Recorded talks can be found at MARINE'S YouTube Page

MERCURY IN THE OCEAN

Katlin Bowman, UCSC

Mercury is a global pollutant that enters the ocean and makes its way into the food web, reaching high concentrations in large fish species such as tuna and swordfish. Humans are exposed to mercury primarily through the consumption of marine fish. The environment contains a mixture of mercury from natural and human-related sources and in the open-ocean, it’s nearly impossible to distinguish an origin. This makes mercury a difficult pollutant to control as many environmental regulations and consumer related warnings are reserved strictly to manmade contaminants. This talk will follow mercury from its emission source to the ocean, into fish, and onto your dinner plate, explaining the marine mercury cycle and discussing what measures we as a society can take.

IMPACT OF DESALINATION BRINE ON CORAL GROWTH AND HEALTH - EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN AND SETUP OF CORAL NUBBINS

Karen Lykkebo Petersen, UCSC

Issues related to the brine discharge from a desalination plant on coastal chemistry and ecology. Water shortage is an increasing problem in many parts of the world. To overcome this, desalination of seawater and brackish water to potable water is increasing in popularity. The discharge of brine from the desalination plants to the surrounding coastal environment can, however, increase salinity, nutrient load, trace metals and more, and causes a potential threat for the coastal ecology. I will explain how a growth experiments with corals can provide insight to the effects of desalination, and why that is important for future decisions on location for construction of desalination plants.

BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE: THE RECOVERY OF A THREATENED PREDATOR AND ENDANGERED PREY

Kate Melanson, UCSC

Species interactions, including predator-prey interactions, can be essential parts of ecosystem functioning and are frequently managed when one species is listed as endangered, threatened or protected. With regards to listed species, the endangered species act (ESA) says that you cannot protect one species at a cost to another. This is the only small piece of guidance as to what to do if multiple species in an interaction are listed. Current species range shifts and global climate change are creating more novel interactions between listed species, creating a need for policy to address how to handle listed-species interactions. Specifically, I will look at the impending recolonization of the threatened California sea otter (Enhydra lutris) in the Northern Channel Islands of California and its possible effects on the endangered Black abalone (Haliotis cracherodii). I will explore possible management solutions for this and other interactions between listed species.

AGE, GROWTH, AND MULTIPLE PATERNITY OF DEEP-SEA SHARKS ON SEAMOUNTS IN THE SOUTHWESTERN INDIAN OCEAN

Melissa Nehmens, MLML

Little is known about deep-sea shark life history, such as how long they live, what their growth rates are, and what their reproductive behavior is. My thesis work is to better understand these characteristics to provide basic life history information for management of these species. I will be doing this my creating age and growth curves for each species and assessing reproduction via multiple paternity analysis.

JRF OCEAN MICROSCOPE

Lisa Ziccarelli, MBARI

Harmful algal blooms are a growing threat to coastal environments.  Traditional monitoring methods are generally time-consuming and expensive.  Sample analysis frequently requires highly-trained experts and results reflect only current conditions at the sample site. The Jupiter Research Foundation is developing a novel mobile Ocean Microscope to autonomously obtain observations of phytoplankton - including potentially toxic species - and other microorganisms.  As a first application, this microscope system was integrated with a Wave Glider ASV and combines compound bright-field microscopy with in situ image processing; geo-tagged images and extracted data are then telemetered to shore via mobile phone network or satellite.  These features provide investigators with a near real-time spatial-temporal picture of phytoplankton communities.