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 [...]
For decades, those leading efforts to keep southeast Louisiana from being swallowed by the Gulf of Mexico have supported “Putting the river back into the marsh.” The thinking is that the river should be allowed to build new land, just as it had done for millennia before flooding was controlled. But what if pollutants in the [...]
In a newly published study, NCCOS researcher link sharks and other top predators with primary producers (benthic algae) in pristine, healthy coral reef ecosystems. “We used chemical signatures of carbon and nitrogen found in the tissues of the algae, invertebrates, fish, and sharks from the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM) to trace the extent benthic algae influences [...]
According to a new multi-investigator study, with contributions from researchers funded by the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science’s (NCCOS) Ecological Forecasting Program in Lake Erie, the record-breaking 2011 Lake Erie cyanobacteria bloom was likely caused by a combination of changing farming practices and weather conditions; conditions predicted to continue under a changing climate. The study led [...]
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 [...]
While, the negative impacts of increasing ocean acidification on clams, scallops and other bivalves the biological basis is still unclear, “legacy effect” of early CO2 explosure can play a significant role in bivalve population dynamics. NCCOS-funded researchers performed a series of experiments to look at the days-to-months impacts of carbon dioxide (CO2) on the larvae of northern quahogs [...]
NCCOS-supported University of Central Florida (UCF) graduate student, Matthew Bilskie, won the Engineering, Computer Science, Modeling and Simulation category at the 2013 University of Central Florida Graduate Research Forum in April. Matt is currently working on the NCCOS Ecological Effects of Sea level Rise project in the northern Gulf of Mexico. His award-winning poster described his large-scale, high [...]
Don Scavia, a researcher whose work is funded in part by the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, presented results from his Lake Erie hypoxia ecological forecasting project. His presentation focused on phosphorus loading, climate influence on those loads, subsequent impacts on dissolved oxygen and harmful algal blooms, and best management practices to control nutrient runoff. Despite [...]