A recent post about our special request for coastal resilience research proposals contained a deadline error; proposals are due to the Oregon Sea Grant office in Corvallis by 5 pm Monday, Feb. 9.
Our apologies for the error.
Author Archives: kightp
Shark Day coming at HMSC
Shark Day 2011
NEWPORT – Did you know more than 30 species of sharks can be found off the Pacific Northwest coastline? Learn more about them this Saturday, Jan 24, as the Hatfield Marine Science Center celebrates our annual Shark Day!
Stop by the Center between 10 am and 4 pm for shark-themed exhibits, biofacts, films and kid-friendly activities related to these fascinating sea creatures.
Afraid of sharks? How about vending machines? You might be surprised to learn which is more dangerous to humans!
Make sure to be here at 1:30 pm. to watch and listen as Dr. Bill Hanshumaker, Oregon Sea Grant’s chief scientist at the Visitor Center, conducts a necropsy on a salmon shark and talks about the animal’s biology, life cycle and habits.
Learn more:
- Follow shark conservation scientist and blogger David Shiffman at Southern Fried Science (or on Twitter as @WhySharksMatter) to learn shark fact from shark fiction.
Spring, summer opportunities for undergrad, grad students
Oregon Sea Grant is seeking qualified undergraduate and graduate students to take part in working and learning opportunities this spring and summer.
- Our fifth Summer Scholars program places high caliber undergraduate students from around the country for 10 weeks working with public agencies (federal, state, and local) . Scholars assist host agencies with field work, lab work, analysis, research, policy development, and/or outreach and public engagement efforts around ocean and coastal issues. Each is will be assigned to a specific project under a mentor and expected to dedicate at least 40 hours a week to the program starting on June 15. The application deadline is Feb. 20. Read application details here.
- The Sea Grant Marine Education program at OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport is hiring spring and summer student interns to assist with public and school workshops, classes, and field trips around marine science topics. The positions, open to any qualified undergraduate or graduate student, involve creating and presenting lab and field programs for school, youth and family groups, maintaining education program labs and equipment, and taking part in special projects.
- Spring Internship application details
- Summer Internship application details
Special call for proposals: Resilience research
Oregon Sea Grant invites proposals from researchers affiliated with any Oregon institution of higher education for research projects that address cutting-edge resilience questions related to important marine and coastal issues.The deadline for submission is Feb. 9, 2015, and a notice of intent to apply is required by Jan. 19.
Projects will be selected through an open, competitive, peer-review process. Proposed work begins July 1, 2015.
The total available funding is $100,000; proposals that request $50,000 or less will have a competitive advantage since we want to fund as many efforts as possible, all else being equal. Available funding is set by the NOAA Sea Grant Program based on congressional appropriations, and is subject to change and rescission.
Complete details and a downloadable RFP are available from the Oregon Sea Grant Website.
Happy Holidays …
The Oregon Sea Grant program office at OSU will be closed along with most other university offices on Dec. 25 and 26. Our Visitor Center at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport will be closed Dec. 25, but open Dec. 26-31 with special programming for winter Whale Watch Week.
Sea Grant expert featured on National Geographic tsunami special
Patrick Corcoran, Oregon Sea Grant’s coastal hazards specialist, along with OSU researchers Chris Goldfinger and Tuba Ozkan-Haller are featured in “The Next Mega Tsunami,” a new TV special scheduled for its US premiere on the National Geographic Channel this coming Friday, Dec. 26.
The program is scheduled to air at 9 pm Pacific Time; check local listings for possible changes.
The special commemorates the 1oth anniversary of the 2004 Indian Ocean undersea megathrust earthquake which sent a devastating tsunami hurtling into Indonesia and the south Asian coastlines, killing an estimated 230,000 people in fourteen countries.
Seismic researchers – including OSU’s Goldfinger – say geologic conditions off the Oregon coast make it vulnerable to similar megathrust in the region known as the Cascadia Subduction Zone. The geologic and historic record shows that such “megathrust” quakes have occurred at regular intervals throughout the planet’s history, and scientists say the region is overdue for another.
Corcoran, who is based in Astoria, has worked for years with the state of Oregon and coastal communities to help develop local tsunami inundation maps, community and individual tsunami preparedness plans, and to help communities increase their resilience against such disasters by consider the relocation of hospitals, schools and other critical or vulnerable facilities to higher ground.
Ozkan-Haller, a professor of geology with OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, specializes in predicting how near-shore waves behave along coastlines, a field which has led her into tsunami-related research at OSU’s Hinsdale Wave Research Lab.
Learn more:
- The Next Mega Tsunami, National Geographic Channel
- Oregon Sea Grant’s tsunami preparedness and coastal resilience efforts
- Pat Corcoran’s Earthquake and Tsunami Preparedness page, Clatsop County Extension
- Oregon Sea Grant video: The Three Things You’ll Need to Know
- Chris Goldfinger: Pacific NW Earthquake Risk (CEOAS)
- Tuba Ozkan-Haller (CEOAS)
Biennial grant competition – call for preliminary proposals
Oregon Sea Grant invites preliminary proposals (pre-proposals) from researchers affiliated with any Oregon institution of higher education for research projects that address cutting-edge socioeconomic and biophysical science related to important marine and coastal issues.
Pre-proposals will be entered into a highly competitive review and selection process. Proposed work may begin on either February 1, 2016, or February 1, 2017. Individual requests for funding are not to exceed $115,000 per year. Available funding is set by the NOAA Sea Grant Program based on congressional appropriations, and is subject to change and rescission.
Pre-proposals are due to the Oregon Sea Grant office by 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 13, 2105.
For full details, visit our Biennial Grant Competition page.
Graduate fellowship deadlines approach
Oregon Sea Grant is seeking qualified applicants for four graduate and postgraduate fellowships in marine science and policy.
The NOAA Coastal Management Fellowship (deadline Friday, January 23, 2015) provides on-the-job education and training opportunities in coastal resource management and policy for postgraduate students while assisting state coastal zone management programs. The program matches postgraduate students with state coastal zone programs to work on projects proposed by the state and selected by the fellowship sponsor, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coastal Services Center. This two-year opportunity offers a competitive salary, medical benefits, and travel and relocation expense reimbursement. Any student who will complete a master’s, doctoral, or professional degree program in natural resource management or environmental-related studies at an accredited U.S. university between January 1, 2014, and July 31, 2015, is eligible.
The National Marine Fisheries Service/Sea Grant Graduate Fellowship Program in Marine Resource Economics (deadline Thursday, January 29, 2015) expects to award at least two new PhD Fellowships starting Aug. 1, 2015 to students who are interested in careers related to marine ecosystem and population dynamics. The Fellowships can provide support for up to three years for highly qualified graduate students working toward a PhD in quantitative ecology, ecosystem ecology, population dynamics or related fields of study. Fellows will work on thesis problems of public interest and relevance to NMFS under the guidance of National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) mentors at participating NMFS Science Centers or Offices. Applicants must be United States citizens, and at the time they apply must be admitted to a PhD program in a relevant field of study at a US institution.
The NMFS/Sea Grant Graduate Fellowship Program in Population and Ecosystem Dynamics (deadline Thursday, January 29, 2015) generally awards two new PhD Fellowships each year to students who are interested in careers related to the development and implementation of quantitative methods for assessing the economics of the conservation and management of living marine resources. Fellows will work on thesis problems of public interest and relevance to NMFS under the guidance of NMFS mentors at participating NMFS Science Centers or Offices. The Fellowship can provide support for up to two years for highly qualified graduate students working towards a Ph.D. in in marine resource economics, natural resource economics, or environmental economics. Applicants admitted to a PhD degree program in resource or environmental economics at a US institution.
Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowships (deadline Friday, February 13, 2015) provides a unique educational experience to students enrolled in graduate programs in fields related to marine or Great Lakes studies. The program matches highly qualified graduate students with hosts in the legislative branch, the executive branch, or appropriate associations and institutions located in the Washington, D.C. area. Recipients spend one year working on substantive national policy issues related to marine issues; a stipend is provided. The Fellowship is open to any student, regardless of citizenship, who is enrolled toward a degree in a graduate or professional program at an accredited US institution.
For all four opportunities, completed applications must be delivered to the Oregon Sea Grant program office in Suite 350 of the University Plaza Building, 15th and Western in Corvallis, by 5 pm on the deadline date.
Learn more:
- Fellowships and Internships from Oregon Sea GrantJohn A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowships – current and anticipated future offerings for graduate and undergraduate students.
- Check out Alaska Sea Grant’s video featuring former Knauss Fellows describing their experiences and how that shaped their careers.
New study finds “saturation state” directly harmful to bivalve larvae
The mortality of larval Pacific oysters in Northwest hatcheries has been linked to ocean acidification, yet the rate of increase in anthropogenic carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the decrease of pH in near-shore waters have been questioned as being severe enough to cause the die-offs.
However, a new study of Pacific oyster and Mediterranean mussel larvae found that the earliest larval stages are directly sensitive to saturation state, not carbon dioxide (CO2) or pH. Saturation state is a measure of how corrosive seawater is to the calcium carbonate shells made by bivalve larvae, and how easy it is for larvae to produce their shells.
It is important to note that increasing CO2 lowers saturation state, the researchers say, and saturation state is very sensitive to CO2; the challenge interpreting previous studies is that saturation state and pH typically vary together with increasing CO2. The scientists utilized unique chemical manipulations of seawater to identify the direct sensitivity of larval bivalves to saturation state.
Results of the study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation, are being reported this week in the journal Nature Climate Change.
“Bivalves have been around for a long time and have survived different geologic periods of high carbon dioxide levels in marine environments,” said George Waldbusser , an Oregon State University marine ecologist and biogeochemist and lead author on the study, “The difference is that in the past, alkalinity levels buffered increases in CO2, which kept the saturation state higher relative to pH.”
“The difference in the present ocean is that the processes that contribute buffering to the ocean cannot keep pace with the rate of anthropogenic CO2 increase,” added Waldbusser, who is in Oregon State’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. “As long as the saturation state is high, the oysters and mussels we tested could tolerate CO2 concentrations almost 10 times what they are today.”
The idea that early bivalve development and growth is not as physiologically linked to CO2 or pH levels as previously thought initially seems positive. However, the reverse is actually true, Waldbusser noted. Larval oysters and mussels are so sensitive to the saturation state (which is lowered by increasing CO2) that the threshold for danger will be crossed “decades to centuries” ahead of when CO2 increases (and pH decreases) alone would pose a threat to these bivalve larvae.
Learn more
- Read the full story from OSU News & Research Communications
- Related Sea Grant-funded research by Dr. Waldbusser and colleagues:
Sea Grant’s Ruby Moon featured on new OSU coast video
Oregon: The Coast is a new interactive, multimedia application that’s part of Oregon State University’s Beaver Nation campaign, aiming to document how OSU people and programs connect with the state, the nation – and the world beyond. And it features Sea Grant Extension agent Ruby Moon in a feature about buying fresh seafood off the docks from the people who catch it.
“I was nervous,” says Moon, who worked with David Baker of OSU’s Interactive Communications unit this summer to produce her segment. “But they made me look smart.”
Moon works out of the Lincoln County Extension office in Newport on issues related to fisheries, seafood and marine renewable energy.
Check out Oregon: The Coast and the rest of the growing collection of Beaver Nation Is Everywhere multimedia programs at OSU’s Interactive Communications site.