CHESAPEAKE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY | SOLOMONS, MDSEPTEMBER 2023ISSUE 85Lab Lines1IN THIS ISSUE:DIRECTOR’S VIEW23SAFETY CORNER / RECENT AWARDS1IN CASE YOU MISSED IT Our Fall semester is fully underway, students are a third of the way through their classes and our sciensts conducng research across the globe, from the Arcc to Lan America, have returned. The nal Patuxent River cruise of the year was a great success; the science and the weather! Our faculty connue to receive large federal awards, Jeremy Testa has two new 3-4-year NOAA grants invesgang strategies for marine carbon dioxide removal.On September 25th the UMCES sta appreciaon day was held at the Horn Point Laboratory, a recognion for all of the work that our sta do to ensure that we have a funconal and fantasc place to work. A great example of our sta's dedicaon to improving building funconality and sustainability is highlighted in this newsleer. The decade-long dedicaon of our facilies and maintenance sta in the Bernie Fowl-er Laboratory has paid o with a 20% savings in our energy costs! Looking ahead we have a lot going on and many excing community acvies to look forward to. As a reminder all of our upcoming acvies are listed on the CBL events google calendar including any Zoom links for hybrid meengs. Our disnguished speaker seminar series is underway and we have a full schedule of speakers joining us on Wednesdays at 11am in BFL 1101. We welcome a diverse array of speakers, from those new to the area joining the marine sciences program at St Mary’s College of Maryland and a number of UMCES-wide promoons. Please make every eort to aend these seminars in person and show our guests our CBL community spirit. In addion to a 3pm student engagment period, there are a number of opportunies to meet with each speaker. Sign-up sheets will be shared prior to each visit. Our Friday informal lunch lecture series will also be returning, at a slightly earlier me of 11am – stay tuned for further details. All are encouraged to aend these to hear about the excing emerging research our students are conducng and present-ing at Naonal meengs. This me is a great opportunity for students and faculty to engage across scienc disciplines and ulize the diverse experse our CBL commu-nity has to further develop the research and professional development – you never know, how, when, and where that lightbulb moment may occur! As I wrap up this month’s newsleer, I want to remind everyone that October 7th marks our rst CBL Open House since 2019. Please join us from 11am to 4pm as we showcase our research, service, and educaonal acvies to the public. Thank you to all who are volunteering for the event, there are sll open slots for those who can join us.5FACILITIES/IN THE NEWS 4
In Case You Missed It2Lee Cooper, Jackie Grebmeier, Nick Silverson, Sadia Ali, and Brian Marx sailed aboard the UNOLS vessel Sikuliaq in the northern Bering and Chukchi seas for the month of September. Weather has been good and sampling of the water column and benthos is on schedule. Nick, Sadia, and Brian are parcipang in fall coursework via Zoom from sea using Starlink internet service to the ship and it has been working reasonably well.(Right) Sadia and Brian share a quiet moment in the lab prior to arriving on staon early on the morning of September 17.Carys Mitchelmore chaired a session and gave two presenta-ons at the SETAC Lan America 15th Biennial Meeng held in Montevideo, Uruguay 17-20th September. The session brought together researchers in academia, government and industry from Lan America and the USA who are invesgang the envi-ronmental risk of UV lters and cosmec ingredients in aquac ecosystems.Lisa Wainger was selected as one of 8 naonal peer reviewers of the Oce of Management and Budget's (OMB's) proposed Guidance for Assessing Changes in Environmental and Ecosystem Services in Benet-Cost Analysis. "In order to encourage connued improvements in valuing changes to ecosystem services in benet-cost analy-ses of regulaons or public investments, OMB’s Oce of Informaon and Regulatory Aairs (OIRA) is releasing proposed Guidance for Assessing Changes in Environmental and Ecosystem Services in Benet-Cost Analysis (Guidance). OMB, in consultaon with the Oce of Science and Technology Policy as well as relevant agencies and Execuve Oce of the President components, has draed and proposes this Guidance."hps://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/informaon-regulatory-aairs/informaon-policy/From August 31st to September 3rd, Solange Filoso was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to talk at the GreenRio/Green Lan America Conference. She went as a special guest of the Rio de Janeiro’s Department of the Environment to share her experience and knowledge about water quality restoraon eorts in the Chesapeake Bay region, especially through stormwater management and stream and wetland restoraon in urbanized watersheds. As a nave of Brazil, Solange hopes that her parcipaon in events like this will lead to more collaboraon between UMCES and Rio de Janeiro’s instuons for the recovery of Guanabara Bay and coastal regions, and contributes to strengthening the partnership between the State of Rio and the State of Maryland. The two states have had a sister state relaonship for several decades. In 2013, the Governor's of both states rearmed this relaon-ship with a specic goal of focusing on increasing the health of both the Chesapeake and Guanabara Bays. In March of 2023, a delegaon from the State of Rio de Janeiro visited Maryland to begin the process of renewing the Memorandum of Understanding between the two states.
In Case You Missed It3On September 7th, UMCES-CBL conducted the third of its three annual Patuxent River cruises. The goals of the cruises are to collect water chemistry and sh abundance data while training students and faculty research as-sistants in eld techniques. The data are used by CBL sciensts to beer understand our local Chesapeake Bay tributary and provide a plaorm for faculty to develop and test new sampling and analycal techniques there-by broadening UMCES research capabilies. On board from CBL were Andrew Heyes, Michael Gonsior, Anna Hildebrand, Angel Reyes, Tom Miller, Amber DeMarr, Cindy Ross, and Xilin Jiao, a vising scienst from Xiamen University in China. We extend great thanks to the crew of the Rachel Carson for a successful cruise and we are looking forward to the next season.
Starng in 2011, the CBL facilies department began a decade-long journey to modernize and enhance the operaonal eciency of BFL. This path unfolded through a series of strategic upgrades. The fume hood exhaust system was replaced with a vari-able air volume control system. A heat recovery sys-tem further improved the eciency of the exhaust system. The integraon of variable speed fan drives and volume controls for lab supply air ensured precise airow control, resulng in impacul energy savings. Building-wide HVAC control upgrades and installaon of advanced chillers increased energy eciency and occupant comfort. Tradional lighng was replaced with energy-ecient LED systems, and the implementaon of LEED-level controls improved building-wide management and revitalized energy savings. Even specialized areas such as cold rooms beneted from upgraded controls, and the integraon of variable speed drives in various heang and cooling systems further boosted eciency. These systems aer inial implementa-on are monitored and tuned daily, highlighng a commitment to connual improvement. Comprehensive oce ren-ovaons were completed this year, where opmized airow, upgraded local controls, and energy-ecient LED lighng collecvely created a workspace that aligned with CBL's sustainable vision.What eect have these changes had? We have seen a more than 20% reducon in the electricity used in BFL since 2006.Facilities4This chart visualizes the energy reducons realized over the years and even in the face of steadily increasing summer-me temperatures we have been able to maintain a downward trend in energy usage. Most of these reducons were associated with the inial changes to the fume hoods and control system that occurred in 2011. However, the more recent enhancements will contribute to connuing reducons in the energy savings in the building. This decade-long (and ongoing) evoluon of the BFL systems exemplies CBL’s dedicaon to sustainability and innovaon. Through thoughully planned upgrades, this eort and the substanal energy savings it produced serve as an example of the potenal of deliberate and forward-thinking approaches in shaping a more sustainable future for our facilies.In the NewsClick HERE!Free, family-friendly funOpen HouseOctober 7th11am - 4pm146 Williams Street, Solomons, MDTreasure huntand prizes Free handoutsHands-on activities Science demos
Safety Corner: SpillsSpills are a common laboratory occurrence and most of us have experienced them over the years. Fortunately, most of them are small and easily cleaned up. However, there may be occasions where a spill is an emergency that requires prompt acon to prevent any physical or environmental harm. In order to control the situaon, laboratory personnel should have the capability to assess the hazards involved and be able to take appropriate acon. This is a good reminder to be sure that you keep yourself informed (Safety Data Sheets, labels) about the chemicals in your laboratory and to know how to handle an emergency. Please remember that if there is a spill you are not required to clean it up, but you are required to alert anyone work-ing near you and report it to your supervisor. If you do not know what has been spilled, do not aempt to clean it up. It is important to label all of your containers so everyone who is in the lab will know what their contents are. Every lab should have spill kits available to match the hazards in the lab. There are also spill kits in the hallways of the buildings. Maintenance sta should be called if a signicant quanty of a chemical has spilled. They have the equipment necessary to contain a large spill.Spills involving a chemical with a low toxicity that has no potenal for overexposure or as an inhalaon hazard are gen-erally safe to clean up on your own. The same is true for chemicals that do not pose a signicant re or environmental hazard. Spills involving any quanty of highly toxic or ammable chemicals in the lab, in a public area (hallways), or near drains will usually require an emergency response. In the case of highly toxic chemicals, do not aempt to clean a spill of any size. hps://www.mtech.edu/env-health-safety/emergency/chemical-spills.htmlhps://ehs.princeton.edu/chemical/spill/procedureshps://ehs.ucsf.edu/chemical-spills5www.umces.edu/cbl | 410-326-4281P.O. Box 38 | 146 Williams Street | Solomons, MD 20688-0038Recent AwardsJeremy Testa was awarded two new grants from NOAA to invesgate strategies for marine carbon dioxide removal. Knowledge from the research will assist in assessing the potenal of marine carbon dioxide removal as a climate mi-gaon soluon.The rst project, in which Jeremy is a PI, is tled "Quanfying the Ecacy of Wastewater Alkalinity Enhancement on mCDR and Acidicaon Migaon in a Large Estuary." This project will evaluate the feasibility, cost, and potenal for carbon dioxide removal by alkalinity addion via exisng wastewater treatment discharges in the area managed by the Hampton Roads Sanitaon District. PI Testa is collaborang with Ming Li at Horn Point Laboratory, Wei-Jun Cai at the University of Delaware, and Yuanyuan Xu, a former CBL student working at Planetary Technologies, Inc. The 3-year project totals $1,864,561.The second project in which Jeremy is a co-PI, is led by Chrisna Schultz at Northeastern University and is tled "De-veloping a coupled benthic-pelagic biogeochemical model to evaluate the eecveness of mCDR intervenons." This project will develop a model to represent the exchange, transformaons, and storage of carbon and nutrients in the sediments. The model will also simulate ecosystem interacons in sediments and assess the eciency of seaweed aquaculture and benthic ecosystem restoraon. Both methods may result in either carbon storage or producon un-der dierent condions. The 4-year project totals $1,258,967.Carys Mitchelmore has received a two year award ($193K) from NOAA "Riding the Wave of Plasc: Student-Driven Inquiry and Acon to Prevent Marine Debris and its impacts" to expand the Wave of Plasc curriculum to Charles and Anne Arundel County schools. The projects goals are to engage and empower over 10,000 public middle and high school students in helping to reduce marine debris in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.