FSU Department of Oceanography Newsletter
No. 22 Spring/Summer 2002
Featured Faculty Member - Dr. William Burnett
What effects does groundwater, with its dissolved nutrients and other components, have on the health of coastal ecosystems? This question had interested Dr. William Burnett, a faculty member since 1977, ever since he moved to Florida and discovered that 90% of Florida's drinking water comes from groundwater.
In 1998, Dr. Burnett proposed to the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) that a Working Group be established to "...define more accurately and completely how submarine groundwater discharge influences chemical and biological processes in the coastal ocean." Submarine groundwater discharge is inherently very difficult to measure. Hydrological and oceanographic approaches developed to date are quite different and have not yet been systematically compared. The two groups are now measuring flow with different tools. They are literally approaching the same problem from different ends.
The Working Group's first challenge was to discover which of these tools gave the most accurate measurement of the amount of groundwater discharge into the ocean. Scientists from around the world gathered at Apalachee Bay near the FSU Marine Laboratory where several types of measurements were conducted during the first Submarine Groundwater Discharge Assessment Intercomparison Experiment.
The experiment was deemed a success with seepage meters, radon, and radium isotopic measurements giving similar results although hydrologic modeling gave lower estimates. According to Dr. Burnett, the group is still in the method-development stage but is gaining headway. Reconciling the hydrological modeling results with the seepage meter and geochemical estimates will be an important aspect of upcoming research.
Dr. Burnett is working with FSU faculty member, Dr. Jeffrey Chanton, on this project and has collaborated with him on several other projects in various Florida locations including the Keys, Sarasota Bay, St. George Sound, Apalachicola Bay, and St. Joseph's Bay studying contamination issues via submarine groundwater discharge pathways. Several graduate students of Burnett/Chanton have completed thesis projects involving "coastal hydrology" - Jaye Cable (Asst. Professor, LSU), Reide Corbett (Asst. Professor, E. Carolina Univ.), Christine Tilburg (Scientist; TetraTech), Glynnis Bugna (postdoc, FAMU), Michael Lambert (Instructor, West Point Military Academy), and Jamie Christoff (Environmental Specialist, FL DEP). Kevin Dillon is currently finishing his Ph.D. work with Jeff Chanton on related issues and Henrieta Dulaiova and Christina Stringer in Burnett's group are both pursuing projects involving ground-surface water interactions. Other members of Burnett's research team include Svetlana Nour, Deok-Soo Moon (visiting postdoc from Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute), and Fran Bollmann.
Dr. Burnett recently returned from doing field work in Sicily and is currently traveling to Prague to discuss the effects of groundwater discharge into the ocean.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Burnett studied sea-floor phosphorites and their formation. His Ph.D. dissertation involved determining how fast phosphate nodules form by studying developing deposits on the ocean floor in the upwelling area off Peru.
Dr. Burnett received his Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii in Chemical Oceanography in 1974. He's been at FSU for 23 years and served as chairman of the department from 1991-1994. Dr. Burnett is married to Rene who is from Hawaii, and they have a 25 year old daughter, Kimberly, who is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Hawaii studying economics.
Dr. Burnett (left) and Mike Lambert measure the volume from a seepage meter bag in western Australia near Perth.
Staff
Three New Staff Members Join the Department
The department would like to welcome E. Bryer, Diane Grubbs, and Rachel Smith to the department staff.
Erik is the new part-time Systems Administrator, responsible for maintaining the department server and network and a Programer for Dr. Speer. He last worked in the petroleum industry. Erik spent two and a half years working for a large oilfield services company in Houston, TX and Calgary, Alberta, Canada doing geophysical software support, systems administration, and field programming. He also worked for smaller petroleum software companies and at an environmental consulting company in San Francisco, CA. Erik graduated with a degree in geology. He is interested mainly in computational science, contemporary Asian history, and outdoor recreation.
Diane Grubbs is the new Senior Secretary. She is responsible for pay and leave, travel, assisting the search committee, keeping the keys, and assisting faculty members and students with any kind of paperwork they need. Before coming to Oceanography, Diane worked for three years as an OPS Program Assistant for the FSU Maintenance Department. In her first career, Diane worked at various banks in the real estate business for 26 years. She went back to school at Lively Technical Center where she received her Certificate in Accounting Operations. Diane has been married to Leonard for 23 years. She has two grown sons, James (29) and Mark (22) and two grandchildren Katie (4 1/2) and Chase (2 1/2). She enjoys flower arranging, crocheting, and karioke. Diane lives on Grubbs Road, which was named after her husband and her.
Rachel Smith is the new Senior Art and Publications Specialist whose responsibilities include writing and producing this newsletter as well as updating and maintaining the department's web site and various graphic projects. She comes to the department with over 14 years experience in public relations and publications, the past 11 years being with the Girl Scouts. Rachel graduated from the University of Florida and is a Certified Public Relations Counselor and is Accredited in Public Relations. She is a member of the Florida Public Relations Association where she has served on both local and state boards of directors. She has received numerous awards for her public relations work including four TV public service announcements she wrote and produced for the Girl Scout cookie sale. Rachel is married and has two young children, Patrick (12) and Matthew (7 1/2).
Around the OSB
Work is completed on renovations of the first floor patio of the Oceanography Statistics Building (OSB), giving it a new, updated look. The building now boasts two new 75-person classrooms and two office suites one each for the oceanography and statistics departments. Chair Dr. David Thistle and staff members have moved into their new offices on the first floor and are thrilled with the new space. The renovations only took three months to complete.
Next on the list of improvements is the re-keying of the building, replacing all of the locks. This will ensure that no illegal keys are left in circulation. We will soon have swipe card entrance access where staff and faculty identification cards will allow access to the building.
Welcome!
Dr. Kay Vopel has joined Dr. Thistle as a research associate. He received his Dr. rerum naturalium in 1997 from the University of Rostock, Germany and is a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany. Dr. Vopel's interests include the biology of the chemocline, the emergence of animals from the seabed, and deep-sea community ecology.
Dr. Nicolas Wienders is a post doctoral associate from France working with Dr. Weatherly on his Minerals Management Service project, "A Study of the Intermediate Depth (900m) and Surface Velocity Fields in the Gulf of Mexico using Existing and Still Working PALACE Floats."
New Developments
Dr. Richard Iverson has been named Interim Director of the FSU Marine Laboratory.
Dr. Nancy Marcus is the Program Director of Women in Math, Science, and Engineering, a new program at FSU. The program is in coordination with the Jennie Murphree Living and Learning Community.
Dr. Kevin Speer along with Dr. Ian McKeague organized the IMS Mini-Meeting, Statistical Approaches to the Ocean Circulation Inverse Problem, this past November here at FSU. This two-day mini-meeting was designed to foster interaction between statisticians and oceanographers with a common interest in inverse problem methods.
Dr. Lita Proctor is now an Interagency Personnel Act rotator with the National Science Foundation in Virginia.
Professional Activities
New Grants
Dr. William Burnett
NOAA Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology (CICEET)
$170,122 Sept. 2001 - Aug. 2003
"Automated radon-222 mapping in the coastal zone for assessment of submarine groundwater
discharge"
Dr. Jeffrey Chanton
DOE through the Univ. of Mississippi
$71,000, Feb. 2002 - Jan. 2003
"Monitoring biogeochemical processes controlling hydrate formation, decomposition, and
composition in the Gulf of Mexico"
Dr. Burnett and Dr. Chanton:
DEP GW220
$40,797, Oct. 2001 - Oct. 2002
"Assessment of groundwater discharge into Lake Barco via radon tracing"
Seagrant
$119,873, Feb. 2002 - Jan. 2004
"Assessment of sewage impacts via groundwater discharge into two coastal bays"
Dr. W. K. Dewar
with Dr. T. N. Krishnamurti
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
$250,000, July 2000 - June 2003
"Climate prediction by dynamical and statistical models"
Dr. Joel E. Kostka
NSF
$80,000, April 2002 - April 2005
"Effects of iron redox processes on smectite crystal structures and surface chemistry"
DOE Supplement
$138,290, Oct. 2001 - Aug. 2003
"The impacts of microbial reduction on the surface chemistry of clay minerals"
With Dr. Sherry Dollhopf
National Science Foundation
$100,000, Aug. 2002 - Aug. 2004
"The microbiology of iron reduction in the salt marsh"
With Drs. Landing and Iverson:
Florida DEP
$23,714, 12 months
"Apalachicola Bay NERRS nutrient status"
Dr. William M. Landing
NSF
$243,403, Aug. 2001 - Feb. 2004
"Collaborative research: biogeochemistry of trace elements in the western Pacific:
atmospheric input and upper ocean cycling"
NSF
$158,898, July 2001 - June 2003
"Mercury isotope investigations of pre- and post-industrial atmospheric deposition"
Dr. Nancy H. Marcus
USDA-ARS via subcontract to Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution
$150,000, Aug. 2001 - July 2002
"Culture technology for production of southern flounder"
Sea Grant
$95,900, March 2002 - Feb. 2004
"Solving a bottleneck: Identification and production of copepods suitable for rearing the
early life history stages of marine ornamental fish and invertebrates"
Dr. Doron Nof
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
$288,563, May 2001 - April 2004
"Variability of the western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden"
Dr. Kevin Speer
NSF
$414,234, Oct. 2001 - Sept. 2004
"Southern ocean transport"
Dr. Melvin E. Stern
NSF
$422,000, March 2001 - Feb. 2004
"Three dimensional salt finger fluxes in the thermocline"
Invited Presentations
Dr. William Burnett
"Radon and Radium Isotopes in the Coastal Zone"
Dept. of Geology, East Carolina Univ.
February 2002
"Techniques in Environmental Radioactivity"
Radiochemical Measurements Conference, Honolulu, HI
November 2001
"Radon Tracing of Groundwater"
IAPSO Congress, Mar del Plata, Argentina
October 2001
Dr. Jeffrey Chanton
"Sea Level Rise and Climate Change"
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
March 2002
Presented testimony on non-point source pollution and participated on a panel for President
Bush's Ocean Commission.
February 2001
Dr. Allan J. Clarke
"A Simple El Niño Prediction Model Based on an Understanding of the Spring Persistence Barrier"
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and
Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
November 2001
"Interannual and Decadal Coastal Variability"
Gordon Conference, Colby Sawyer College, New London, New Hampshire
June 2001
Dr. Joel E. Kostka
"Impacts of Mineralogy and Competing Microbial Respiration Pathways on the Fate of Uranium in Contaminated Groundwater"
DOE-NABIR Principal Investigator Meeting
March 2002
"The Biogeochemistry of Saltmarsh Sediments"
The Danish Center for Earth System Sciences (DCESS), University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
October 2001
"Impacts of Macroorganisms on the Pathways of Organic Matter Mineralization in Saltmarsh Sediments"
Texas A&M Univ., College Station, TX
September 2001
Dr. R. Krishnamurti
"Double Diffusive Transports"
Joint GFDI, Oceanography, and Meteorology Seminar, FSU and
Laplace Institute, Pierre and Marie Curie University, Paris
September 2001
Dr. Nancy Marcus
"Effects of Hypoxia on the Survival and Life History Traits of Acartia Tonsa"
Ocean Sciences Meeting, Honolulu, HI
February 2002
Dr. Doron Nof
Goteborg University, Sweden
May 2001
EGS XXVI General Assembly, Nice, France
April 2001
Dr. Kevin Speer
"Southern Ocean Time Series Stations"
and "ARGO and Southern Ocean Circulation"
CLIVAR Southern Ocean Panel and ARGO Science Team Meeting, Hobart, Australia
March 2002
Dr. Melvin E. Stern
"Propagation of a Finite Amplitude Potential Vorticity Front Along the Wall of a Stratified Fluid"
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Summer School, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA
August 2001 and
Conference: Waves Phenomena III: Waves in Fluids from the Micro to the Planetary Scale, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
June 2001
Dr. David Thistle
"On the Utility of Meatzoan Meiofauna for the Investigation of Some Major Questions in Deep-sea Biology"
Eleventh International Meiofauna Conference, Boston, MA
July 2001
Dr. Georges L. Weatherly
"Experiences of Measuring Currents in the Gulf of Mexico with Floats"
NATO Science for Peace Program project preparatory meeting, P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
January 2002
Publications
Burnett, W.C., M. Taniguchi, and J. Oberdorfer, 2001. Measurement and significance of the direct discharge of groundwater into the coastal zone. Journal of Sea Research, 46/2, 109-116.
Burnett, W.C., G. Kim, and D. Lane-Smith, 2001. Use of a continuous radon monitor for assessment of radon in coastal ocean waters. Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 249, 167-172.
Eckman, J.E., D. Thistle, W.C. Burnett, G.L.J. Paterson, C.Y. Robertson, and P.J.D. Lambshead, 2001. Performance of cages as predator-exclusion devices in the deep sea. Journal of Marine Research, 59, 79-95.
Arkebauer, T.J., Chanton, J.P., and S.B. Verma, and J. Kim, 2001. Field measurements of internal pressurization in Phragmites australia (Poaceae) and implications for regulation of methane emissions in a mid-latitude prairie wetland. American Journal of Botany, 88, 653-65.
Whiting, G.J. and J.P. Chanton, 2001. Greenhouse carbon balance of wetlands: methane emission versus carbon sequestration. Tellus B, 53, 521-528.
Siegel, D.I., Chanton, J.P., Glaser, P.H., Chasar, L.S., and Rosenberry, D.O. , 2001. Estimating methane production rates in bogs and landfills by deuterium enrichment of pore water. Global Biogeochem. Cycles, Vol. 15, No. 4, 967-977.
Pizarro, O., A.J. Clarke, and S. Van Gorder, 2001. El Niño sea level and currents along the South American coast: comparison of observations with theory. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 31(7), 1891-1903.
Shu, L., and A.J. Clarke, 2002. Using an ocean model to examine ENSO dynamics. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 32(3), 903-923.
Dewar, W.K., and R.X. Huang, 2001. On the adjustment of the ventilated thermocline. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 1676-1697.
Dewar W.K., 2001. On ocean dynamics in mid-latitude climate. Journal of Climate, 4380-4397.
Hetland, R.D., Y. Hsueh, D. Yuan, 2001. On the decay of a baroclinic jet flowing along a continental slope. J. Geophys. Res. 106, 19797-19807.
Eslinger, D.L., and R.L. Iverson, 2001. The effects of convective and wind-driven mixing on springtime phytoplankton dynamics I. The southeastern Bering Sea shelf. Continental Shelf Research, 21, 627-650.
Mortazavi, B., R.L. Iverson, and W. Huang, 2001. The spatial distribution of nitrate and dissolved organic nitrogen in a bar-built estuary: Apalachicola Bay, Florida. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 214, 79-91.
Kostka, J.E., B. Gribsholt, E. Petrie, D. Dalton, H. Skelton, and E. Kristensen, 2002. The rates and pathways of carbon oxidation in bioturbated saltmarsh sediments. Limnology and Oceanography 47: 230-240.
King, J.K., Kostka, J.E., M.E. Frischer, F.M. Saunders, and R.A. Jahnke, 2001. Quantitative relationship that demonstrates mercury methylation rates in marine sediments are based on community composition and activity of sulfate-reducing bacteria. Environmental Science and Technology 35: 2491-2496.
Krishnamurti, R., Y.H. Jo, and A. Stocchino, 2002. Salt fingers at low Rayleigh numbers, J. Fluid Mech., 452: 25-37.
Marcus, N.H., Murray, M.M. , 2001. Copepod diapause eggs: a potential source of nauplii for aquaculture. Aquaculture 201: 107-115.
Nof, D. , 2001. China's development could lead to bottom water formation in the Sea of Japan. Bull. Am. Met. Soc. , 82, 609-618.
Nof, D. and T. Pichevin, 2001. The ballooning of outflows. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 31, 3045-3058.
Simmons, H. and D. Nof, 2002. The squeezing of eddies through gaps. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 32, 314-335.
Garrett, C., and L. St. Laurent, 2002. Aspects of deep ocean mixing. Journal of the Oceanographic Society of Japan, 58, 11-24.
Stern, M.E., T. Radko and J. Simeonov, 2001. Salt fingers in an unbounded thermocline. J. Mar. Res., 59(3) 355-390.
Thistle, D. , 2001. Harpacticoid copepods are successful in the soft-bottom deep sea. Hydrobiologia 453/545: 255-259.
Richardson, M.D., K.B. Briggs, L.D. Bibee, P.A. Jumars, W.B. Sawyer, D.B. Albert, R.H. Bennett, T.K. Berger, M.J. Buckingham, N.P. Chotiros, P.H. Dahl, N.T. Dewitt, P. Fleischer, R. Flood, C.F. Greenlaw, D.V. Holliday, M.H. Hulbert, M.P. Hutnak, P.D. Jackson, J.S. Jaffe, H.P. Johnson, D.L. Lavoie, A.P. Lyons, C.S. Martens, D.E. McGehee, K.D. Moore, T.H. Orsi, J.N. Piper, R.I. Ray, A.H. Reed, R.F.L. Self, J.L. Schmidt, S.G. Schock, F. Simonet, R.D. Stoll, D. Tang, D.E. Thistle, E.I. Thorsos, D.J. Walter, and R.A. Wheatcroft, 2001. Overview of SAX99: environmental considerations. IEEE J. Oceanic Engineering 26: 26-53.
Sandoval, F. and G.L. Weatherly, 2001. Evolution of the deep western boundary current of Antarctic bottom water in the Brazil basin. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 31(6), 1440-1460.
Romanou, A., and G.L. Weatherly, 2001. Numerical simulation of buoyant Ekman layers over variable topography. I. Constant interior forcing. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 31(10), 3096-3120.
Kim, Y.Y., G.L. Weatherly, and L.J. Pietrafesa, 2001. On the mass and salt budgets for a region of the continental shelf in the Southern Mid-Atlantic Bight. J. Geophys. Res. 106, 31, 263-31, 282.
Ocean Phenomenon Named After FSU Faculty Member
Dr. Allan Clarke recently had his name attached to a mechanism by which El Niño influences the Indian Ocean. When an El Niño occurs, anomalous eastward equatorial winds push the surface equatorial water eastward, draining water from the western equatorial Pacific. Because of the equatorial throughflow between the Pacific and Indian Oceans, Clarke (1991), Clarke and Liu (1994), and Meyers (1996) realized that this would cause sea level to be lowered and sea surface temperatures to decrease west of Australia. This "Clarke-Meyers" effect is key to sea surface temperature and associated climate changes in the southeastern Indian Ocean.
Professor Discussed in New York Times Article
In a March 19, 2002 New York Times Science article entitled, "For Delphic Oracle, Fumes and Visions," Dr. Jeffrey P. Chanton was mentioned as part of the team who answered the riddle of the Delphic Oracle of ancient Greece.
The temple, built in Delphi, Greece, was originally a shrine to Gaea, the earth goddess, but by the eighth century it had become a temple to Apollo, the god of prophecy. His oracle spoke out and had a wide influence. According to legend, the oracle was delirious as she prophesied due to inhaling the sacred fumes from a chamber under the temple.
Over the years, this story came to be considered a myth since there was no mechanism for the delivery of volcanic fumes to cause the oracle's delirium. However, Dr. Jelle Zeilinga de Boer, a geologist at Wesleyan University and Dr. John R. Hale, an archaeologist from the University of Louisville became interested in the story of the oracle and wanted to see if they could prove that it was true.
The two men went to Greece and discovered that there was a fault going through Delphi. They also found a second fault directly under the temple and it appeared to be aligned with a series of ancient deposits and modern springs. Greek geological maps revealed that the underlying strata were bituminous limestone containing up to 20 percent blackish oils (petrochemicals).
Dr. Chanton was asked to study the chemical make up of the dry spring deposits near the temple. He discovered the chemicals methane and ethane. But another idea soon surfaced. Dr. de Boer speculated that if methane and ethane were present then ethylene should have been too. Ethylene is less stable than ethane and methane so it would not necessarily be present in the old rocks. It also causes a state of delirium similar to those attributed to the Deliphic Oracle. Dr. Chanton was called in again to sample a nearby active spring. It turned out that ethylene, methane, and ethane were all present. The myth had been solved!
WELCOME!
The Oceanography Department welcomes Dr. Louis St. Laurent, who joined the department in January as an assistant professor. Prior to arriving in Tallahassee, Dr. St. Laurent was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. He is originally from the Boston area.
Dr. St. Laurent is a physical oceanographer and his research focuses on tides, waves, and turbulent mixing. Tides and waves are ubiquitous features in the ocean, not just at the surface but also in the fluid interior. These processes provide the kinetic energy that drives turbulence and mixing. The latter governs heat transfer in the ocean and is of primary concern to studies of the ocean's role in climate.
Dr. St. Laurent was involved in a recent field program designed to study the interaction of tides, waves, and turbulent mixing above the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the Brazil Basin region of the South Atlantic Ocean. These observations demonstrated that rough topography is a primary source of wave energy and that elevated turbulence levels likely occur above mid-ocean ridge regions throughout the global ocean. He is also working on a number of modeling studies designed to investigate the impact of rough topography on the ocean circulation. His plans include additional field programs to investigate mixing processes in remote regions of the abyssal ocean and the Arctic.
Dr. St. Laurent received his Ph.D. in 1999, awarded jointly by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
During the summer of 2001, Dr. St. Laurent studied waves and mixing in Knight Inlet fjord, in southwest British Columbia. Team members unload the zodiac onto the Canadian research vessel, CCGS Vector.
Travel
Dr. David Thistle traveled to Iceland in June 2001 to give seven lectures on deep-sea biology. The occasion was a special course for Scandinavian graduate students funded by the Nordic Council. He spent two weeks at a marine station near Reykjavik. In addition to lecturing and working with the students on research projects, he went whale watching, visited the original geyser, and had a chance to straddle the Mid-Atlantic rift.
Erik Kvaleber, COAPS, will work as a research assistant at NATO's Undersea Research Centre (SACLANT) in La Spezia, Italy this summer. He will spend three months at the centre and his supervisor there will be Dr. Farid Askari. Erik has been assigned to the Rapid Environmental Assessment Department which "investigates physical processes in the ocean relevant to naval operations and underwater sound." Other departments within the centre are concerned with anti-submarine warfare, engineering, and mine countermeasures.
Dr. William Landing, Cliff Buck, Matt Young, and Dave Kurk spent April and August 2001 working on the NSF sponsored SWISS Project (Surface Water Iron Speciation Study) on the Gulf of Mexico. A third cruise is scheduled for August 2002.
Dr. Landing works on a winch with Rodney Powell, who received his Ph.D. from FSU and is an assistant professor at LUMCON.
Dr. Landing filtering plankton.
Degrees Conferred
Completed requirements for Ph.D.
Fall 2000
Alan Leonardi,
"Interannual Variability in the Eastern Subtropical Pacific Ocean"
Harper Simmons,
"The Squeezing and Splitting of Eddies"
Charles Tilburg,
"Ocean Dynamics Around New Zealand"
Spring 2001
Paige Leitman,
"Factors that Control Hydrocarbon Breakdown in Nearshore Sediments"
Luis Zamudio,
"Mesoscale Variability Along the Southwest Coast of Mexico Induced by Oceanic and Atmospheric
Remote Forcings"
Fall 2001
Ken-ichi Mizoguchi,
"Quasi-decadal Variations in the North Atlantic"
Keith Suderman,
"A Comparison of Simulated Spills of Fuel Oil #6 and Orimulsion: A Microcosm Test of their
Effects on Benthic Microalgae, Nematodes, and Copepods"
Liejun Zhong,
"The Circulation in the Northern South China Sea"
Completed requirements for Masters
Summer 2000
Carl Childs,
"Sediment Dentrification in the Gulf of Mexico Zone of Hypoxia"
Spring 2001
Michael J. Lambert,
"The Application of a Continuous Radon Monitor for Estimation of Submarine Groundwater
Discharge Rates in Coastal Marine Environments"
Margaret Murray,
"Survival and Diapause Egg Production of the Copepod Centropages hamatus Raised on
Dinoflagellate Diets"
Annette Samuelsen,
"A Simulation of the Biological Response to Low-Frequency Physical Forcing in the Tropical
Pacific Ocean"
Summer 2001
Jamie Christoff,
"Quantifying Groundwater Seepage into a Shallow Near-Shore Coastal Zone by Two Techniques"
Fall 2001
Danielle Harvey,
"Relative Diversity of Benthic Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria in Apalachicola Bay, Florida"
Rezenda Afonso Souza,
"Effects of Environmental Factors on Benthic Microbial Activities in Surficial Marine
Sediments of Apalachicola Bay, Florida"
Guohui Wang,
"Meddy-Seamount Interactions: Implications for the Mediterranean Salt Tongue"
Alumni News
I arrived at FSU in the Summer of 1967 to work as a teaching assistant with a visiting professor teaching a summer course for Florida teachers. I had been admitted into the Department of Biology but Dr. Ken Warsh, a new oceanography hire suggested I try Oceanography instead. Ken had been enlisted as a new phys-O faculty member by the new Chairman, Dr. Carl Oppenheimer. Dr. Oppenheimer had just talked a very rich fellow (Mr. Ed Ball of St. Joe Paper Company fame) into donating some piney woods and money to FSU to build the new lab at Turkey Point. The old facility at Alligator Harbor had been used by the precursor institute, and they had an old refitted yacht at the dock for shallow- water collections. Anyway, I asked to change my allegiance to the new Department of Oceanography, and I started school in the fall of '67. Dr. Robert Menzies (new to FSU having just left Duke) became my major professor. Bob had become quite famous in deep-sea biology and isopod taxonomy.
This was a time when oceanography (especially of the deep sea) still seemed new and dozens of new and exciting ecological concepts and hypotheses were being developed around the world. We were only a few generations removed from the HMS Challenger expedition, and we were still using mechanical bathythermographs, LORAN A navigation, and experimental benthic samplers. PC's were unheard of. There were only a few women in oceanography then. The early instructors I had were Drs. Walter Glooschenko (plankton/chemical oceanography), Ken Warsh, Winston Menzel (fisheries), and Dietz Warnke (geological). Dr. Jim Jones (coral reefs) had arrived from Miami/RSMAS and soon began having some memorable parties at his home.
I was probably the first student to use the new marine lab extensively for my hydrostatic pressure experiments. I stayed in those dorms and the lab every Thursday night through Sunday afternoon, working Friday and Saturday nights as a bartender at Faiver's seafood restaurant over on Ochlocknee Bay (until ONR came through with a grant). I was among the first (along with Herb Austin, Jim Jones, Pat McCaffrey, Allen Paul, and many others) to work from the "new" R/V Tursiops, a converted Army "T-boat." The forward hold was fitted with bunks and a little galley and all the gear was deployed from the forward deck. There was a minimal little lab aft. There were also the teaching and research cruises we took on the R/Vs Eastward and Oregon II and the USNS Lynch, in the Gulf of Mexico, off the Atlantic coast, and all over the Caribbean. We all studied, worked hard, and had fun.
By the time I finished in 1973, the department had mostly moved into the present quarters, the marine lab was busy, Bob Menzies' deep-sea text book was finished, and the department had exploded under the direction of Drs. Oppenheimer and Jack Winchester. A few years after I took a post-doc position with the Harbor Branch Foundation downstate, I got a call from Dr. Ray Staley who informed me sadly of Bob Menzies' death. I think it was Dr. David Thistle who filled his position.
Many of the research ships then in existence have been scrapped or sold and a few more friends and colleagues have passed on, but the memories are still vivid and wonderful.
Robert M. Avent, Ph.D., Minerals Management Service, 1201 Elmwood Park Blvd., New Orleans, LA 70123
Honors
Dr. Nancy H. Marcus Received the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor Award. This is the highest award the university bestows on a faculty member and recognizes outstanding research, teaching, and service.
Received a Named Professorship in recognition of scholarly achievement. Dr. Marcus chose to name her professorship after Mary Sears, a pioneering woman in oceanography.
Dr. Allan J. Clarke Named Distinguished Research Professor, April 2001.
Dr. Melvin Stern Received a Named Professorship, May 2000. He selected the title Ekman Professor of Oceanography.
View From the Bridge
I would like to begin by congratulating Drs. Clarke, Marcus, and Stern (see side bar). The university awards they received recognized their outstanding achievements.
For the last few years, the university has had relatively more money than at any time since I have been at FSU. The department benefited in many ways; in particular, we were given a new staff line for an accountant and a new half line for a computer-systems administrator. Stephanie Brimm took the accountant position. She and Rose Woodham have split the grant-management duties, so each now has a reasonable work load. The new systems adminstrator has been concentrating on increasing the security of our computer network. It seems that many of our practices were very vulnerable to hackers. Who knew?
As you might expect, the financial crisis in Florida caused by the events of September 11th has affected on the department. We have had to put off some renovations, in particular, the conversion of room 001 to a laboratory and the expansion of the warehouse. Now that the Florida economy is strengthening, my guess is that we will be back in the renovation business within a year or two.
Those of you who have been out of school for a few years might be interested to know that our classroom-teaching methods are changing. Slides and overheads are being displaced by PowerPoint and computer projections. Professors even use the Internet during class. You can no longer spot the professors by the chalk dust on their hands!
David Thistle
Tallahassee, FL 32306-4320 | (850)644-6700
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