Publications & Presentations

[Publication] Brachiopods thicken shells to compensate for shell dissolution under future OA conditions

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15 April 2019. Today, Emma is happy to report that Environmental Science & Technology have just published the latest paper from her PhD about brachiopod resilience to future ocean acidification. This project involved long-term culturing of a polar and a temperate brachiopod under future ocean acidification and warming conditions. Substantial shell dissolution posed a threat to both species under ocean acidification, with more extensive dissolution occurring in the polar species.

Unexpectedly, we discovered that brachiopods thicken their shell from the inner shell surface when extensive dissolution occurs at the outer shell surface under ocean acidification. This is an important finding to further our understanding of how predicted vulnerable marine calcifiers might cope under future environmental change.

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Cross, E. L., Harper, E. M. and Peck, L. S. 2019. Thicker shells compensate extensive dissolution in brachiopods under future ocean acidification. Environmental Science & Technology (published online March 29, 2019).

[Media] WSHU public radio covers Project Oceanology story

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4 April 2019. Following the publication of our study on the Project Oceanology time-series in Marine Environmental Research and the subsequent article about it in TheConversation, today the story was featured by WSHU public radio, in Ron Ropiak’s show “The Full Story“.

Have a listen, how Hannes describes both the findings and the significance of the Project Oceanology time series.

Listen

[Publication] The Project Oceanology time-series has been published!

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Project Oceanology
Project Oceanology students onboard the “Enviro-Lab II” retrieve a trawl in the Thames River Mouth (Photo: Anna Sawin)

21 March 2019. We are happy to announce that Marine Environmental Research just published our most recent paper about long-term ecological change in eastern Long Island Sound based on data collected by Project Oceanology!For his Master’s thesis, Jacob Snyder painstakingly retrieved and digitized more than 40 years of environmental observations from Project Oceanology. This non-profit ocean literacy organization has educated middle and high school students on boat trips to nearby estuarine sites for decades. For the first time, his work allowed a quantitative evaluation of these data and glimpses into the abiotic and biotic changes in nearshore waters of Eastern Long Island Sound.

Highlights

  • Citizen-science observations revealed rapid warming, acidification, and dissolved oxygen loss over the past 40 years in eastern Long Island Sound
  • Otter trawl catches showed significant decreases in overall species diversity and richness
  • Cold-water adapted species (American lobster, winter flounder) decreased, but warm-water adapted species (spider crabs) increased since 1997

Citation

Public outreach

News coverage: UConn Today | New Haven Register | The Hour | NonProfit Quarterly | WSHU Public Radio

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Long-term changes in temperature, pH, and oxygen in the Thames River Mouth (eastern Long Island Sound)
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Catch indices of four major species in Project Oceanology trawls over the past two decades

[Research News] F1000 Prime recommends Biology Letters article

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Dear Dr Baumann,

Congratulations!

Your article: Robust quantification of fish early life CO2 sensitivities via serial experimentation, Biology Letters, 2018 (DOI: 10.3410/f.734523360.793553721), has been recommended in F1000Prime as being of special significance in its field by F1000 Faculty Member Philip Munday.

You can read Dr Munday’s recommendation here

Munday P: F1000Prime Recommendation of [Baumann H et al., Biol Lett 2018 14(11)]. In F1000Prime, 11 Dec 2018; 10.3410/f.734523360.793553721

Thank you, Phil!

[Lab news] Chris defends his dissertation!

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Chris smiling after his committee congratulated him on his dissertation defense (f.l.t.r: Chris Chamber, Chris Gobler (via Skype), Eric Schultz, Hans Dam, Chris Murray)
6 December 2018. Today, the whole Baumann lab is congratulating Chris Murray today on his great day of defending his PhD. Chris presented the essence of his research on climate change effects on coastal marine fish to a packed audience in the seminar room, fielded an array of questions, and showed his deep knowledge of the subject during the subsequent discussion with his committee.
Well done, Dr. Murray! We are all so very proud of you!
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The bubbly is opened in the Rankin Lab in true experimenter fashion!
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Chris Murray and Chris Chambers in front of the sand lance tank in the Rankin Lab

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

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GRC2018

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The beautiful venue of the Waterville Valley Hotel in New Hampshire

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Hannes introduced the Ocean Variability Hypothesis

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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.

GRC-posters

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The Baumann & Dam lab at the GRC hike
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[Lab news] Baumann lab attends the Larval Fish Conference in Victoria

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Sydney-Stark
Holding the fort at the Rankin lab were Emma and Sydney, who did an excellent job. Thank you guys!
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The Delta Victoria Ocean Pointe Resort was the conference venue

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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
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Water taxi in Victoria

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Old Victoria
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Beyond this point …
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Orca whale
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Harbor front with Parliament building
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Local celebrity, the one eyed seal

[Lab video] How a new silverside experiment starts

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29 June 2018. A new experiment with Atlantic silversides (Menidia menidia) starts and as usual, it’s an all hand on deck operation. This time, we have Chris Tsang shadowing all of us and Emma professionally explaining the process.

Have a look for yourself!

[New publication] No CO2 effects on silverside starvation

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31 March 2018. We’re happy to announce that Marine Biology just published our latest study examining the starvation tolerance of silverside larvae and juveniles at contrasting CO2 conditions. We compiled observations from five separate experiments spanning different years, laboratories, temperatures, life stages, and CO2 levels. Contrary to expectation, we found that starvation rates were largely independent of the CO2 environment in this fish species.

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One major set of data was produced by Elle Parks as part of her Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) in summer 2017. Well done, everybody!

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Hannes shows Elle Parks (REU 2017), how individual screen with enumerated embryos are suspended into the replicate rearing containers. (Photo: Peter Morenus, UConn)
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On 9 June, Elle and Julie strip-spawn Atlantic silverside females into spawning dishes covered in window screen for eggs to attach. (Photo: Peter Morenus, UConn)
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M. menidia. (A) Relative cumulative starvation mortalities of early juveniles reared under ambient (grey line, diamonds) vs. high CO2 conditions (black line, circles). Symbols depict individual replicates, lines represent treatment means. (B) Total length of juveniles perishing during the experiment at ambient (grey diamonds) vs. high CO2 conditions (black circles). Lines represent the median(solid lines), 5th and 95th percentiles (dashed lines) of TL estimated with locally weighted, non-parametric density estimators. The initial TL distribution at the beginning of the experiment is depicted on day 0 as the median (white circle), 5th/95th percentiles (whiskers) and the minimum and maximum (white stars).

[New publication] Brachiopods resilient to global change

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Congratulations to Emma Cross to her new publication in Global Change Biology today!

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The common brachiopod Calloria inconspicua (pink shells) in their natural environment in New Zealand. Photo credit: Dr Liz Harper.
Her study that was part of her PhD-research concludes that the brachiopod Calloria inconspicua, a common seafloor dwelling marine invertebrate from New Zealand, is more resilient to environmental change than expected.

Read the full press release by the British Antarctic Survey