Media

[Field work] Sand lance spawning season has started

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4th time’s the charm: sampling spawning ripe sand lance on Stellwagen Bank

scituate-sunrise
On 2 Dec 2016, the sun rises over Scituate, MA, harbor and the fishing trawler that will take us to Stellwagen Bank this time.
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On 2 Dec 2016, Chris waits for the action to start, while the trawler is leaving Scituate Harbor
sandlance embryos
Sandlance embryos, 24h after fertilization. The embryo stage in this species can be up to two months!
Early morning on 2 December 2016, we left Scituate, MA, for the forth time this year, heading towards Stellwagen Bank in search of spawning ripe Northern sand lance (Ammodytes dubius), a winter spawning forage fish of great importance to the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and the object of latest research efforts. While during the last three cruises in late October and November, we saw a progression of ripening in the specimens, up to now we didn’t actually find spawning ripe individuals. Today, though, things are different, and when the first sand lance appear in our beam trawl, we immediately know that today we’ve been at the right time and at the right place.
It seemed an ambitious dream not too long ago, but now we’re happy report that we’ve started an experiment on sand lance embryos in our lab. Thanks to Chris Murray, David Wiley, Mike Thompson, captain Steve and his deckhand Matt for the successful trip!
scituate-panorama-sunrise
Early morning low tide at Scituate Harbor on 2 Dec 2016. The calm is deceiving; outside of the harbor the sea is pretty rough

Check out some footage of the trip and the beam trawl operation on board of captain Steve’s fishing vessel

[New publication] Long-term growth consequences of acidification in Atlantic silversides

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October 10th 2016 was a special day for our still young lab here at the University of Connecticut, Today, the ICES Journal of Marine Science published the paper of Chris Murray et al., which is the first of hopefully many publications of our experimental findings originating out of our new laboratory facility here at UConn Avery Point.
Chris and his co-authors report on a large-scale, quantitative rearing experiment on Atlantic silversides eggs, larvae and juveniles under contrasting CO2 conditions that took place between May – September 2015. This novel experiment was designed to address three critical issues lacking in previous ocean acidification research on fish. First, the study spanned several ontogenetic stages. Second, it used very large numbers of individuals to robustly characterize not just potential shifts in mean responses, but also changes in the distribution of length, weight, and condition factor. Third, it provided food at standardized, non-excess levels to prevent that potential metabolic costs of high CO2 exposure could be compensated by survivors simply by eating more food.
Overall the study demonstrated seemingly small but significant growth reductions due to high CO2 and identified a small number of fatty acids that were of significantly different concentrations in high vs. control juveniles.

murray-etal-ijms2016_fig3
Distributions of condition factor per 2mm TL interval for juvenile M.menidia reared for 122dph at control (a) and high CO2 conditions (b). Thick and thin black lines correspond to the 10th/90th and 25th/75th percentiles, respectively, while the red line depicts the median. Data below the 10th and above the 90th percentiles are depicted by black dots. Underlying grey bars show relative frequencies for each 2 mm TL class. Black and grey numbers correspond to numbers of individuals measured for both TL and wW, or for TL only, respectively.
murray-etal-ijms2016_fig4
Cumulative frequency distributions of (a) total length (TL) and (b) wet weight (wW), in juvenile M. menidia reared for 122 dph at control and high CO2 conditions.

Murray, C.S.*, Fuiman, L., and Baumann, H. (2016)
Consequences of elevated CO2 exposure across multiple life stages in a coastal forage fish.
ICES Journal of Marine Science (published online 10 Oct 2016)

NOAA announces funding for our research on sand lance

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NOAA and Sea Grant fund $800,000 in research to understand effects of ocean changes on iconic Northeast marine life

The Ocean & Atmospheric Research program (OAR) of NOAA and Sea Grant just announced the winners of its most recent round of research funding to better understand the consequences of ocean warming and acidification on key marine resources in U.S. Northeast coastal waters. We are happy and proud that our proposed work on the climate sensitivity of Northern sand lance (Ammodytes dubius) was one of the four projects selected for funding. This is particularly good news for Chris Murray, who for his PhD can now expand his experimental rearing expertise to this important species.
This work will be conducted collaboratively with colleagues from NOAA (David Wiley), USGS (Page Valentine), Boston University (Les Kaufman), and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Scott Gallager).

You can read the official announcement as it appeared on 6 September 2016 on NOAA’s News site.

Chris RV Auk Sediment grab
Chris Murray checking for sand lance caught by the sediment grab. RV Auk (Photo credit: Jacob Snyder)

[Conference] Chris and Hannes present at the 40th Larval Fish Conference

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CBL

The 40th Larval Fish Conference of the American Fisheries Society‘s (AFS) Early life history section (ELHS) was held from 19 – 23 June 2016 at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons, MD.

This small conference brought together approximately 150 international scientists to talk about larval fish growth, survival, maternal effects, dispersal, systematics to name just a few. It was held in special honor of Edward Houde, who over his long career has inspired generations of marine scientists.

While Chris was presenting last years data about growth consequences of high CO2 exposure across life stages in our model species, the Atlantic Silverside, Hannes participated in the Early Career workshop and gave a talk about how to approach the writing of a scientific manuscript (PDF).

http://media.befel.marinesciences.uconn.edu/public_html/docs/Baumann-LFC-Writing_workshop_web.pdf

Thanks to all the colleagues and friends for the great time and conversations. See you next year in Austin (TX)!

LFC2016_group
All participants of the 2016 Larval Fish Conference in Solomons, MD
CBL_Pier
Thunderous clouds over Chesapeake Bay, view from CBL
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Generations of scientists were inspired by the work of Ed Houde (middle, right: Catriona Clemessen)
CovePoint_Chris
Chris standing on the tip of Cove Point (Chesapeake Bay)
hb_workshop
Hannes trying to convey to early career scientist at the LFC that writing a scientific manuscript can be approached by breaking up the process into pieces …

[Lab News] Jake featured at UMM alumni news

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Jake reported back to his old undergraduate institution about his current research and how the University of Maine at Machias has inspired him to pursue a career in Marine Sciences.

This week’s Alumni Spotlight shines on Jake Snyder, UMM Class of 2014 with a degree in Marine Biology. Jake lives in Canterbury, Connecticut, and is a research assistant at the University of Connecticut’s Avery Point.

Tell us a little bit about what you are doing now:

Currently, I am a research assistant at UConn Avery Point as part of my masters. I was accepted into the graduate program here in the fall of 2015, and I am now working towards my Masters in Biological Oceanography. Our lab is small, with myself, a doctoral student, and our advisor, but we’re ambitious. Our research is focused on the synergistic effects of ocean acidification, increased temperature, and decreased oxygen on the Atlantic Silverside (Menidia menidia), a near-shore schooling fish. We’ve also recently started working with the Northern Sandlance (Ammodytes dubius), a fish native to Stellwagen Bank. In addition to the lab-based research, I am also digitizing the ~40 year data set collected by Project Oceanology, and developing that into a searchable database as part of the LISICOS (Long Island Sound Integrated Coastal Observing System) system.

Read the whole feature here …

Jake Snyder on Auk
Jake helping to retrieve a SEABOSS sediment grab on board the R/V Auk (Nov 2015)

[Student video] Climate Change: A Future for Fish in a Changing Ocean

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A big shout-out to Megan, Rainer, and Liz who apart from their intrepid work as volunteers in our lab also excelled here in their video project for MARN3000. They interviewed Profs. Kelly Lombardo, Michael Finiguerra, and Hannes Baumann about aspects of Marine Climate Change and then cut their answers with researched video material from the web. Note the sartorial touch throughout the clip (6 min)!
Well done, all!

Megan-Barry
Megan Barry
Rainer-Moy-Huwyler
Rainer Moy-Huwyler
Elizabeth-Karamavros
Elizabeth Karamavros

[Outreach] A busy year in Mumford Cove

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On 13 April, Hannes was invited to the board meeting of the Mumford Cove Association to present a brief update about our groups research activities in and around the cove. It is part of our commitment to public education and outreach to keep property owners informed and maintain good relationships with all parties involved.

The information material below contains graphical summaries of our activities, i.e., measuring water quality parameters continuously with a logging probe and conducting biweekly beach seine surveys for silversides.

To a productive year 2016 in the cove!

Mumford Cove Ass_probe
Mumford Cove Ass_silversides

[Brown bag] Tips & tricks for preparing a good presentation

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In preparation for the upcoming Feng Graduate Research Colloquium on Thursday, May 12 (Conn Avery Point, Marine Sciences), Hannes gave a brown bag seminar on how to make an effective presentation.

You can access/download the powerpoint of via this link below or by clicking on the image below.

Brown bag 4-13-16

[Lecture] OA multistressor lecture at Mitchell College

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electure cover
Mitchell_College_email_logo_7_2015

On 15 March, Hannes gave a lecture at Mitchell College in New London, talking about the combined effects of ocean warming, acidification, and hypoxia on marine organisms. The entire lecture is publicly available at Limnology & Oceanography e-lectures.

“It was such a pleasure to have you present to the class today; your lecture was excellent – engaging with just the right amount and level of information. I’m glad that you intend to continue to provide outreach/education to the community on this topic.”

Amy Cabaniss, Adjunct Faculty – Marine Ecology, Environmental Studies (STEM)

[Talk] Multistressor seminar at URI

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URI talk

On 26 February 2016, H. Baumann was invited to give a seminar at the Biological & Environmental Sciences Colloquium Series at the University of Rhode Island, featuring the recently published e-lecture on “Combined effects of ocean acidification, warming, and deoxygenation on marine organisms”
His host, David Bengston has been a renowned fisheries and aquaculture biologist for the past 40 years.

Baumann, H. (2016)
Combined effects of ocean acidification, warming, and hypoxia on marine organisms.
Limnology and Oceanography e-Lectures 6:1-43