Presentations

Lucas Jones presents his Masters Thesis research!

Posted on November 27, 2021November 27, 2021 by Hannes Baumann

The UConn Department of Marine Sciences

Presents a Master’s Thesis Presentation by

Lucas Jones

B.A., University of Connecticut, 2018

4:00 p.m., Monday, November 22, 2021

Marine Sciences Building, Seminar Room 103

**Using Low-Coverage, Whole Genome Sequencing to Study Northern Sand Lance (Ammodytes dubius) Population Connectivity in the Northwest Atlantic**

Northern sand lance (Ammodytes dubius) are key forage fish in Northwest Atlantic (NWA) shelf ecosystems, where they exclusively occur on coarse-grain, offshore sand banks. This patchy occurrence may result in genetically more fragmented, less connected populations, but traditional morphological or genomic approaches have so far been unsuccessful in fully resolving the species’ population structure and connectivity. My study pursued an alternative genomic approach, using low-coverage, whole genome sequencing (LcWGS) to address these important questions. I extracted DNA from 273 A.dubius specimens collected by collaborators from sevenregions across the species geographical range, from Greenland to New Jersey, USA. From LcWGS data, I identified 11,558,126 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that allowed quantifying genetic differentiation between populations (F_ST), thereby revealing the genetic structuring of populations throughout the NWA. Despite the potentially homogenizing influence of the general north to south ocean circulation, I found a clear genetic break around Nova Scotia that delineated a northern from a southern A. dubius supergroup. Only within the southern supergroup, genetic distances increased with the geographic distance between sample sites. At the focal site of Stellwagen Bank (southern Gulf of Maine), A. dubius samples collected over several years (2014 – 2019) revealed small but significant temporal genetic differences that imply varying occupation of this offshore habitat by genetically different sand lance contingents. Inclusion of samples from the inshore congener A. americanus confirmed the clear genetic separation between both species and further determined that all sand lance caught on Stellwagen Bank are exclusively A. dubius. Overall, my work suggests the existence of two spatially distinct A. dubius populations with little ‘realized’ connectivity, which is critical knowledge to aid protection and management of offshore marine resources.

Major Advisor: Hannes Baumann

Associate Advisor: Nina Overgaard Therkildsen

Associate Advisor: Senjie Lin

44th Larval Fish Conference held virtually 24-26 June

Posted on July 3, 2021July 3, 2021 by Hannes Baumann

Groton, CT 24-26 June 2021. The long awaited and anxiously prepared virtual 44th Larval Fish Conference was held, featuring more than 240 participants from 28 countries. 58 scientific talks, including 3 keynote lectures were given via Cisco’s WebEx platform, whereas networking activities such as poster presentations, ‘Meet the Speaker’ events, and Mentor hours used the innovative Gatherly platform. The technology was working out well, the preparation paid off, and delegates were overall enthusiastic about this virtual alternative, which was forced on us by Covid-19, but may have shown us new ways and concepts to broaden the societies reach and equality.

The post-conference website is housed at https://lfc44.marinesciences.uconn.edu

Special thanks go to the scientific steering committee Eric Schultz, Jacqueline Webb, and Paul Anderson. Lauren Schaller, Anne Hill, Harley Erickson, and Kate Copeland from UConn’s conference services did a great job as well preparing and running parts of the events. Support came from NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

‘Hooked on OA’ – Hannes talks about fish CO2 sensitivity to recreational anglers

Posted on March 1, 2021March 1, 2021 by Hannes Baumann

25 February 2021. The Mid-Atlantic Ocean Acidification Network (MACAN) organized a four-part webinar series on Ocean Acidification geared specifically towards recreational anglers and shellfish collectors in the Mid-Atlantic region. The series is called “Hooked on OA” and invited Hannes on this February Thursday to explain the state of OA science particularly for fishes. A big thanks to the organizers and the more than 50 people who participated in this webinar.

If you missed it and are still interested, you can watch the Zoom webinar here:

[Lab news] Hannes & colleagues organize a Virtual Town Hall

Posted on June 29, 2020June 29, 2020 by Hannes Baumann

23 June 2020. It’s been a remarkable day. A remarkable few months of preparation. But on this Tuesday in June, more than 250 people from all over the world logged in to a UConn WebEx Event organized by Hannes Baumann, Eric Schultz, Jacqueline Webb, Paul Anderson and Jon Hare. The event, billed as the “1st Virtual Larval Fish Science Town Hall” was of course a product of the strange and challenging times we live in right now. A consequence of almost a year of painstaking preparations for the 44th Larval Fish Conference in Mystic, CT … eclipsed by the COVID-19 pandemic that made having a physical science conference impossible.

Attendance-graph — Number of attendees per minute throughout the day. Science sessions were followed by 120-170 attendees worldwide.

The Virtual Town Hall gave 16 speakers from around the world the opportunity to communicate their science, while providing a forum for the community to interact. The Early Career Committee of the AFS Early Life History Section contributed as well, organizing a round table discussion led by Kelsey Swieca with Chris Chambers, Jackie Webb, and Peter Konstantidinis. Individual networking meetings – although hobbled initially by technology – were held after the meeting between senior and early career researchers.

And best of all – more than 40 people participated in a picture contest, contributing stunning images of larval fish or larval fish science.

For more information, speaker bios’s, talk titles, abstracts and even some video please visit the event website lfc44.uconn.edu

Some of our personal favorites among the best larval fish picture submissions

A35---Bartick---Ribbonfish-fb-1-of-1 — Mike Bartick | Ribbon fish

A32---Meldonian---Cyclopsetta-fimbriata-7-8-19-9932-final — Irene Middleton | A diver checks out a juvenile flying fish at the Poor Knights Islands in New Zealand

A25---Parkinson--29354-004-Molidae-A — Winner – Kerryn Parkinson | Mola sp – a larval sunfish collected off New South Wales, Australia.

A23---Monteiro---Tilefish_CNamiki — Gabriel Monteiro | Caulolatilus chrysops larvae cleared and stained. This specimen belongs to ColBIO USP biological collection.

A15---Walsh---larval-Bothus_20170615_photo-by-Har — Harvey Walsh | Bothus larvae sorted at sea from a bongo net tow collected during the summer of 2017 aboard the NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter.

A10---Murray---Pacific-Herring-embryo — Chris Murray | Wild Pacific herring spawn from Skagit Bay, WA (~72 h old). Note the flat edge of the egg where it was adhered to sea grass.

A05---Grande-H.-Acanthurus-coeruleus — Henrique Grande | Post-larval reef fish Acanthurus coeruleus Bloch & Schneider, 1801 collected in 2015 using light traps in the Bay of Tamandaré, Brazil.

[Presentation] Callie presents research at the Graduate Climate Conference

Posted on November 16, 2019November 16, 2019 by Hannes Baumann

Callie-Climate-Change-conference1 — Callie presenting her poster to other graduate students

November 8, 2019. Callie Concannon joined other graduate students of the Department of Marine Sciences to present her thesis research at the Graduate Climate Conference in Woods Hole, MA. She presented a poster entitled “Long-term CO₂ and temperature effects on fecundity and oocyte recruitment in the Atlantic silverside”
Her preliminary findings can be summarized as:

Warmer, more acidic environments impact reproductive output in the Atlantic silverside

Callie-Climate-change-conference2 — The participants of the Graduate Climate Change conference in November 2019

[Presentation] Hannes gives first NECAN webinar on sand lance CO2 sensitivity

Posted on September 11, 2019September 11, 2019 by Hannes Baumann

10 September 2019. Hannes started of the new 2019 NECAN Sea Grant Webinar Series with a presentation of our past years of research on the sensitivity of Northern sand lance (Ammodytes dubius) to ocean acidification and warming. The purpose of this webinar series is to highlight four projects funded through NOAA Sea Grant following the release of the NECAN paper published in Oceanography Magazine in 2015, “Ocean and Coastal Acidification off New England and Nova Scotia.”

Thanks to the more than 50 people who attended the webinar. If you have missed it, it’s accessible for free online. See below.

[Lab news] Hannes, Chris and Emma at the 43rd Larval Fish Conference!

Posted on May 25, 2019May 26, 2019 by Hannes Baumann

ChrisHannesEmma_web — Chris, Hannes, and Emma

CapFormentor3_web — Beautiful view from Mallorca’s most northern point, Cap Formentor

peterdominiquearildHannes_web — Peter Gronkjaer, Dominique Robert, Arild Folkvord, Hannes during the conference tour

25 May 2019. Hannes, Chris and Emma attended this years 43rd Annual Larval Fish Conference in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. The event was hosted by IMEDEA’s Ignacio Catalan and colleagues and was attended by more than 140 participants. As usual, the small but international make-up of the meeting and made it into a memorable event of science, networking and seed for potential future collaborations. While Chris reported on our past experiments on factorial CO2 by O2 effects on Atlantic silverside early life stages, Emma presented the latest findings on our silverside experiments using computer-controlled CO2 and O2 co-fluctuations.

Before and after the conference, there was also some time to explore the beautiful island of Mallorca with its breathtaking mountain scenery and turquoise coves.

Chris and Emma’s presented:

Murray, C.S., Cross, E.L., and Baumann H. A factorial evaluation of the combined effects of acidification and hypoxia in Atlantic silverside offspring. Talk.

Cross, E.L., Murray, C.S. and Baumann H.Diel and tidal cycles of CO₂ and dissolved oxygen conditions provide physiological refuge to a coastal forage fish, Menidia menidia under acidification and hypoxia. Talk.

A special thanks to Lucas and Callie for holding the fort at home!

[Lab news] Callie attends UConn climate change symposium

Posted on May 13, 2019May 13, 2019 by Hannes Baumann

Climatestudents — UConn DMS students present their research (u.l. Kelly McGarry, u.r. Halle Berger, l.l. Sarah McCart, l.r. Alec Shub

By Callie Concannon. On April 30th, four graduate students from the Marine Science Department traveled to UConn, Storrs to present their research at UConn’s 2nd Climate Research Symposium cohosted by the Geology and Marine Science departments. The students were Kelly McGarry (Ph.D student; top left), Halle Berger (Master’s student; top right), Sarah McCart (Master’s student; bottom left) and Alec Shub (Master’s student; bottom right). Everyone’s presentations were well received, and Sarah McCart even won the graduate student poster competition!

The event featured two keynote speakers; Professor Margaret Rubega of UConn, and Professor Tim Cronin of MIT. Professor Rubega talked about science communication and how the scientific community could better communicate their climate change research to non-scientists without using overbearing jargon and too many words. Professor Cronin gave a speech on his past research on the suppression of Arctic air formation with climate warming.

McCart, S., Lund, D., Seeley, E., Asimov, P., Lewis, M., and Mudahy, A.L. Testing the sea level hypothesis with new results from the Pacific.
McGarry, K., Siedlecki, S., Alin, S., and Salisbury, J. Empirical models for estimating the carbonate system along the northeastern coast of the U.S.
Berger, H., Siedlecki, S., Matassa, C., Alin, S., Kaplan, I., Pilcher, D., and Newton, J. Using projections from regional oceanographic forecasts to assess the vulnerability of the Dungeness crab to climate change stressors.
Shub, A., Lund, D., and Mudahy, A.L., Does expansion of Antarctic bottom water result in storage of CO₂ in the abyssal Atlantic?

[Lab news] Baumann and Dam labs at the Gordon Research Conference

Posted on July 18, 2018 by Hannes Baumann

WatervilleValley — The beautiful venue of the Waterville Valley Hotel in New Hampshire

OVH-GRCtalk — Hannes introduced the Ocean Variability Hypothesis

GRC2018-Phil-HB — Phil Munday and Hannes chatting along the beautiful hike of Cascade Path

19 July 2018. Members of the Baumann and Dam labs cherished the opportunity to participate in the Ocean Global Change Biology Gordon Research Conference in Waterville Valley, NH.

The particularly intimate format of the Gordon Research Conference was wonderfully conducive to listening to groundbreaking science in form of keynote lectures and posters and to network with colleagues from all over the world. While Hannes gave a keynote lecture about experimental progress in assessing fish sensitivity to marine climate change, Chris, Emma, Jimmy and Hans presented their research all throughout the week during the poster sessions. The beautiful setting of the conference in New Hampshire’s White Mountains and the relaxed atmosphere were all contributing to one of the most unique conference experiences all year.

Talks and posters presented:

Baumann H. Using experiments to assess the sensitivity of fish to marine climate change: progress and knowledge gaps. Invited keynote talk.

Murray, C.S., Wiley, D., and Baumann H. Sand lance offspring (Ammodytes dubius) show high sensitivity to combined climate stressors. Poster.

Cross, E.L., Peck, L., and Harper, E. Brachiopod resilience: thicker shells offset dissolution under future ocean acidification and warming. Poster.

Dam, H.G., DeMayo, J.A., Park, G., He, X., Finiguerra, M., Baumann H., and Pespeni, M. Rapid adaptation of a marine copepod to a greenhouse world. Poster.

DeMayo, J.A., Park, G., Norton, L., Finiguerra, M., Baumann H., and Dam, H.G. Costs of adaptation to a greenhouse world for the copepod, Acartia tonsa. Poster.

Baumann-Damlab1 — The Baumann & Dam lab at the GRC hike

[Lab news] Baumann lab attends the Larval Fish Conference in Victoria

Posted on July 2, 2018July 2, 2018 by Hannes Baumann

Holding the fort at the Rankin lab were Emma and Sydney, who did an excellent job. Thank you guys!

Victoria08 — The Delta Victoria Ocean Pointe Resort was the conference venue

Victoria10 — Before the conference, we all attended a workshop on larval fish identification

https://www.fishersci.com/shop/products/fisherbrand-class-a-clear-glass-threaded-vials-attached-caps-pe-poly-seal-cone-liner-8/14955326 — Whale-watching with Corinne, Julie & Chris

Here is how Julie experienced her first LFC:

Ever since attending the American Fisheries Society conference in 2014, I’ve wanted to go to another fish-focused conference. I was lucky enough to attend the 42nd annual Larval Fish Conference this year in Victoria, British Columbia, and it surpassed all my expectations. The week started off with a larval fish identification workshop where we got to learn techniques from renowned larval fish experts (and see some really cool fish larvae!). The talks were impressive and thought-provoking, providing many new ideas for research and how to give an engaging talk. My favorite part was meeting all the larval fish ecologists whose publications I’ve been reading for my thesis. I spent most of my evenings exploring Victoria with other grad students attending the conference and left with many new friends from institutes all over the world! The trip ended with a whale watch, where we saw a pod of 5 Orcas. Overall, the Larval Fish Conference was a great experience that I hope to someday attend again!

Oral presentations:

Pringle, J. and Baumann, H. Sex-specific growth and mortality patterns in juvenile Atlantic silversides (Menidia menidia) from Connecticut waters. Talk. 42nd Larval Fish Conference, Victoria, BC, Canada 24-28 June 2018

Murray, C.S., Wiley, D., and Baumann, H. Early life stages of the northern sand lance Ammodytes dubius show high sensitivity to acidification and warming in a CO₂ × temperature factorial experiment. Talk. 42nd Larval Fish Conference, Victoria, BC, Canada 24-28 June 2018

Victoria04 — Harbor front with Parliament building

Victoria06 — Local celebrity, the one eyed seal