Publications & Presentations

[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!

Callorica-inconspicua
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

[Lab news] Baumann lab at OSM2018 and the OA-PI meeting

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Members of the Baumann lab attended two back-to-back meetings in Portland, OR, in February. From 11-16 February, we participated in 2018 Ocean Sciences Meeting, while from 17-19 February we all took part in the 4th Ocean Acidification Principal Investigators meeting.
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Holding the fort at the Rankin lab were Julie and Charles, who did an excellent job. Thank you guys!
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At OSM, Hannes chaired a large session (OC51, OC52) titled “Multiple Stressors and Multiple Disciplines: Understanding the Consequences of Global Ocean Change for Marine Species” together with colleagues from Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS, Amy Maas), the Virgina Institute of Marine Sciences (VIMS, Emily Rivest), and the University of South Carolina (Catherine Davis). The line-up of speakers was impressive and included our very own Emma Cross (speaking on brachiopod resistance to CO2) and Hans Dam (presenting our findings of multigenerational CO2 effects on the copepod Acartia tonsa).

At the OA PI meeting, Hannes gave an summary talk of key advances in the field of experimental OA approaches, while all of us worked in small synthesis groups on synthesizing products and projects.

Portland, albeit rainy, was as usual a great city to come to.

OSM2018 sessions OC51, OC52 (Baumann, Maas, Rivest, Davis)
Multiple Stressors and Multiple Disciplines: Understanding the Consequences of Global Ocean Change for Marine Species

    Session 1

  • Zimmerman et al. Modeling the Impacts of Water Quality and Climate Change on Submerged Aquatic Vegetation in the Chesapeake Bay
  • Frieder et al. Advancements in Quantifying Energy Costs for Organisms to Respond to Ocean Change
  • Hofmann et al. Who’s Your Mommy? Transgenerational Effects in Purple Sea Urchins from Nearshore Kelp Forests in California
  • Waldbusser et al. Understanding the multi-stressor impacts of ocean acidification on marine calcifiers: What controls biocalcification? Saturation state or substrate inhibitor ratio
  • Silbiger et al. Nutrient addition disrupts dependence of calcification on aragonite saturation state
  • Cross et al. A 120-year record of resilience to environmental change in brachiopods
  • Dam et al. The copepod Acartia tonsa in a greenhouse world: Transgenerational plasticity of life history traits
  • McLaskey et al. Ocean Acidification Driven Changes to Food Quality are Transferred Unpredictably Across Trophic Levels
    Session 2

  • Palmer et al. Recent Fossil Record Provides Unique Insight into Impacts of Multiple Stressors on Community Ecology
  • Krumhardt et al. Coccolithophore growth and calcification under future oceanic conditions
  • Rivest et al. Multiple stressors elicit unique responses in animal and algal partners: the potential for physiological plasticity in symbiotic coral larvae under global ocean change
  • Cornwall et al. Impacts of pH Variability and Past pH History on Coral and Coralline Algal Calcification: a Mechanistic and Multi-generational Approach
  • Eagle et al. Combining microelectrode and geochemical approaches to study the impact of pCO2 and temperature changes on the internal pH and carbonate chemistry of corals and their relation to growth responses
  • Weinnig et al. Physiological Response of a Cold-Water Coral (Lophelia pertusa) to the Combined Stressors of Climate Change and Hydrocarbon Influence
  • Bednarsek et al. Interactive effects of temperature and acidification on pteropod distributions in the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem
  • Davis et al. Juvenile Rockfish Recruits Show Resilience to CO2-Acidification and Hypoxia across Biological Scales

[Research feature] Our multistressor NSF project in the spotlight

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This research feature makes the case for multistressor research to a broad general audience and introduces our NSF project and its participants. Download the feature by clicking on the pictures or the link below.

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Download the Research feature
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[New publication] Mothers matter for the CO2 sensitivity of fish offspring

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28 November 2017. The Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology just published the latest study by our group looking at differences in the CO2 sensitivity of Atlantic silverside offspring stemming from different mothers. Congratulations to Jacob Snyder for his first peer-reviewed publication.

Among the highlights of the study:

  • Offspring produced by different females varied in their sensitivity to high CO2 conditions.
  • Specific fatty acids in eggs were correlated to the log-transformed CO2 response ratio of embryo survival and hatch length.
  • Maternal provisioning might be an additional determinant of CO2 sensitivity in fish early life stages.

Citation:

Snyder, J.T.*, Murray, C.S.*, and Baumann, H. (2018)
Potential for maternal effects on offspring CO2 sensitivities in the Atlantic silverside (Menidia menidia).
Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 499:1-8

Fig2 - dancing men
M. menidia. Responses to high CO2 conditions among replicates within and among females: (A) embryo and larval survival; (B) overall survival; (C) SL at hatch; and (D) final SL (16 dph). Patterns of larval growth were nearly identical to panel D and are therefore omitted. Ambient and high CO2 treatments are denoted by red and blue colors, respectively. Small symbols depict replicate survival (A,B) or replicate average size (C,D), while large symbols depict CO2 treatment averages for each female. Black lines connect average response for each female. Asterisks represent significant differences (P < 0.05) between CO2 levels within offspring of each female (Bonferroni adjusted t-test). Letters denote to females A to E.

[Lab news] Baumann lab attends the CERF conference in Providence, RI

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FCERF2017
Ashley van Etten designed the beautiful official artwork representing this years CERF conference. Thanks Ashley for letting our lab feature your art here!
On 5-9 November 2017, the Baumann lab attended the 24th Biennial Conference of the Coastal and Estuarine Research Foundation (CERF) in Providence, RI. The conference is a unique blend of academic and conservation science and comprises an ideal venue for students to present their thesis research to a broad national and international audience. Best of all this year: the conference logo featured a beautiful piece of art depicting an underwater scene with our most beloved, famous fish, the Atlantic silverside. Big shout out to Ashley van Etten and her inspiring artwork!

Together with Steve Litvin (Monterey Bay Aquarium) Hannes convened a theme session titled “Physiological ecology in the Anthropocene: linking the laboratory and field” and talked about our recently published paper on pH and oxygen fluctuations in nearshore coastal environments. Jake presented his Master thesis research on the newly digitized long-term time series of Project Oceanology, and Julie talked about the first aspect of her ongoing research on silverside otoliths and inferred patterns of growth and temperature-dependent sex determination. Well done, all!

  • Baumann H. and Smith, E.M. 2017. Quantifying the covariance of pH and oxygen conditions across the diversity of US nearshore habitats.
  • Pringle, J.W. and Baumann H. 2017. Sex-specific growth and mortality patterns in juvenile Atlantic silversides (Menidia menidia) from Connecticut waters.
  • DeMayo, J.A., Park, G., Norton, L., Huffman, W., Finiguerra, M., Baumann H., and Dam, H.G. 2017. Combined effects of warming and acidification on life-history traits of the calanoid copepod Acartia tonsa.
  • Snyder, J.T. and Baumann H. 2017. A newly digitized 45-year dataset of environmental and biological observations from Long Island Sound.

[New publication] Nearshore pH and DO fluctuations across 16 US estuaries!

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October, 2nd, 2017: Happy to announce that Estuaries and Coasts just published (online) our article that looked at unifying principles of pH and DO fluctuations across many US nearshore habitats. The datasets belongs to the US Nearshore Estuaries Research Reserves System (NERRS) and is one of the most extensive monitoring datasets in coastal aquatic habitats. In this case, we used 15 years of continuous monitoring data (> 5 million data points) from 16 different reserves across the US Atlantic, Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and Pacific coasts and analyzed short- to long-term variability in pH and DO fluctuations. Among the highlights:

  • Our analyses confirmed that large, metabolically driven fluctuations of pH and DO are a unifying feature of nearshore habitats. Even more so, we were able to show that across habitats, one can predict mean pH or mean diel pH fluctuations simply based on salinity and oxygen levels/fluctuations. This provided strong empirical evidence that common metabolic principles drive diel to seasonal pH/DO variations within as well as across a diversity of estuarine environments.
  • As expected, there were no interannual, monotonic trends in nearshore pH conditions; instead interannual fluctuations were of similar magnitude than the pH decrease predicted for the average surface ocean over the next three centuries.
  • By correlating weekly anomalies of pH, oxygen, and temperature, we found strong empirical support for the notion that coastal acidification — in addition to being driven by eutrophication and atmospheric CO2 increases — is exacerbated simply by warming, likely via increasing community respiration.

Citation and link:
Baumann, H. and Smith, E. (2017) Quantifying metabolically-driven pH and oxygen fluctuations in US nearshore habitats at diel to interannual time-scales Estuaries & Coasts (published online 2 Oct 2017)

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Among many other aspects, the paper analyzed interannual trends in temperature (red bars), dissolved oxygen (%, blue bars), and pH (green bars) at 16 US Nearshore Ecological Research Reserves (NERRS), shown as yearly anomalies derived from averaging monthly anomalies for each variable, site, and year. Black trend lines were derived by LOESS smoothing.

[Lab news] Chris and Hannes attend ICES Annual Science conference

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ASC 2017 poster

On 19-21 September 2017, Chris Murray and Hannes Baumann traveled to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to attend the ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) Annual Science Conference in order to present our ongoing NSF and NOAA funded research on potential ocean acidification effects in Atlantic Silversides and Northern Sand lance. Due to Hurricane Irma, which had impacted all of Florida just a week earlier, it was a great relief that the conference could actually be successfully held.

Together with Chris Chambers (NOAA), Ian Bradbury (DFO, Canada), and Richard McBride (NOAA), Hannes convened a theme session titled “Patterns, sources, and consequences of intraspecific variation in responses of marine fauna to environmental stressors“.

Chris gave a talk and a poster during this session, which was well received and thus a worthwhile exposure for Chris and our lab’s research.

  • Murray, C. S. and Baumann H. 2017. Growth costs of high CO2 environments in a marine fish: importance of feeding methodology. Talk.
  • Murray, C. S., Wiley, D., and Baumann H. 2017. A preliminary study testing the effects of high CO2 on the early life stages of the northern sand lance Ammodytes dubius. Poster.

[Lab news] Baumann & Nye lab attend 41st Larval Fish Conference

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From 11-16 July, Hannes, Chris, Jake (Baumann lab, UConn) and Teresa (Nye lab, Stony Brook) were presenting research from our common NSF project at the 41st Larval Fish Conference, organized by the Early Life History Section of the American Fisheries Society in Austin, TX.

Hannes Baumann
Chris-Murray
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Holding the fort and maintaining experiments at Avery Point were James, Julie, and Elle. Thank you for helping out.

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We gave four talks in two sessions:

  • Baumann H., Snyder, J.T., and Murray, C.S. 2017. Quantifying offspring CO2-sensitivity in a fish: a meta-analysis.
  • Snyder, J.T., Murray, C.S., and Baumann H. 2017.
    Potential for maternal effects on offspring CO2 sensitivity in a coastal marine fish
  • Murray, C.S., Snyder, J.T., and Baumann H. 2017. A multi-factorial evaluation of temperature-dependent CO2-effects in a coastal forage fish.
  • Schwemmer, T., Baumann H., and Nye, J. 2017.
    Physiological effects of increased temperature and carbon dioxide on Atlantic silverside early life stages     <

Here is how Jake rates his first international conference experience:

Jacob-Snyder
Austin Texas, July 2017. “Attending the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists was my first visit to Austin Texas and my first large-conference presentation. My presentation was part of the Larval Fish Conference, a sub-section of the larger meeting, and I quickly learned how welcoming the larval fish group of researchers, scientists, professionals, and students were. Having not been to a “destination” conference like this before, I had little expectations, but I had a lot of fun networking, discussing research, and socializing. I think the coolest non-conference related event was seeing the Mexican Free-Tailed bats that live in the Congress Street Bridge, as every night around sunset they leave to go feed. Seeing hundreds of thousands of bats stream out of the bridge was incredible, and something I’d highly recommend. The city of Austin was great, and I spent much of the first day (pre-conference) exploring the city in the scorching heat. Overall the Baumann Lab had an excellent time at the conference, and can’t wait for the next one!”

Jacob Snyder “Austin 2017” photoblog. RedSkiesPhotography