FSU Department of Oceanography
Newsletter
No. 31 Fall/Winter 2006
Inside this issue:
Thorsten Dittmar studies dissolved organic matter
Staff: Peter Lazarevich - Current Meter Guy
Around the OSB
Professional Activities
Travel
Alumni
Degrees Conferred
Honors
A View from the Bridge Peering Over the Chair's Desk
Thorsten Dittmar studies dissolved organic matter
For Assistant Professor Thorsten Dittmar dissolved organic matter or DOM holds a
distinct fascination. He has traveled the world from the mangroves in Brazil where he met his wife,
Conceição, to Germany studying DOM in both coastal waters and the deep ocean. In
2005, he traveled to Antarctica on the icebreaker, Polarstern, to study the amount of carbon being
transferred as DOM from the surface to the deep ocean by measuring organic carbon levels throughout
the water column. He chose the Southern Ocean off Antarctica because it is one of only two regions
on earth where the water column is unstable, so the surface water sinks and mixes with the deep
ocean bringing its dissolved organic matter with it. What he discovered will change the way
oceanographers view the carbon cycle in the deep ocean. Deep in this frigid abyss, Dittmar and his
fellow researchers found organic molecules that are not produced by any known organism on earth and
are only found at a high temperature, 300°C and higher. Using new tools developed at the
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, for the first time scientists were able to see these
"thermogenic" (generated by heat) compounds in marine samples. These compounds are common, man-made
combustion by-products, and Dittmar is intrigued to find them in such a remote place as the abyss
off Antarctica. He believes that they could be of natural origin and made of very old fossil carbon
seeping out of the ocean floor.
The cold seeps of the Gulf of Mexico could be a prime source of these fossil compounds to the world's oceans, so this past summer Dittmar jumped at the chance to join a cruise in order to study them further. On the continental shelf along the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi are salt deposits. When these salt deposits seep out of the ocean floor, the water becomes very dense and brine pools form. Ingenious sea creatures have adapted their lives to live around these salt lakes. Mussels live along the edges of the lake forming a type of shoreline; further away are worms that give the impression of bushes growing next to the shore. Dittmar has taken samples from the Gulf's cold seeps and plans to compare them to the samples taken from the Antarctic Ocean, hoping to prove his theory. If not, he says, "then it's back to the drawing board, but at least we'll know where these intriguing molecules don't come from." Working with Dittmar on these projects is lab technician Ana Friedrich who plans to begin her Ph.D. work in the spring. She is currently on a cruise to the Antarctic Ocean, collecting additional samples for the study.
Dittmar has two new students working with him in his lab, JiYoung Paeng and Agung Suryaputra. They are just getting settled in, but he would like at least one of them to work on an important local issue concerning one of the causes of red tide in the Gulf of Mexico. They will work together with Professor Bill Burnett's students to study the organic matter found in submarine groundwater discharge. Excess organic matter in this discharge could be linked to some red tides.
Brandon Bottomley is working on his capstone project for his master's in Aquatic Environmental Science. He is studying the nutrients found in the water at Wakulla Springs. By measuring the types of lignin, a common molecule created by all land plants, he hopes to determine where the nutrients came from, whether it was from the Leon County spray field, local septic tanks, local pine forests, or elsewhere. Lignin is a good tracer (natural "dye") because aquatic plants do not create it, only land plants, and each plant creates a different kind.
Staff
Peter Lazarevich - Current Meter Guy
His office may be in the basement but Assistant in Research Peter Lazarevich, Ph.D.
doesn't mind. Lazarevich, along with Engineer Eric Howarth, works in the Current Meter Facility
(CMF) spending his time with instruments and deploying them in oceans around the world.
It's been a quiet year for the boys of the CMF since a planned trip to the Arctic in September 2006 was canceled due to increased fuel costs. They've spent the year assisting with proposal writing for several projects, including a red-tide study for Professor Allan Clarke designed to collect data from coastal waters with current meters. Lazarevich and Howarth are also building an acoustic release for a dolphin monitoring system that Assistant Professor Doug Nowacek is using. A recorder is attached to the device and rests on the bottom of the ocean. To keep vandalism to a minimum, there is no visible flag to show where it has been dispatched. When researchers want to retrieve the device, an acoustic sound is sent that causes a float to release and rise to the surface.
As a way to better support the professors, Lazarevich is taking a science-diving course with the Academic Diving Program at FSU. When he finishes this class, he will be certified to deploy and recover instruments after the pertinent research information has been collected.
On a personal level, Lazarevich just returned from a week-long diving vacation in the Grand Cayman Islands. He and a friend went on 20 dives in five days and enjoyed the beautiful view below the ocean surface. In his spare time he says, "There's always a project or two to do at my house. The original house was built in 1946, so there's always work to be done."
Around the OSB
Sabbatical News
Bill Burnett spent a one-semester sabbatical at the "Research Institute for Humanity and Nature" (RIHN) in Kyoto, Japan. RIHN is a new institute, financed by the Japanese government that is dedicated to addressing global environmental issues by an integration of physical and social sciences. The institute has several large-scale projects currently in progress. Burnett joined an interdisciplinary team working on "Human Impacts on Urban Surface Environments," addressing how the subterranean environment under Asian megacities has changed in relation to urban developmental stages.
Other News
Douglas Nowacek is one of ten prominent international scientists chosen to serve on a new independent scientific advisory panel that will monitor the impact of the Sakhalin II offshore oil and gas development on the critically endangered Western Gray Whale population. The group will provide independent advice to a consortium of companies developing oil and gas reserves in the whale's summer feeding grounds off Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East.
Tony Sturges has been appointed to the Florida Oceans and Coastal Resources Council. The Council is charged with developing priorities for ocean and coastal research and establishing a statewide ocean research plan. The group will also coordinate public and private ocean research for more effective coastal management.
Fellowship Award
Tom Gihring has received the Transatlantic Biotechnology Fellowship from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany. The fellowship will support Tom's travel to the institute where he will study microscopy techniques for detecting microbial cells in subsurface sediments. He will be studying under Dr. Rudolf Amann, an international leader in the field of microbiology.
A Star is Born
Joel Kostka was interviewed in June for a documentary on saltmarshes by Equinox Documentaries, Inc. It was filmed on Cumberland Island, Georgia, one of the largest wilderness islands in the country surrounded by saltmarsh. "I was asked questions about the significance of saltmarshes and how these coastal ecosystems serve humanity by providing a physical barrier from storms and a nursery for young fish and shellfish," Kostka says. "They also asked me to explain some threats to saltmarsh ecosystems, such as habitat destruction."
FSU & Oceans Day
Thank you to everyone who helped out at this year's FSU Day and Oceans Day at the Capitol; Michael Beck, Allison Byrd, Dan Carlson, Sara Cleveland, Linda Fitzhugh, Anna Nousek, Ricky Peterson, Cathrine Sandal, Sommai Tharawechrak, and professors, Allan Clarke, Bill Dewar, and Georges Weatherly.
Professional Activities
New Grants
Douglas Nowacek
Protect Wild Dolphins, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
$70,541 (2006-2007)
"Pod-track - Design and testing of shallow water acoustic detection, localization, and
tracking of coastal bottlenose dolphins"
DURIP - Defense Universities Research Instrumentation Program
$211,464 (2006-2007)
"Use of multi-frequency acoustics to study cetacean foraging ecology"
Invited Presentations
Allan Clarke
Inaugural Speaker for the David C. Chapman Lecture Series, Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution, MA
"Too-fast planetary wave propagation off the California coast"
August 1, 2006
Thorsten Dittmar
9th International Estuarine Biogeochemistry Symposium, Warnemuende, Germany
"Comparison of estuaries from Arctic to tropics: organic biogeochemistry of two contrasting
shelf regions"
May 7-9, 2006
AGU Joint Assembly, Baltimore, MD
"How important are intertidal ecosystems for global biogeochemical cycles?"
May 23-26, 2006
Markus Huettel
Gordon Conference on Permeable Sediments, Waterville, ME
"Invisible flows with unknown consequences"
June 25-30, 2006
Joel Kostka
Gordon Conference on Permeable Sediments, Waterville, ME
"Structure and function of microbial communities in permeable marine sediments"
June 25-30, 2006
Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany
"Microbiology of coastal marine sands"
August 2006
Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany
"Microbiology and biogeochemistry of nitrogen cycling in marine sands"
September 2006
Douglas Nowacek
Philosophy Department, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
"Do dolphins have language?"
October 14, 2005
U.S. Marine Mammal Commission Review of Right Whale Research, Woods Hole, MA
"Application of tagging data to the design and implementation of right whale ship strike
mitigation"
March 14-17, 2006
NOAA Acoustics Program, Duke University, NC
"Gulf of Mexico noise monitoring system"
April 24, 2006
David Thistle
Benthic Ecology Meeting, Quebec, Canada and
International Deep-Sea Biology Symposium, Southampton, U.K.
"Simulated sequestration of industrial carbon dioxide at a deep-sea site: effects on species
of harpacticoid copepods"
March and July 2006
International Deep-Sea Biology Symposium, Southampton, U.K.
"A new species of Kliopsyllus (Copepoda, Harpacticoida) extend the genus' deep-sea range"
July 2006
Publications
Burnett, W.C., and H. Dulaiova, 2006. Radon as a tracer of submarine groundwater discharge into a boat basin in Donnalucata, Sicily. Continental Shelf Research, 26, 862-873.
Dulaiova, H., and W.C. Burnett, 2006. Radon loss across the water-air interface estimated from 222Rn-224Ra. Geophysical Research Letters, 33, L05606, doi:10.1029/2005GL025023.
Dulaiova, H., W.C. Burnett, J.P. Chanton, W.S. Moore, H.J. Bokuniewicz, M.A. Charette, and E. Sholkovitz, 2006. Assessment of groundwater discharges into West Neck Bay, New York, via natural tracers. Continental Shelf Research, 26, 1971-1983.
Dewar, W.K., R.J. Bingham, R.L. Iverson, D.P. Nowacek, and L.C. St. Laurent, 2006. Does the marine biosphere mix the ocean? Journal of Marine Research, 64, 553-573.
Dittmar, T., and B.P. Koch, 2006. Thermogenic organic matter dissolved in the abyssal ocean. Marine Chemistry, 102, 208-217.
Rusch A., M. Huettel, C. Wild, and C.E. Reimers, 2006. Benthic oxygen consumption and organic matter turnover in organic-poor, permeable shelf sands. Aquatic Geochemistry, 12, 1-19.
Billerbeck, M., U. Werner, K. Bosselmann, E. Waspersdorf, and M. Huettel, 2006. Nutrient release from an exposed intertidal sand flat. Marine Ecology - Progress Series, 316, 35-51.
Akob, D.M., H.J. Mills, D.L. Swofford, and J.E. Kostka, 2006. Metabolically-active microbial communities in uranium-contaminated aubsurface aediments. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 58, 200-213.
Hunter, E.M., H.J. Mills, and J.E. Kostka, 2006. Microbial community diversity associated with carbon and nitrogen cycling in permeable shelf sediments. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 72, 5689-5701.
Stucki, J.W., and J.E. Kostka, 2006. Microbial reduction of iron in smectite. Compte Rendu Geosciences, 338, 468-475.
Krishnamurti, R., 2006. Double-diffusive interleaving on horizontal gradients. Journal Fluid Mechanics, 558, 113-131.
Nowacek, S.M., and D.P. Nowacek, 2006. Discovering Dolphins. Colin Baxter Photography, Voyageur Press.
Mann, D.A., T.J. O'Shea, and D.P. Nowacek, 2006. Nonlinear dynamics in manatee vocalizations. Marine Mammal Science, 22, 548-555.
Nowacek, D.P., 2005. Acoustic ecology of foraging bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), habitat-specific use of three sound types. Marine Mammal Science, 21, 587-602.
Thistle, D., L. Sedlacek, K.R. Carman, J.W. Fleeger, P.G. Brewer, and J.P. Barry, 2006. Simulated sequestration of industrial carbon dioxide at a deep-sea site: effects on harpacticoid-copepod species. Journal Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 330, 151-158.
Bouck, L., and D. Thistle, 2006. Responses of two morphologically similar species of benthic copepod (Harpacticoida, Diosaccidae) to an erosion rate that occurs during winter storms. Vie et Milieu, 56, 9-14.
Sedlacek, L., and D. Thistle, 2006. Emergence on the continental shelf: differences among species and between microhabitats. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 311, 29-36.
Travel
Graduate Students Isaac Santos and Rick Peterson traveled to
Mangueira Lagoon in southern Brazil in August to investigate the effect of rice irrigation on
groundwater discharges into the lagoon and its influence on nutrient budgets. The area was so
remote, the group slept in a barn with no heat or stove in near-freezing temperatures. Isaac says,
"We often had to drive through the dunes and on the beach, because there were no roads. On one of
the many stormy days, the lights of the truck got damaged, so the only available light was the
thunderstorm every other minute. It was not exactly fun to drive 5km in two hours in the middle of
nowhere without roads and lights. And the GPS batteries died as well!"
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David Thistle (left) and G.D.F. "Buz" Wilson, Curator of Crustacea at the Australian Museum in Sydney, visit the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard during a break from the International Deep-Sea Biology Symposium in Southampton U.K. They viewed two historic ships, the HMS Victory and the HMS Mary Rose. Buz and David were graduate students in the same lab at Scripps Institution of Oceanography during the 1970's and have kept in touch over the years.
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An advection chamber, created by Professor Markus Huettel imitates the natural filtration process on the seafloor by generating pressure gradients similar to those generated by bottom currents interacting with sediment ripples. Graduate Students Katie Higgs and Lindsay Chipman collect water column and sediment samples on St. George Island for their research on biocatalytical filtration and carbon cycling in permeable shelf sediments.
Graduate Student Denise Akob explains her research to visitors at the Marine Lab Open House on April 29, 2006.
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Graduate Students Rick Peterson and Isaac Santos traveled to China in September to examine the Yellow River and how its freshwater mixes with the Bohai Sea using radium isotopes. Rick Peterson (in the big floppy hat) and Isaac Santos (to his right) on boat with crew taking a quick break from measuring submarine groundwater discharge in the coastal area 40km from the river mouth. They spent a cold night during their 24-hour time series on the research vessel.
Alumni News
David Karl and Mark Thiemens Elected to National Academy of Sciences
FSU Department of Oceanography alumni David M. Karl, 1974 MS Biological, and Mark Thiemens, 1977 Ph.D. Chemical, were elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors that can be accorded a scientist. Karl and Thiemens were two of 72 new U.S. members elected this year. With just over 2,000 members, the National Academy of Sciences is a group of experts brought together pro bono to address critical national issues and give advice to the federal government and the public.
Karl, Professor at the University of Hawaii Department of Oceanography, has received numerous awards throughout his career for his work in microbial oceanography. Along with being elected to the National Academy of Sciences, in 2006 he was elected to a Fellowship in the American Academy of Microbiology in recognition of his "outstanding contributions to the science and profession of microbiology."
Thiemens, Dean of the Division of Physical Sciences and Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, San Diego, has received numerous awards throughout his career in the study of meteorites and the earth's atmosphere. In addition to being elected to the National Academy of Sciences, he is a Fellow of the Meteoritical Society and recently an asteroid or "minor planet" was named (7004) Markthiemens after him.
Thiemens's current research runs the gamut from using isotopes in meteorites to study the origin and evolution of the solar system to sampling the atmosphere with rockets to better understand the ozone cycle. He has traveled to the South Pole and was recently in the Peruvian high-altitude rain forests to analyze samples of air to determine what is causing extinctions in the rain forests. Congratulations graduates!
Degrees Conferred
Completed requirements for Ph.D.
Spring 2006
Peng Yu
"Development of New Techniques for Assimilating Satellite Altimetry Data into Ocean Models"
(OBRIEN)
Completed requirements for Masters
Spring 2006
Marie E. Chapla
"Ear Morphology and Potential Sound Conduction Pathways in the Florida Manatee, Trichechus
manatus latirostris"
(NOWACEK)
Jill Fleiger
"The Effective Reduction of Methane Emissions from Landfills Using a Biocover Approach:
Measuring Methane Oxidation Using Static Chamber and Stable Isotope Techniques"
(CHANTON)
Evan Hunter
"Microbial Community Diversity Associated with Carbon and Nitrogen Cycling in Permeable
Marine Sediments"
(KOSTKA)
Summer 2006
Sara Cleveland
"Atomspheric Mercury Input to the Pensacola Bay Watershed"
(LANDING)
Diana Lambert
"Dinoflagellate Bioluminesence Mitigation"
(IVERSON)
Honors
Jeff Chanton has been awarded the Distinguished Research Professor designation in recognition of his outstanding research and creative activity. Chanton is one of only four professors who was awarded this honor in 2006.
The department is proud to add another distinguished research professor to its ranks. "Jeff is the model faculty colleague; he works hard, always has time for his colleagues, is full of ideas and energy and, on top of all that, is genuinely kind," says Department Chair Bill Dewar. "The Distinguished Research Professorship is a richly deserved recognition for Jeff. He has built himself a remarkable international presence for his methane studies. What is also true is that he has worked in, and continues to work in, a wide variety of fields with comparable success. How he does it all is a mystery to me. I think when he sleeps, if he ever does, he must dream about working in the lab and writing papers."
Chanton is very modest about receiving the award. He says, "It's been great to have such good colleagues all these years, and the support of the department staff and administration has been fantastic."
A View from Peering Over the Chair's Desk
It's a new academic year (man, I'm getting old too fast). A few points do come to mind as I celebrate my one-year anniversary as chair. First, I want to congratulate Jeff Chanton on his designation by FSU as a Distinguished Research Professor, an honor most befitting him and long overdue.
Second, we recently hosted a meeting here in Tallahassee of something called the Florida COOS Caucus, a group that in so many words represents an exciting attempt by the various marine research interests in the state to come together to advise the state about the maintenance of it's coastal resources. We hope to shape state and federal policies as they affect Florida. Believe me, this is much needed, and I have hopes that eventually we will be heard.
It's a good group, with the participation of 14 different institutions, including all the university-based marine research interests. And, I have been pleasantly surprised at the collegiality and spirit of unity (except for me) that pervades the group. Anyway, our meeting went well and featured presentations by FDEP Secretary Colleen Castille, Dr. Richard Spinrad of NOAA and Adm. Richard West of the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education (CORE).
Many thanks are due to the dynamic duo of Rachel Smith and Linda Jamison who organized the successful meeting in spite of many attempts by yours truly to muck things up. I hope they will eventually start talking to me again.
Finally, our student organization, the Thalassic Society, recently hosted a wonderful day-long, graduate-student symposium. All kinds of interesting things were presented. I personally want to thank Heath Mills, who suggested the idea, and Anna Nousek, who almost singlehandedly worked out the logistics, for the great success enjoyed by this event. But, there is one thing I don't understand. After the symposium, I overheard the students complaining about some loud, old guy sitting up front who was constantly badgering the speakers and annoying everybody with boring and uninteresting questions. And I was confused. I mean, I was sitting up front all day, and I didn't see or hear anybody like that.
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