On May 7, 2012, NCCOS’s Ms. Carol Auer received a NOAA Distinguished Career Award for her long-term commitment to advancing the Nation’s preparedness for the ecosystem impacts of sea level rise. Ms. Auer’s dedicated career in the National Ocean Service spanned thirty-five years analyzing tides and water levels for the Nation and pioneering studies on the [...]
The National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science’s (NCCOS) Cooperative Oxford Laboratory (COL) hosted an open house on April 27, 2013. The event showcased the NCCOS’ unique research and science partnerships with Maryland Department of Natural Resources, NOAA’s National Ocean Service, National Marine Fisheries Service and the US Coast Guard Station Oxford. Nearly 600 visitors came [...]
A recent article “Is Global Ocean Sprawl a Cause of Jellyfish Blooms?” proposes one possible cause for the apparent rise in this phenomenon that’s increasingly aggravating residents of coastal areas around the world. In the piece, based partially on research funded by the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, the authors theorize that a major reason for these [...]
The North Carolina Biotechnology Center funded NOAA and academic researchers to develop a training facility for public health officials and resource managers in advanced molecular methods to detect pathogens and harmful algae species more quickly and effectively. The first workshop, held March 11 – 15, 2013, covered quantitative polymerase chain reaction techniques to detect Enterococcus, the [...]
The U.S. benefits from a wealth of resources and activities that depend on healthy coastal habitats. However, these habitats are being degraded by extensive hardening of shorelines due to climate-driven sea level rise, increasing shoreline development, land use changes in coastal watersheds, pollution, and invasions of non-native species. In the Mid-Atlantic region alone, coastal development [...]
The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center’s DOOM lab (Dissolved Oxygen and Oyster Mortality) is examining how oysters respond to sudden drops in oxygen levels in shallow parts of the Chesapeake Bay at night. These fluctuations are partially natural, but appear to be made worse by nitrogen and phosphorus pollution. Oxygen depletion may make oysters more susceptible [...]
On October 19, NCCOS scientist Dr. Teresa McTigue was awarded the University of Maryland’s 2012 Distinguished Alumna Award by the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences’s Department of Biology. Dr. McTigue was honored for her commitment to supporting and enhancing undergraduate programs and her work to establish NOAA internship opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students [...]
This post was co-authored with Bob Diaz, a WRI partner and professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. This year’s extreme weather events—a warm winter, even warmer summer, and a drought that covered nearly two-thirds of the continental United States—has certainly caused its fair share of damages. But despite the crop failures, water shortages, [...]