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CHESAPEAKE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY | SOLOMONS, MDMARCH 2024ISSUE 91Lab Lines1 DIRECTOR’S VIEW 1 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT 23 RECENT PUBLICATIONS & AWARDS 3 IN THE NEWS 34 SAFETY CORNER 5In tune with many things in Spring, our community has been very active attending meetings, both nationally and internationally, including students and FRAs who presented posters and talks at the recent American Fisheries Society meeting in Virginia. The campus has been buzzing with many activities; numerous eld seasons are underway, we have welcomed many visitors, and there are many ongoing and upcoming events. I’d like to thank Anna Hildebrand for her leadership as the AAUW President. I know many of you participated in the recent “March Mammal Madness” competition, so stay tuned to hear who the winners are in next month’s newsletter. Our Wednesday and Friday informal lab seminars continue, so keep an eye out for those reminders and other activities on the CBL Events Google Calendar. Dr. Dave Secor’s Chesapeake Bay Foundation article on the “Secrets of the Striper” highlights the pressures that our iconic Bay sh species has, which just happens to be the rst topic in our upcoming Spring 2024 Science for Community event. On Tuesday evenings at 7p.m., from April 2nd though April 23rd, in the main lecture room in the Bernie Fowler Laboratory building, our doors are open to everyone (a hybrid zoom option is also available) to hear from our faculty on some important topics. These topics include striped bass, menhaden, contaminants of concern, and human impacts on biodiversity. Please share the details and invite your family and friends to these great events. Our new UMCES President, Dr. Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm, who will ocially be joining us on July 1, 2024, will be visiting CBL on April 5th. Please join the Town Hall Meet and Greet at noon so that we can welcome him to our community!
In Case You Missed ItIn Case You Missed It 2Theresa Murphy, Matt Stefanak, Lael Collins, Maya Drzewicki, Nina Santos, Mike O'Brien, Evan Kostelecky, and Ray Mroch are among those from CBL who presented posters or gave talks at the American Fisheries Society Tidewater Chapter meeting in Hampton, VA on February 29 through March 2, 2024.Left to Right: Theresa Murphy, Matt Stefanak, Dave Secor, Lael Collins, Maya Drzewicki, Nina Santos, Mike O'Brien, Evan Kostelecky, and Ray Mroch.Hali Kilbourne has been visiting campuses that participate in the MEES graduate program to discuss Learning-Outcomes Assessment in MEES. This activity is part of her 2023-2024 Elkins Professorship. Over the past month, she has been to Appalachian Lab, Horn Point Lab, and IMET. At IMET, students and faculty aliated with UMB, UMBC, and UMCES all participated. It has been a great opportunity to share our current program assessment data, to discuss the philosophy and practicalities of LO Assessments, and to listen to the perspectives of students and faculty. Expect to hear of a similar discussion at CBL soon.Lee Cooper and Jackie Grebmeier attended the Annual Meeting of BIOPOLE at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, UK in March. BIOPOLE is an interdisciplinary Natural Environment Research Council program in the United Kingdom examining biogeochemical processes and ecosystem function in polar ecosystems. Cooper and Grebmeier serve on the international Program Advisory Committee. They and Christina Goethel will attend another meeting in the United Kingdom before returning home to CBL in Edinburgh, Scotland: The International Arctic Science Committee's Arctic Science Summit Week. The Arctic Science Summit Week is an annual international meeting of scientists that helps to coordinate research planning and cooperation among countries with Arctic research interests. At the Edinburgh meeting, Grebmeier will lead a meeting of the Pacic Arctic Group (PAG), and make presentations on Arctic coordinated research before the Marine Working Group and the Forum of Arctic Research Operators. Cooper will also attend the PAG meeting, as well as make presentations on an IASC working group project he spearheaded that is helping place early career scientists on research vessels operated by other countries and also report on eorts to develop coordination networks for Arctic research that are aligned with the UN Decade of Ocean Research for Sustainable Development.
In Case You Missed It3In The NewsWharf committee, lab, present updates in Calvert (Southern Maryland News) March 6The commissioners… received an update on another Solomons xture, the University of Maryland’s Chesapeake Biological Laboratory… “One of our most treasured partnerships is with the waterman’s association,” Stacy Hutchinson, the lab’s associate director of administration, said. Hutchinson said the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, of which the local lab is a part, recently received “one of our largest grants” — an $11 million grant to study how wind farming could aect marine mammals, sh and birds.Secrets of the Striper (Chesapeake Bay Foundation) March 6A potent mix of shing pressure, invasive predators, changing climate and habitat conditions, and disease means fewer young sh will grow large enough to ever make it out of the Bay… “It’s a dicey proposition,” says Dave Secor, Professor of Fisheries Science at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science's Chesapeake Biological Laboratory. “In an average year, a female can’t replace herself and her mate, which is the objective for persisting as a population.”Punwath Prum, Lora Harris, John Gardner (2024). Widespread warming of Earth’s estuaries. Limnology and Oceanography Letters. [2024 UMCES-CN-6359]. Recent Publications & Awards On March 7 and 8, Jerry Frank, Tom Miller, and Johan Schijf hosted a total of about 30 environmental science undergraduates from Saint Mary's College of Maryland (SMCM). They received tours of the Nutrient Analytical Services (Frank) and Bernie Fowler (Miller) Laboratories and a short seminar on recent coral paleoclimatology work in the Florida Keys and US/British Virgin Islands (Schijf). Much credit goes to Stacy Hutchinson for organizing this event on short notice. With the marine science program ramping up at SMCM and many faculty hires, we hope that these educational visits will become a more regular occurrence and possibly a source of new graduate students.Arai, K. J.E. Best, C.A. Craig, V. Lyubchich, N.R. Miller, and D.H. Secor. (2024). Early growth and environmental conditions control partial migration of an estuarine-dependent sh. Marine Ecology Progress Series 732:149-166.[2024 UMCES-CN-6361].Nicholas Coleman (CBL Alum, 2023) has accepted a position at the NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center, Miami. He will be working in the Population and Ecosystems Monitoring Division to evaluate oshore wind impacts of sh habitat. He is very excited to initiate a NOAA career at the SEFSC and more importantly, move south.Ocean City Slow Zone extended due to Right Whale presence (Coast TV) March 19The Ocean City buoy, managed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, detected the presence of right whales east of Ocean City. This slow zone will remain in eect until March 29, 2024. This extension adds to the two existing Slow Zones currently in eect, serving as a crucial reminder for mariners to exercise caution in designated areas where persistent aggregations of right whales have been observed.
In The NewsClick HERE4Developing water quality restoration tools (Sea Grant Maryland)Many Maryland localities face a daunting question: how to apply limited dollars to help improve thehealth of the Chesapeake Bay. Investing in restoration projects is necessary to achieve water-qualitygoals in local waters, but it can be dicult to select the restoration strategies and projects with themost impact. This project will develop a framework for scientists and county planners to quantify thepotential impacts of restoration projects on local bodies of water, such as creeks and other shallow tidalsystems. The project team will analyze long-term monitoring data and expand an existing partnershipbetween the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory and Calvert County to assess water conditions,analyze monitoring data, and ultimately select the best projectsto improve Calvert’s waterways. As a result of this data analysisand modeling, informational materials will be developed for otherMaryland counties and municipalities to use in making informedchoices about impactful investments in restoration.Investigators: Lora Harris and Jeremy Testa, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s ChesapeakeBiological LaboratoryImproving urban community access to coastal spaces (Sea Grant Maryland)Baltimore City boasts 16 miles of coastline and active waterfronts, but neighborhoods in the underservedsouthern part of the city have limited access to waterfront areas. These coast-adjacent blue spacescan provide physical and mental health benets, while also increasing community resilience to climatechange eects like urban heat islands. This project, led by Morgan State University researchers, willresearch how blue spaces can be designed and located to provide South Baltimore communities accessto important health and climate resilience benets. A diverse team of researchers will develop andsupplement stakeholder and partner relationships, including community members, non-governmentalorganizations, state agencies, and Maryland Sea Grant Extension specialists. With these groups’partnership, the project team will meaningfully engage groups from underserved communities, buildrelationships, and research local beliefs, opinions, and behaviors related to blue space access andclimate resilience. Ultimately, the project will inform existing initiatives and help to develop new initiativesthat foster access to outdoor spaces.Investigators: Scott Knoche, Kaitlynn Ritchie, and Kehinde Ojo, Morgan State University PatuxentEnvironmental and Aquatic Research Laboratory; Samia Kirchner, Morgan State University Schoolof Architecture and Planning; Mark Barnes, Morgan State University, Behavioral & Social SciencesCenter; and Lisa Wainger, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Chesapeake Biological Laboratoryhttps://www.mdsg.umd.edu/news/maryland-sea-grant-funds-ve-research-projects
5www.umces.edu/cbl | 410-326-4281P.O. Box 38 | 146 Williams Street | Solomons, MD 20688-0038Safety Corner: This month I have an excerpt from the Hazard Communication standard on toxicology. It is important to remember that just because you are using a chemical below its LD 50 does not mean you will not suer some eect if you have an accident. It may not be fatal, but it can incapacitate, cause chromosomal or DNA damage, cancers and other maladies that may not be readily apparent. So please be sure to use the appropriate PPE when using toxic chemicals in the lab and at home.Hazard Communication Right to know OSHA 29 CFR 1910.1200 (pg.4)The science of toxicology is based on the principle that there is a relationship between a toxic reaction (the response) and the amount of poison received (the dose). An important assumption in this relationship is that there is almost always a dose below which no response occurs or can be measured. A second assumption is that once a maximum response is reached, any further increases in the dose will not result in any increased eect. Knowing the dose/response relationship is a necessary part of understanding the cause and eect relationship between exposure and illness. "The right dose dierentiates a poison from a remedy”. One of the more commonly used measures of toxicity is the LD50. The LD50 (the lethal dose for 50 percent of the animals tested) of a poison is usually expressed in milligrams of chemical per kilogram of body weight (mg/kg). A chemical with a small LD50 (like 5 mg/kg) is very highly toxic. The more toxic a material, the smaller amount necessary to cause harm. A chemical with a large LD50 (1,000 to 5,000 mg/kg) is practically non-toxic. Recognize that the LD50 says nothing about non-lethal toxic eects though. A chemical may have a large LD50, but may produce illness at very small exposure levels. It is incorrect to say that chemicals with small LD50s are more dangerous than chemicals with large LD50s, they are simply more toxic. The more toxic a material is, the smaller the amount of it necessary to be absorbed before harmful eects are caused. The lower the toxicity, the greater the quantity is needed for it to be absorbed and be harmful. The danger, or risk of adverse eect of chemicals, is mostly determined by how they are used, not by the inherent toxicity of the chemical itself.In Memoriam – Elizabeth Grin - December 10, 1997 Elizabeth Grin was a 22-year-old student at Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center at Emory University. She worked with diseased animals and had always been careful to use a mask and gloves when working with them and she was usually separated from them by a mesh cage. However, one day she was helping to move a hepatitis B infected macaque when the animal ung a piece of feces or drop of urine at her and hit her in the eye. She was wearing her mask and gloves, but did not wear goggles. She dismissed this as inconsequential since it was such a small incident and she was not sure what went into her eye. Ten days later her eye became inamed and four weeks later she became weak in her legs and paralyzed. It was too late for any treatments by the time she was diagnosed with hepatitis B and she later died.https://www.the-scientist.com/news/yerkes-center-osha-settle-death-case-56686http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/dec/13/virus-from-monkey-kills-researcher-22-experts/https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/14/us/a-drop-of-virus-from-a-monkey-kills-a-researcher-in-6-weeks.html