eelgrass, Zostera marina L.; Zosteraceae by Severn Cullis-Suzuki, University of Victoria.
3rd Place: Where the wild fish are: Natural isotope indicators of juvenile Chinook life histories in the Columbia River estuary by Greer Anderson, University of Washington
4th Place (tie): Biological invasion threatens habitat essential for young-of-year rockfish in a large urban estuary by Jessica Hayden-Spear, University of Washington.
4th Place (tie): Characterizing Restoration Trajectories through Food Web Linkages in San Francisco Bay's Estuarine Marshes by Emily Howe, University of Washington.
Graduate Poster
1st Place: Energetic trade-offs among potential habitats of an invasive crab: reconciling a model with empirical results by P. Sean McDonald, University of Washington.
2nd Place: Structural complexity of native, naturalized, and invasive ecosystem engineers influence habitat use by subadult Dungeness crab (Cancer magister) by Kirsten Holsman, University of Washington.
3rd Place: The Nuu-chah-nulth Root Garden Research Project, Clayoquot Sound, Vancouver Island by Jen Pukonen, University of Victoria.
4th Place: The effects of the invasive seagrass Zostera japonica on ecosystem processes by Lisa Turnbull, University of Oregon.
Undergraduate Oral
1st Place: Japanese eelgrass, Zostera japonica, in Oregon estuaries by Chana Dudoit, Oregon State University.
2nd Place: Salt Marsh Habitat Assessment and Restoration in the Gorge Waterway and Portage Inlet by Sarah Pearce, University of Victoria.
Undergraduate Poster
1st Place: How does geoduck aquaculture affect eelgrass in south Puget Sound? by Carrie Craig, University of Washington.
2nd Place: Demographic similarities and differences between Zostera japonica in its native (Korea) and introduced (Willapa Bay) habitats by Stacey DeAmicic, University of Washington.
3rd Place: Factors influencing the germination of eelgrass (Zostera marina L.): salinity, temperature, location, seed color and sulfide concentrations by Jess Wilkerson and Ben Lee, University of Puget Sound.
4th Place: An Ecological Analysis of the Surfgrass Phyllospadix scouleri in the San Juan Archipelago by Victoria Wyllie-Echeverria, University of Victoria.
High School Poster
1st Place: Educational Outreach for Young Boaters by Tessa Wyllie-Echeverria, Griffin Bay School and Rebecca Mason, Spring Street International School
This presentation has been turned into a coloring book, illustrated by Tessa. It will be published and distributed by the Puget Sound Action Team and the Washington State University Beach Watchers of San Juan County.
Students in graduate and undergraduate winners in the top three places received cash awards and all student winners received student memberships in ERF.
I write this submission as the dust from our spring meeting settles and as the busiest part of my field season begins-- 44 sea-days bottom trawling in the coastal waters of the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence on the CCGV Opilio! Actually, I seldom go to sea because someone has to process the samples in the lab (hundreds of fish stomachs, a couple of thousand foreguts of lobster, crab and shrimp) and ensure the tow-by-tow survey data are coherent. It is about this time each year that I really appreciate the saying: "Community ecology isn't rocket science-- it is a lot more difficult." I wonder what it would feel like to actually have a summer vacation during summer months?
ACCESS 2006 was held 19-18 May on the University of New Brunswick campus in Fredericton, and was a great success. I had forgotten how Spartan dormitory rooms can be; on the other hand, you can't beat the price. The two-day ACCESS meeting, The connectivity of Maritime aquatic habitats, included 26 oral presentations (13 by students) and a combined 18 posters (14 by students) with the special symposium. The third day was dedicated to a one-day symposium with the Canadian Rivers Institute: Rivers are connected to the sea-- and it does matter, that showcased the research of an additional 13 graduate and undergraduate students out of the 15 oral presentations.
This year, the Best Poster and Best Oral Presentation awards ($150.00 each) for students were sponsored by Hoskins Scientific Limited and presented by Jennie Gouthro.
The winner of the best oral presentation was: Tamara Darwish. Genetic variability in reaction norms between farmed and wild backcrosses of Atlantic salmon Salmo salar. Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS.
Honorable mention (oral) went to: Mark McGraw. Latitudinal variation in egg type and mean egg diameter of marine teleosts from the north western Atlantic. University of New Brunswick Saint John, NB.
The winner of the best poster presentation was: Sherene McWilliam Hughes. The importance of autochthonous and allochthonous carbon. What's driving the food web? University of New Brunswick Fredericton, NB.
Honorable mention (poster) went to: Marilynn Kullman. Food web incorporation of freshwater aquaculture waste. Canadian Rivers Institute, University of New Brunswick Saint John, NB.
Dr. Martha Jones (Department of Biology) already is planning the ACCESS 2007 meeting, which will be held at Cape Breton University (Sydney, Nova Scotia) on 16-17 May with an additional one-day symposium on the biology of Fundulus on 18 May. There will be a lot more details once the conference theme is finalized and the call for presentations goes out. Some of us will be using ACCESS 2007 as a warm-up for ERF 2007-- see you there (both conferences).
The California Estuarine Research Society (CAERS), formed in 2002, is the newest affiliate of the Estuarine Research Federation (ERF). We formed CAERS to fill a gap in the ERF affiliate societies, thereby strengthening ties among coastal and estuarine researchers in the region. Information about the Society and its formation is found on our website.
The California Estuarine Research Society is open to all, but particularly scientists and students working on estuarine and coastal environments in California and Mexico. The society aims to improve education and research regarding California's estuarine and coastal environments by providing a forum to enhance communication among interested scientists, engineers, and students.
[ back to top ]