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CHESAPEAKE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY | SOLOMONS, MDMAY 2024ISSUE 93Lab Lines1IN THIS ISSUE: DIRECTOR’S VIEW 1 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT 24 RECENT PUBLICATIONS & AWARDS 4 DOLPHIN WATCH 5 TAILWINDS 6 IN THE NEWS 78 SAFETY CORNER 9There are lots of exciting activities happening around campus. First, we welcomed the 2024 cohort of REU students on May 20th. Six students are working with a number of CBL faculty and, a NOAA InFish summer student of Mike Wilberg’s has also joined. The group has already engaged in a number of activities, including our Fisheries Ecologist seminar. Please reach out to myself or Matt Stefanak (REU liaison) if you have any events or opportunities that you think they could join in. We also welcomed our new Human Resources Coordinator, Riniya Countiss; her oce is on the second oor of Beaven Hall. Please introduce yourself and welcome them when you see them around campus. We will continue with our community outreach activities. Please hold the date of September 7, 2024 for our next Open House and every Tuesday evening in October at 7 p.m. for our Fall Science for Community series. Any suggestions for CBL or community events are always welcome! On that note, thank you to the AAUW ocers (Anna, Sadia, Kaitlynn and Kylie) for organizing the plant swap; stay tuned for more exciting events from the group over the summer! Talking about community engagement, the Dolphins are back in the Bay and the Dolphin Watch program has received numerous media article write ups, and a further uptick in app users. Check out the details in this newsletter and get the app if you have not already done so. We see Dolphins in the Patuxent right o our pier! We have exciting new science to share and research projects starting at CBL. Lora Harris has received a new award for the leadership institute ASPIRE “Active Societal Participation in Research and Education”, which is a $7.5 million investment over the next 5 years from the National Science Foundation to support cultural transformation of the geosciences to connect and co-produce work with communities. Michael Gonsior’s International collaborations led to a recent publication in Nature, outlining the team’s novel discovery of a new chemical reaction responsible for organic material decomposition. Jackie Grebmeier was a panelist at a recent meeting in Washington, DC to discuss and build collaborations between the European Union and the United States for Arctic research.Finally, there will be a lot of activity and heavy equipment around campus soon. The Chesapeake Analytics Collaborative Building’s contract has been awarded and groundbreaking is expected at some point during the summer.
In Case You Missed It 2Report dolphin sightings and help our scientists with Chesapeake Bay research. Dolphin Watching season is just around the corner and you can be a part of it! In 2017, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) Chesapeake Biological Laboratory launched the Chesapeake DolphinWatch app to allow people who enjoy the Chesapeake Bay to report sightings of dolphins including the time, date, GPS location, number of animals observed, and pictures and video of the animals throughout the bay, creating an unprecedented observation network. After launching the app and listening underwater for dolphins, UMCES researchers discovered there were more consistent sightings and detections over a much broader area than they expected. MORE As fallen foliage begins to decompose, insects and microorganisms consume it. What's left over, millions of molecules with largely unknown structures, is eventually washed into rivers, lakes and oceans. In a new study published in Nature, UMCES Researcher Michael Gonsior and his team discovered a specic type of reaction, oxidative dearomatization, is behind the mystery. MOREJackie Grebmeier served on a panel at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC, on May 6 that presented information on European Union-US collaborations in the Arctic. The audience included the European Union Ambassador to the United States and the Chair and the Executive Director of the US Arctic Research Commission.High Five! Well-Done! Kudos! and Many Thanks! to Morris Fenwick and the Landscaping TeamThe Facilities team not only keep our campus looking great but contribute their time and talents to the community by sponsoring one of the Circles of Solomons along the Boardwalk. Many thanks to the crew for their continued eorts and dedication to the campus and the community.
In Case You Missed It 3Carys Mitchelmore attended the International Oil Spill Conference (IOSC) in New Orleans May 13-16th and was a panelist/presenter in a special session that summarized the U.S. National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) updated Oil in the Sea (OITS) IV report. The report committee members discussed various aspects of what is in the report, future activities, impacts, and highlights, including the new quick guide for practitioners summary booklet. The full and practitioners reports are freely available on the National Academies website.Lee Cooper and Jackie Grebmeier traveled to Silver Spring on May 10 to participate in an All-Hands Meeting of the US Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (https://marinebon.org/), and represented the Arctic component of the Network.AAUW hosted a plant swap in Nice Hall. There were lots of plants to swap and it was great to see so many friendly faces! Thanks to all who participated. Stay tuned for more events and reach out to any of the AAUW ocers (Anna, Sadia, Kaitlynn, Kylie) with any suggestions, comments, questions, etc.
In Case You Missed It4 Recent Publications & Awards Lora Harris will travel to Puerto Rico May 18-24 to host a eld workshop for the SEAS Islands Alliance as well as co-host a SEAS Summit with alumnae, family members, organizational partners, and supporters of SEAS.Congratulations to Matt Stefanak who received a $2500 Ruth Mathes Scholarship from the Cove Point Natural Heritage Trust. He plans to put it towards his research. Testa, J.M., W. Liu, W.R. Boynton, D. Breitburg, C. Friedrichs, M. Li, D. Parrish, T.M. Trice, and D.C. Brady. 2024. Physical and biological controls on short-term variations in dissolved oxygen in shallow waters of a large temperate estuary [UMCES CBL 2024-031]Syeda Sadia Ali has been awarded the MEES Program's 2024 Debbie Morrin-Nordlund Memorial Graduate Travel Award. The award is named for Debbie Morrin-Nordlund, who played a signicant role in supporting MEES students while the lead sta person in the MEES oce for many years. The award is "intended for MEES students to travel and gain knowledge, conduct research or to present their ndings at a national or international conference."
Dolphin Watch 5Are you ready to Watch Dolphins?Figure 1. Relave frequency of dolphin sighngs north of the Bay bridgeChesapeake DolphinWatch is about to begin our eighth year of leveraging citizen scientists to understand the biology and ecology of bottlenose dolphins in the Chesapeake Bay. Won’t you help us? Download the DolphinWatch app from either the Apple store or from Google play. Create an account, have the app open when you are out on a research cruise, and report your sightings. You will be joining 14,600 of your friends who are already registered users who reported almost 1,500 sightings of dolphins in 2023.DolphinWatch continues following Helen Bailey’s move back to the UK. Jamie Testa continues her leadership role as the program coordinator for DolphinWatch as a volunteer while she is in Denmark this year. Other sta include Danielle Deville who maintains our social media presence (follow us on Instagram @ dolphinwatch_cb, and on Facebook @ Chesapeake DolphinWatch), and Kirsten Silva who supports some of the behind-the-scenes analyses. We regularly post recent sightings and some amazing photos and videos to these sites. We have provided sightings data to the state as it undertook salvage work of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, and we continue to work with them as the Maryland Department of Transportation begins to plan a new span. From the sightings data, there have been nearly 700 observations from the Annapolis area and north, including the Patapsco River. Dolphins are present seasonally in the vicinity of the Francis Scott Key Bridge from mid-May – late September (left). We have advised that measures to mitigate against noise during construction should it occur during summer months may be needed.DolphinWatch continues to be supported by the JES Avanti Foundation and by enthusiastic DolphinWatchers. We raise funds through presentations to local interest groups and through targetted fund raising.
Tailwinds6FRM and RTWBFRM UMCES team members Evan Kostelecky and Mike O’Brien were lucky enough to see two pods of humpback whales from the boat while on the rst FRM survey of the year! This visual sighting was within the range of the real-time whale buoy (RTWB) and the RTWB team was able to correspond the visual sightings with humpback whale social sounds in the real-time data. Shown in the pictures below are the humpback whales (photos taken by Mike O’Brien) and a snapshot of the corresponding real-time data showing the humpback whale social sounds.This spring was busy with whale detections and, for the rst time, the RTWB detected all four whale species- n, sei, humpback, and North Atlantic right whale (NARW) in a single month! Sei whales have been detected rarely by our RTWB in past years, and this spring, sei whales were detected on more than 10 separate days (see classied sei whale doublet on April 21st, 2024 below). In addition to increased sei whale presence, humpback whales were detected every day in April. Fin whales and NARWs have also continued to be present in our real-time data. Whale season is winding down in the month of May, and a new migration season will start up again in fall of 2024.
In e NewsClick HERE7Researchers discover how biomolecules in nature are transformed into complex natural organicmatter (EurekAlert!) April 24An international team of researchers from the University of Maryland Center for EnvironmentalScience, Linköping University, Sweden, and the Helmholtz Zentrum in Munich now understand howbiomolecules in nature are transformed to yield complex natural organic matter found in rivers andlakes, a dramatic chemical transformation process that has confounded researchers for over half acentury… “The chemical diversity of natural dissolved organic matter in lakes and rivers is extreme andyet most of it does not resemble molecules produced by organisms,” said Michael Gonsior, professorand biogeochemist from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and a co-authorof this study.Maryland Has Renamed an Invasive Fish. Will It Matter? (Washingtonian) April 30The snakehead has been branded a scourge of the rivers, an existential threat to the ecosystem.To ght the snakehead invasion, the state of Maryland would like us to eat them… Thomas Miller, aprofessor of sheries science at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, says thename change can’t hurt: “But will it drive a surging commercial [market]? I don’t think so. And [wouldthat] lead to the control and extinction of this species? Probably not… It is certainly an unwelcome newpart of the ecosystem,” Miller says. “But I’m actually less concerned about snakehead than I am aboutblue catsh, which I think is a much more serious threat.”Chesapeake Dolphin Watch Ready for 2024 (Cape Charles Mirror) May 5Chesapeake DolphinWatch (CDW) [created by researchers atthe University of Maryland Center forEnvironmental Science ] is ready to kick o the 2024 season. Areyou? We hope that all 14,600DolphinWatchers will return and join us this sighting season to reporttheir sightings in the app.Did you just see a dolphin? Report it with the DolphinWatch app! (WMAR) May 7Did you just see a dolphin in the Chesapeake Bay? Report it with the University of Maryland CenterforEnvironmental Science's app! They launched the Chesapeake DolphinWatch App in 2017 to getreal-timereports of dolphin sightings on the largest estuary in the country. Since then, scientists havereceived over7,000 reports of dolphin sightings to help track their visits to the bay.Photograph by Greggory DiSalvo/Gey Images
In e News 8Robert E. Ulanowicz, PhD, Presented with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award by Marquis Who's Who (24-7 Press Release) May 14Supported by more than 55 years of professional excellence, Dr. Ulanowicz is well-regarded for his expertise in academia, chemical engineering and ecosystems. With a wealth of experience to his credit, he currently serves as a courtesy professor in the department of biology at the University of Florida in Gainesville, beginning his tenure in 2009. Alongside this appointment, he has been recognized as a professor emeritus in the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory of the Center of Environmental Science at the University of Maryland since 2008.From the Potomac to the Patuxent — Dolphins visit rivers in the Chesapeake Bay and you can help track them (WTOP News) May 14Professor Thomas Miller with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, or UMCES, told WTOP that researchers were picking up the presence of bottlenose dolphins in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries using underwater microphones in 2015. They wanted to learn more about the movements of the dolphins, but needed to come up with a way to increase their ability to collect data… “So we launched the app in 2017, and it has been improved upon ever since,” Miller said. “The people who use the dolphin watch app report sightings that we can validate.”Report Dolphin Sightings and Help Scientists with Chesapeake Bay Research (Southern MD News) May 7As water temperature rises, researchers ask public’s help in recording size of dolphin population in Chesapeake Bay (Baltimore Sun/Capital Gazette) May 9In 2015, scientists thought dolphins were only occasional visitors of the bay... but after placing microphones in the Patuxent River, they discovered more frequent detections than expected. That discovery led to the development of the DolphinWatch app by a team at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in 2017… Researchers verify as many sightings as possible, and more than half are conrmed, according to UMCES.Community-Driven app reveals dolphin patterns in Chesapeake (Southern Maryland Chronicle) May 8In an ongoing eort to track bottlenose dolphins in the Chesapeake Bay, researchers from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s (UMCES) Chesapeake Biological Laboratory have tapped into a powerful resource: the public. Since the introduction of the Chesapeake DolphinWatch App in 2017, over 14,600 users have registered, contributing to more than 7,000 reported dolphin sightings.Photo from 24-7PressRelease
9www.umces.edu/cbl | 410-326-4281P.O. Box 38 | 146 Williams Street | Solomons, MD 20688-0038Safety Corner: GHS pictogramsThe Hazard Communication Standard requires GHS pictograms on the labels of primary and secondary chemical containers to warn users of the hazards to which they may be exposed. There are nine of these pictograms that consist of a symbol on a white background framed within a red diamond border. Each of these represents a specic hazard. Four of these pictograms depict physical hazards (oxidizers, ammables, explosives and compressed gas), three are health hazards (toxic, human health hazard and irritant), one is both a physical and a health hazard (corrosive) and one is an environmental hazard (this one is not mandatory).There should be a poster of these in your laboratory and you should be able to recognize these symbols on sight. If you do not have one of these posters, please contact me – x458.https://www.chemsafetypro.com/Topics/GHS/GHS_pictogram.htmlHazard Communication. Right to Know. OSHA 29 CFR 1910.1200 COMAR 09.12.33 pg. 15-16